How to do an Alignment at Home

camber is good, caster is a couple degrees to low

 

Yeah I know, I just can't seem to get both more caster AND a decent camber value at the same time. Is there any trick to it?

Maybe if I adjust both sides of the arm all the way in first, or out before I start adjusting? Or right in the middle so I have adjustment room in either direction?

I might try marking the center of the pivot point of the arms, and the frame with grease pencil next time so I can more easily see the arm move in and out and by how much as I adjust it.

I know it's possible, I'm sure it's just lack of experience messing with the adjustment cams. I may take another stab at it next weekend. I was tired and frustrated and had to get ready for my evening work, so I decided it was "close enough".

For now though it handles loads better than what i started with, and with camber and toe in better order hopefully at least I won't be eating up my tires anymore.

 

Try setting the rear cams all the way out and then adjust the fronts to balance out your camber and caster. That way you are only dealing with one cam per side. Adjust to get your preferred camber and you should be able to live with the resulting caster numbers.

 

@vwbuggy
Toe will not typically cause a pull unless there is a large amount of toe-in or toe-out. But toe will eat tires fast. I hope you are not saying you have a possible toe-in of an inch.

For pulling issues:
1. Always, suspect tires first. Especially if the alignment numbers do not scream out an obvious problem. Try swapping tires left-to-right and then front-to-back and see if it improves.

2. Your caster is way low on both sides and your truck has not much straight line stability as a result. You may find if you can get the caster up, and even on both sides, that the pull will go away or be minimized.

Again, for pulling, suspect tires first and do the swaps.
Camber should be the first suspect and always ask yourself if the tires are like this // or this \\ or this |\ or this |/ or this \| to see which side, or both sides, may be driving the pull.
Caster can also cause pull and a vehicle will often pull toward the side with the least positive caster. But typically there has to be a large side-to-side difference.

3. Both LCA cams change both caster and camber and therein lies the confusion and frustration with many. Been there, done that. Keep in mind that the rear cam does slightly more (or less) caster and the front slightly more (or less) camber.

There is an absolutely marvelous X-grid in the FSM that shows how one affects the other.
Its the diagram that shows moving the cams by the tic marks to make corrections.
It took me a long time to finally get my head around it but I have found that it is so good I rarely have to check using the angle finders.

 

Bad camber can cause a slight pull. A pull to the left can be as simple as left tire leaning out or rt tire leaning in to much and vice versa for rt pull. Air pressure, some times a side to side front tire swap can get rid of it

 

Just read every single post here. I’ve had very similar experiences. I have a ‘12 4wd double cab with Camburg LT kit. My when I got the truck, pass front tire had visually a ton of positive camber. And there was about 2” patch of tire on the inside that would not even make road contact. After the first shop charged me edit an alignment, they did nothing but change driver front ti rod. And charged me full price and then tried to convince me how the negative camber numbers Camburg gave me were no good. Now my truck pulls to the left. they literally didn’t touch any cams. I know cause I painted the cams and paint pen marked their locations. Went to another shop that “supposedly” good with modified vehicles. He moved the rear LCA cams and the driver front LCA cam, the passenger front cam did not change (more on that in a minute). When I picked the truck up, it did drive better. But, still pulls to the left. If you drive with the wheel centered, the truck will make its own lane change. Quickly. So it’s constant work to drive due to always having to be right side pressure on the wheel. Meh, not a huge concern but shouldn’t a reputable shop be able to get that better? Now, we went through some mud on a dirt road and then drove home. Well, that revealed then”real” camber now. Same shit. The driver front visibly has zero or a bit of negative camber, as it should be and has great tread wear patterns. The pass side STILL visibly looks positive camber and the last 1” of inner tread makes zero road contact. Wouldn’t this confirm to much positive camber still? I mean, the tire is stained from the mud and Ray Charles could see the bad wear patter. Maybe I’m stupid, how can I have (according to the shop and my print out) the “same” negative camber on both sides, yet have two different wear patterns? And I also have eyes, I can see the difference. That brings me back to the fact that the pass front cam was never touched. If it was rotated out more or less the same as the driver side, it would push the LCA out, bringing the camber in more negative. Or is this logic not sound? I’m taking the truck back again and explaining my thoughts to him so I can hear some more BS about how I have no idea what I’m talking about. Well see.....

 

if mine is slightly pulling to the right, which adjustment should a do first?

 

First thing I would do is swap the front tires side for side. For some reason that cures a pull very often. Then look at the alignment print out or check camber your self if you have a good location and a couple basic tools. A pull to the right could be the right side having to much positive camber or left having too much negitive camber.

 

Thank you op for the diy directions!!!

Just did my alignment today took roughly 6 hrs but was worth the experience. Back in my Honda days there was no caster adjustment so alignment was much easier. The Tacoma however Different. Glad I didn’t need to purchase a caster specific tool. Here I am with ~60 miles and still see all the original tire hairs attached to the tire. And the steering is slightly off center but can easily fix that with toe.

 

So with the steering wheel straight I measured both front wheels at 1 degree positive camber with slight toe-in. i adjusted the forward driver-side cam bolts counter-clockwise. idk what i did but it seemed to fix the issue.

 

Thats good , camber can do it . I don't remember the specs now as the Tacoma has been sitting out front with a for sale sign on it. I have not been here to often lately and don't have the usual things on the tip of my tongue like I did. I do remember shooting for 0 degree camber on both sides though.

 

Thanks to pointing me to the tire issues affecting the pull of the truck, @Taco'09

I found a cheap set of tires and rims on craigslist. Once I put those on, the pulling is gone. So I think you were spot on with that.

I'll try to be brief in my backstory for anyone curious. I'm doing most of this because my current tires are/were nearly shot anyway. I didn't want to spend a lot on an alignment preferring to wait until I get new shoes on it.

My original rims are suffering from coating failure and looking pretty rough.

My plan was to find a set of rims/tires I could ride on for a little while while I dealt with my OE rims. I did, I finally scored a great deal at only $80 for the whole set of 4! They are not amazing but they'll keep me in the road a while.

Once I get my rims recoated (powder if they'll fit in my oven, paint if they won't), I haven't decided if I'll mount and balance my own new tires on them or let my guy I use do it for me. Either way I'll definitely be getting him to do an alignment. He's a front end specialist with many years of experience and he's very, very good!

Anyway, the diy alignment has been excellent to keep me going at minimal cost while I slowly get my wheels and tires taken care of.

Thanks to all for this great thread!

 

Question: my drive way is NOT level, it is slanted to the left but if I park a certain way, it will be level left and right but not level front to back, the truck will be at a slight incline but otherwise level. Will this be ok to align the truck?

I’ve been to two alignment shops and got the toe n go treatment so I’ll be doing it myself this time.

 

This is amazing, thanks for sharing!

 

I replaced my upper control arms, and adjusted the cams on the passenger side and now my truck looks like. \ |. How would I fix this? There is not enough adjustment on the passenger side ITR to adjust that side all the way out to straighten the wheel?

 

Thanks again for this thread. I’ve used it before to adjust my toe and save a trip to the alignment place. Used it today to hard mount my lowers and verify my numbers are good.

 

I recently had SPC control arms put on to replace my Total Chaos and got an alignment shortly after. I have to say that visually, the wheels lean out towards the top when looking at the truck straight on, much more than i've ever noticed before. Is my chamber too extreme based upon this spec sheet?

 

Are you on the (G) settings on your UCA?

 

I’d have to look at SPC’s install instructions but if G is the 4 degrees of caster setting, then yep.