Handling at highway speeds

Just curious how other’s 1st gens handle at highway speeds. Mine seems to float a little bit around 60-70MPH. No vibrations or shaking, it just feels kind of loose. Don’t know if it’s normal and I rarely have occasion to do any highway driving so maybe it’s not a big deal. Last alignment spec from October looks OK to me.

Edit: it’s like I can move the wheel between 11 and 1 o’clock with no change of direction

 

I believe this is an issue with many 1st gen Tacomas (mine included), even more so those with a lift. Increased positive castor is the best solution, but the stock upper control arms don't really allow for this.

There's another issue at play as they rack up mileage, and it's play between the collapsible joints on the steering column. The steering column has these joints, so that a front end collision can't result in the driver being impaled by the wheel/column.

My truck was terrifying to drive above 60-65 mph before I did the tac weld mod to fix this issue (you can search that here on TW). Now my truck has more like 1/2" of side to side play in the wheel at highway speeds, and is much nicer to drive. Saving for icon delta joint upper control arms to eliminate that last little bit of play.

Or you can do the roll pin mod as an alternative method to fix this "slop" in the column (Timmy the Toolman video of this linked below):


https://youtu.be/xsOptgpfshg?si=ba2Gpn0F9FwKcPAk

 

Get a buddy and watch the steering column, and the steering rack, and the tie rod ends as they turn the wheel back and forth - something in there has play.

 

After doing my front suspension refresh (you know the story) it drives like new at any speeds, let go of the wheel and it goes where you pointed it. Out of all I'm pretty sure in my case it was the rack, the rest of the parts were worn but not so bad it created issues.

 

Mine drives perfectly straight. Check your steering rack and LCA bushings.

 

I did new Moog inner and outer TREs, new OEM upper and lower BJs, ES UCA and steering rack bushings, new Moog LCAs and went for an alignment about 500 miles ago. (I put whiteline poly bushings in the stock LCAs, just haven’t swapped them in yet). I can’t detect or see any play standing still or at anything less that highway speeds and it drives straight as an arrow, but get up around 70 and it starts to handle like a boat.

 

I had a similar issue on my 2003 tacoma. In my case, The bushings on the steering rack were worn.

 

Your not encountering wagon tracks on the Interstate ?

One of the reasons I avoid interstates .

I would think the front end of the truck was going to fall off.

I would pull over and crawl under the truck looking to find a major failure and all was good.

 

Glad to hear someone else experiences the Interstate issue as well. Kind of annoying.

 

It would make sense that wagon tracks are at least part of the problem since the only place I can do 60 or 70 are on the interstate or expressways. Since I upgraded to poly UCA bushings and replaced LCAs I swear I can feel every piece of gravel in road so I’m super sensitive to handling. I also think some of the problem could my shit Monroe coilovers. I’ll probably bite the bullet for Bilsteins when I swap in the LCAs with Whiteline poly bushings.