Rear Tire

After replacing the rear shocks we noticed that my rear right tire is back farther than the rear left (right tire almost touches mud flap). Why is this? I was told "broken or incorrect shackle length, overloaded or weak spring, incorrect spring or perch damage."

The leaf springs are the original. What do you guys think?

 

Crawl up under there and see if the leafs are seated on each side.

 

Broken/ missing centering pin?

 

we need pictures of rear end and springs as well as shackles to see what you are talking about but could the axle have shifted on the springs?

 

If the ubolts were loose enough the center pin could have hopped out, or just sheared off after years of use, so yea, then just driving could cause the axle to slide along the leafs

 

This is the second one to do this, weird.

 

Just a possibility. Did you by any chance back into something that bent the mud flap frame?

-Charlie

 

Looks the same as mine, my understanding is that this is not an uncommon affliction for 1st gen Tacomas. If however you are sure that it was properly centred before then you had better have someone take a close look, the next slide backwards could be disastrous.

 

my 97' was the same way since I bought it, then about 2 weeks ago I added an add a leaf and noticed that the hole on top of the spring perch on the axle on the right side was wallowed out and elongated allowing the axle to slide back. I used a ratchet strap from the axle to the frame to pull the axle forward while I tightened the u bolts and it seems to sit a bit more centered now.

 

I wish mine would slide back. Mine's too far forward it hits the fender and I don't get all my travel out of it

 

My 1st gen did the same.

 

Check your shackles... make sure they're not 'frozen' in place. One of them could be frozen.

 

Thank you for all of the replies. I'm very basic when it comes to these things, so it's giving me something to research and learn.

Here are pictures that I took. I hope it's capturing with what you guys are saying. Let me know if you need more specific pictures or what it could be (if it's enough to say). Not sure how to check if the shackles are frozen..?

 

I had this issue on my truck also when I purchased it. After checking all the suspension and taking a ton of measurements the issue ended up being that the bed was slightly skewed in one direction. I loosened up the 6 bolts and moved it, wheels are now perfectly centered.

 

Where are those bolts for the bed found to loosen?

After doing some measurements, this must just be an illusion with the mudflap or something.

When measuring the right wheel, the rear leaf spring bolt site to the rear u-bolt and the front u-bolt to the front leaf spring bolt site measure the same distance as their left side counterpart (give or take around 1/16 of an inch).

Also when measuring each wheel well to a mark on the tire from rear wheel well to tire mark and front wheel well to tire mark, it too measures the same as it's counter part (give or take around 1/16 of an inch).

I have no idea at this point.

 

No, I have read that some (1st gen) beds come from the factory a little off, the bolts coming loose isn't the issue. Measure from your cab to your bed on both sides and see if they are the same.

 

Just measured both ends at two different spots and they are the same, give or take 1/16.

 

A quick way to check is the finger check, just poke 1-2 fingers in the gap between the bed and the cab on one side and then try again on the other side...if it feels different, you might have a skewed bed.

I guess you could take a tape measure or something to it, but that seems a little much.

If you need to adjust the bed, the 6 bolts in the bed of the truck hold the bed down, I know on the 2nd gens its t55 to loosen them, not sure about the 1st gens. But yea, just loosen those a bit and push the bed around as much as you can to straighten it and then tighten it all back up again.

 

Then it looks like your only option are these:

If you're planning on upgrading your leafs I would just add them then.