Help me get a proper alignment

I had a bad experience at pep-boys too man, they almost bought me a new engine if I had not of caught the defect before any damage occurred. Worst auto repair experience ever

 

Find a better shop/technician.

My truck was really skittish at highway speeds after my lift, and there was virtually no return to center. Even when Toyota did the LBJ recall (which came with an alignment), they said they couldn't get it into spec. because of the aftermarket lift.

I told MY shop (Radial Tire Service, Sacramento) I wanted them to crank in as much caster as they could with my 881s (about 1.75 lift) and stock UCAs. They succeeded. Truck is much more stable and tracks bettter at freeway speeds, retunrs to center better. I don't have numbers handy, but you can get respectable caster out of the stock UCAs on mild lifts.

BTW, Radial was also capable of balancing the notoriously hard-to-balance TRD aluminum wheels (that I no longer have). And they didn't have to road force them.

Moral of the story: find a competent shop.

 

At least it's all even. If you can't get any more caster you can't get any more caster -- or at least without giving up some camber. You can ask them to get caster as high as they can even on both sides without taking camber from 0 but that might be the best they can do.

It'll probably float and wander at highway speeds like it is now but shouldn't pull.

 

i didnt read everyone elses posts, but you need camber equal, the more negative the better it would turn in theory, but more inner tire wear youll get.
caster needs to be .4-1.0 different from left to right. meaning the right side should be slightly more than the left side to compensate for road crown. caster wont cause any tire ware at all.
but yours toes good.lol

 

Not to thread jack but i'd rather not fire up another thread for the same issues. I've had three alignments in two weeks (long story) and this is where i finally sit. Has trouble returning to center, and likes to head to the left after a second or so of releasing the wheel at hwy speeds, regardless of lane crown. Alignment shop has basically told me to never come back. (again, long story) For the record, they never adjusted the caster, even though it's out of spec.

Tips for proper alignment?

 

You have a tire pull. Cross rotate the two front tires. It should pull the other if it's the tire. The trouble returning to center is sometimes the steering rack, or gear box, but in this case it sounds like a bad tire.

 

They haven't changed the specs because technically it should already want to go left.the .1 camber difference wouldn't make a difference.

 

I subscribe to the thought of set both sides equal. IMO they should be with in a half of a degree of each other. I agree on the tire pull, rotate the tires front to rear and see if it goes away. Not returning to center... could be low caster. Just my .02

 

This is certainly an improvement over what you got from PB last year.

Unfortunately, even though the all the numbers are in the green, your caster is still not ideal for highway driving. I lived with this exact situation for about a year before I went with aftermarket UCAs (camburg uniball). Adding the UCAs made it possible to get 2.8-2.9 degrees of caster and still retain good numbers for toe and camber.

Much, much, much better highway handling as a result and an added bonus was much improved articulation off road. But that is for discussion in another thread.

 

The sears i took my taco to couldnt do better than 1.4 on each side. Much better than before but still has me wondering if it could be better. Big improvement though. Before adjusting the caster it felt like it was getting sucked into ruts and road impercections. Just a chore to drive.

 

Meh. They said the moved my tires around... Maybe i'll do it myself though since, well, I don't exactly trust them.

I may just be remembering it wrong, but i thought LBJ's that were starting to go could cause a 'no/slow' return to center.

 

They said they couldn't get more caster without increasing camber, so I opted to favor leaving the camber at 0* and not getting ideal caster. It still floats slightly on the highway but is a huge improvement. I would get UCAs but I only intend to have the truck for another year or so. Don't know if I want to go through it for that short a time.

Thanks for all the input everyone.

 

Btw one side should be 0.1 degree lower than the other for good road manners. From what i was told. I would do the caster myself if i new how....

 

.1 is good for flat roads and stock tires
with larger wheels and tires you want more of a caster lead to deal with road crown
if a car has 10 degrees of caster youd need almost a full degree of caster lead or it would go right.
our chrysler 300s,chargers and challengers for instance has 10-12.0 degrees of caster, so we have to give them almsost a full degree caster lead so they dont pull right like crazy. having the higher caster numbers make turning easier and add in stability.

 

So, from what everyone else is saying, i want my caster bumped from -1.6 to as close to 2.4 per side as i can get it, while keeping camber and to where they're at (or as close to 0 as possible.)

Funny, in all three of my alignments, my negative, out of spec Caster wasn't adjusted.

 

You need UCA.