Firestone can’t align with JBA UCAs

There's your first problem

 

Seems to be consensus.

 

Ive had the lifetime alignment on my truck through firestone for a few years now. no issues at the locations I have taken my truck to and they always get it where I ask them to put it.

 

YMMV kind of thing I guess

 

Looks like the passenger side cam is 180* off?

 

Boy did they jack that up

 

Glad to hear that actually. Going to go to another shop now

 

They definitely did it wrong. Easy fix for someone who knows what they're doing

 

Definitely messed up your alignment tabs as well. i would recommend having a fabricator put a couple weld beads behind the tabs to reinforce it or just do the total chaos kit.

 

With your lift, I'd recommend 0* toe, 0* camber, and anywhere from 2-3* caster.

Matt

 

Yep, third pic down looks like the tab is bad
Edit: looking closer, it might be the angle of the picture

 

Will update when I hear from the shop it’s at now.

 

Same happened to me, dumbshit flattening them, that is. I had to show them how to loosed the damn cam bolts, then he flattened the tabs on two. I pulled it all 3 weeks ago and welded tabs back up. Enough weld, they are basically TC tabs now. Anti-seized the cam bolts and went to Toyota for the damn alignment. It was a workout.

 

Tabs look fine. Weld bead holds up as good, as long as you do a few passes. Did it myself with a $80 welder, not too hard. Just make sure to drop your LCA if you do, so as not to roast your bushing. Not too hard either. Or just go to Toyota and not get your tabs bent. They do them often, so most are aware of their weak nature.

 

OP - yup, welcome to my nightmare. I bought their lifetime alignment on discount since i knew I would be tweaking the front ride height on my king coilovers several times.

Although I realize Firestone is a "big box" chain with low skilled grunts turning wrenches, I figured "these don't have camber plates to mess with and all alignment adjustment methods are identical to stock".

I went to 3 different firestones, endured 3 different monkeys wrenching on my suspension before I finally found an "alignment specialist", who essentially is just a tech who actually has experience, understand the eccentric bolts, cams and how to do an alignment.

They key is to call ahead, tell them you've had issues and need to schedule a time with the most senior/most experience/best alignment person. They will tell you who that is, or if another location has a good tech.

Finally found a guy that could do it, but the only slight miss was his lack of interest in getting my caster specs where I wanted, but otherwise did a good job. Some other idiot told me "nah, this is aftermarket, it can't be adjusted here, it's different than stock".

Good luck

 

I did the same thing with the Firestone near me. The best tech they have did mine the first few times. he was really good at it too. I would call and ask if he was there before i went in. He has taught another guy there how to do alignments so now they can both dial in the numbers I want. You have to tell them you don't care if the numbers are in the red that's what you want

 

Well. I’ll try again tomorrow. The second shop didn’t have clearance for my truck. Third time’s a charm, I hope.

 

The reason why Firestone (and most chain alignment shops) cannot align your truck properly is because they use computers to do their alignments. Their tech are trained to do the alignment in a "systematic" approach using computers, instead of the traditional mechanical approach to align the front end.

Basically, they take measurement or laser reading, plug the variables into the computer, and the computer spit out what the alignment specs should be and tells the tech how many degrees to turn the cam/camber bolts. This way they could get low-skilled workers and not have to train them thoroughly on how to do wheel alignments. The only problem is that the algorithm the computer uses are pre-loaded with the factory spec, using the stock height/settings/wheel size, ect. Most of the time the computer program is locked out so the tech cannot change the tolerance or add the new setting of the vehicle with the lift kit on it. If there is a tech that has a lot of knowledge on wheel alignment, knows how to troubleshoot and was previous trained on the older non-computer alignment, he should be able to get it align correctly.

I had this issues when I put my lift kit on my old truck, took it to all the chain dealership and none were able to get it align right. Found and "old school" mom and pop alignment shop and they got it right the first time. Once they saw my lift, they told me to pull in to an old alignment stall in the very back of their shop. They had to dust off all the old mechanical tools and rack (which did not use computers) and got it align perfectly. Try finding an older alignment shop and they should be able to get it done right. If you can't find and "old school" alignment shop, just tell the tech at Firestone to align your truck using the mechanical tool (if they still have them) and not use the computer.

 

By the looks of the spec sheet it looks like they use one of the Hunter Machines. After taking initial measurements the tech can put caster camber and toe at wherever the truck will physically allow him to.

The computer didnt limit the alignment procedure or the outcome. It’s the idiot that was wrenching underneath it.

 

they use the same machine at the firestone I go to. I have been in the shop and watched/helped them several times because i have to show them how to adjust my spc ucas. they never go to the screen where the computer tells them what to do like they would on a normal alignment. they just use the screen with the numbers like the print out and dial it in on the numbers i give them .

It wasn't the machine it was the tech not knowing what he was doing