Crooked frame or bad suspension?

Hey, I’ve got about a 1” lean towards the driver side front and rear. I have 4600s all around with Moog coils for the 4x4 up front and Alcan leafs in rear. I had general spring same rate springs and had over a 1” lean. Now the Alcan Springs are supposed to be left right specific but I still have a lean. What could be going on?

Did I accidentally mess up passenger and driver side front coil springs when I assembled the front coils?

Is the frame bent? The truck was in a minor accident or two, needing a new bumper and new front headlight. When I installed my hitch I noticed I had to grind a tab a bit and hammer it into place.

Is the Alcan Spring not quite right in terms of spring rate?

Did I fail to tighten the center shock bolt in the front? I noticed one bolt tightened quickly and one I could keep tightening and it wasn’t reaching target torque quickly so I gave up since I didn’t want the amount of threads showing to be way different.

Something else?

I just got new tires and alignment and the alignment guy, who I trust is good, told me he had to max left out one way and right out the other way and it’s still out of spec. I’m worried I’ll ruin my new tires or worse by driving it like this.

My current idea is to swap the front shocks left to right, right to left and see if that helps. If it doesn’t I’m thinking maybe keep the front as-is and install a 1/4” spacer on the driver front shock. I hear that should give 1/2” change up front and also change the rear as well.

I could also take it to get the frame checked. I imagine that’s really expensive.

 

Suspension. The body of the truck would never lean due to crooked frame unless it is disintegrating all along one side. Typically with the “bro lean” “taco lean” or whatever lean you want to call it, the gas tank on the yes, the driver side, will make it sag towards that end. A higher rate coil or a top plate spacer (typically .5”) should remediate the issue.

 

Post a few pics of the front coils and the rear springs. Typically these trucks lean to driver side, taco lean
How much lift are you getting and are you running aftermarket upper control arms?

 

Bro lean or cali lean is when the front is lifted higher than the rear (nose high).
Front lower than the rear is factory rake or rake.

 

If I toss a half inch spacer up front will that fix the rear as well? I think my lean in the rear may be the same or even slightly worse than the front.

 

It just depends on your overall suspension quality. You could even do I think .25. When I lifted my truck I got away with an AAL in the rear on the original leaf packs. Alcans are good quality leafs though. We ain’t talking rough country quality. But it is not unheard of to swap the whole leaf packs but you’d end up spending more $.
Also a heads up, your shocks would not cause this issue.

 

Here’s a link to pics. Sorry they kind of suck. I was crawling around taking them on my way out the door to work.

https://imgur.com/gallery/iFtPL7I

Let me know if you want a specific pic or angle that’s missing.

I noticed a slight wavy spot on the frame.

 

The only thing that sticks out at a quick glance, is the top hat in picture looks like it is not seated properly with the spring.

 

Yeah I noticed that too.

Also worth noting the truck is parked on a slight slope to drivers side.

 

That wouldnt affect the top hat like that though. I am not saying it's a problem. Just saying it looks odd and to watch it for extra wear and tear.
Edit..... problem located. Gotta flip that spring seat on the one side.

 

Yup, it sure as hell is. Good eye... I was trying to look in between stop lights .lol

 

Yep, and that's on the passenger side, too. That'll do it.

@pontoon, on the driver side coil, what is that at the bottom of the coil? That looks like a spacer stuffed between the bottom of the coil and the spring perch (the thing that is up-side-down on the other side).

 

that top bolt on the shackle, If you didn't put a poly bushing in that one, its the factory rubber and should be torqued at ride height when lift springs are installed.
As in it should have been loosened some, and re-tightened at the settled ride height. If it wasn't then its very preloaded and can affect the height as the bushings twist differently, or let go entirely after a while.

 

I think that’s just two coils compressed against each other. I’ll check when I get home. That’s the side that’s downhill.

 

Yeah, the coils shouldn't be touching each other, especially at ride height, and that looks fatter than the thickness of a coil. But, hard to tell in that pic.

 

Omg I finally see it now that I went back to take another look!!! Thank you!

So the seat on the bottom should be like this pic?



And not like this pic below?

 

Your sway bar bushings look shot