The mystery of loose steering

Do you have bigger tires or anything like that? Or just all stock
Do you have the alignment printout?

 

I had an alignment done once when I had 33s on my truck. I think they didn't put enough caster in and it wandered over the road pretty bad. Maybe your experiencing that.

 

Did you change the tires? Long story, but I've had my steering rack replaced due to some play in the gears, had the tires swapped at the same time and have always thought something was just a bit off. Well, I just went from Michelins back to an all terrain tire and can't believe how much straighter the truck drives now. Steering feels tighter as well. The exact opposite that you usually hear from folks, wish I'd done it sooner.

 

Nope, tires are the same, I've had them for 4 years now. I didn't change anything except the suspension parts

 

X2. Doesn't 3rd gen suspension on a 2nd gen result in a lift? Alignment can be done correctly or quickly. Hard to find a tech who wants to spend the time to get the best possible result.

 

In my opinion that's not a great alignment and could be better. The problem with computerized alignments is the tech has stock parameters they shoot for (in the green), which doesn't always mean a good alignment. I think they overshot your camber and took away some caster. I would aim for 0 camber, 3-3.5 caster and 0-0.05 toe.

I would ask you to put it back on the rack and redo the camber. First, check to see if your numbers are the same as the final alignment you had. If they changed considerably (look at Cross toe) then you either have a loose suspension/steering component or a problem with the person doing the alignment.

 

OP is listed as living in CT

 

Oppps my bad... I saw your screen name and location
I need more coffee or sleep.

*Poof *gone

 

Ive had a few of those mornings. Now I never TacoWorld before coffee.

 

Yup, CT, used to live in Manhattan Beach, though! Miss it

The place i brought it to is a small shop. Some good, local guys who i have put on tires for me and stuff. I have an appt to bring it back in tomorrow and have them look at it again so I'm interested in if the numbers will read the same

Thanks for the input

 

Yep I've had an alignment before and they didnt out enough castor in and it wandered over the road. Took it to one of the quick lubes my buddy works at and he took his time and got both sides to about 2.5 castor and it helped alot.

 

I heard about this, is there a photo or something showing where to do it? Mine has a bit of wiggle, but it would be cool to solid-it-up.

 

Try here in the first post.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2nd-gen-tips-mods-more.7174/

 

Perhaps I am dumb, but I only see them talking about steering wheel vibrations. Did I miss it?

 

Yeah i am not sure... having a hard time locating a thread on it. Pretty sure it's the bushing by the floor where steering goes through the fire wall, dont quote me on this as i am going off of memory of a photo I saw on here. You shove a few zip ties in to snug up the play.

 

I vaguely remember a photo of some steering rod with an arrow or something showing where to put the zip tie... haha.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/steering-column-fix.88077/

I found this and plenty other options

 

Your caster needs to sit around 2.3-2.5 on both sides, that'll help with a tighter steering feel and less wandering at higher speeds, your caster on your left tire and right tire have too much of a variance between the two, this may be causing what your feeling now, best they need to be close or equal to each other.

Your Camber is too much positive, you're going to be off-spec once the suspension moves up or down. You need to be sitting at -.3 to +.3 to account for keeping camber within specs during suspension travel. The closer to 0 the better, but without aftermarket upper control arms it can take some time to adjust it correctly. I manage to get mine to .03 on my right side and .02 on the left side, once I was lifted about 2 inches up front, Caster for mine was 2.3 on one side and 2.4 on another, which was acceptable to me. You can adjust to have more Caster but I would only recommend going more if you have much larger tires since larger tires tend to cause more wandering at higher speeds.

Toe needs to be more positive, not to a huge degree but just enough that way when the vehicle is moving, considering bushing flex it'll push the front tires outwards, zeroing out the toe during vehicle movement, this improves tire wear and helps with cornering. Think of it this way, when the rear wheels push the vehicle forward, the front tires will tend to want to pull toe out or negative toe. Adjusting to have a little positive toe helps zero it out so when your driving your close to 0 toe or at it. a total toe of .05 would be ideal. However having it at Zero is fine too.

This is just from my experience and personal knowledge.

 

Damn dude, you know your stuff. I didn't realize how uniquely each car is for their specific alignment and how every shop needs to be aware of it. I didn't think finding a good alignment place would be such a PITA