Bad Alignment - Possible???

[Zilverado]

For starters, let me just take a moment to honor all of the men and women who have given, and are curently willing to give their lives to protect the freedoms that we all enjoy. GOD Bless them all!!

So now for my truck question...

I continue to have an issue with the truck wanting to pull to the right, both while driving and also while braking. Thinking my brakes may have been an issue, I replaced a number of front parts (hoses, callipers and wheel bearings). The problem persisted. So, I swapped the tires on the front and still no difference.

Earlier this year, when I first noticed the problem, I took the truck in for an alignment. The shop claimed they made some adjustments, and as far as I can recall, the truck tracked beautifully afterwards. Since I do not drive the truck all the time, I do not recall when the pull came back - or maybe I was just imagining that it was gone following the alignment???

So, is it possible that the alignment could have gone bad again? Could one of the adjustments that the shop made perhaps have failed again? I can't see how tie rod adjustment could go bad, but maybe I dropped a shim? But then I would guess things would be really loose.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? Thanks.

[lurch115]

have you looked at the A-arm bushings?? or how about the sway bar bushing??? i learned the hard way that you don't jack the frontend up right by a swaybar bushing...it had an extender or drop bracket that bent and made the truck almost veir tothe right

[Zilverado]

I would imagine something like this would have been noticed by the alightment guys - don't you think?

[old Rusty C10]

Originally Posted by Zilverado

I would imagine something like this would have been noticed by the alightment guys - don't you think?

depends on who his allignment guy is and if they work for Midas or Sears or not lol

[Duro5341]

I bet the alignment guys only looked at the CCT in the front, being it's a solid rear axle. I would personally pay close attention to the Thrust Angle....this will tell you if the truck is tracking straight.

I have seen perfect alignments, with 0.25 caster lead, and 0.50 camber lead, perfect toe. And the truck still pulls right, because someone put the one leaf spring in backwards. This will through your thrust angle out, and cause the truck to track left, and you turning right to componsate for the pull.....or vice versa.

Maybe a rear drum is over adjusted, and draging?

Also keep in mind the road crown, most vehicals will pull slightly to the right, because it's following the crown of the road.....

Just a few ideas
Duro

[Zilverado]

Originally Posted by Duro5341

I bet the alignment guys only looked at the CCT in the front, being it's a solid rear axle. I would personally pay close attention to the Thrust Angle....this will tell you if the truck is tracking straight.

I have seen perfect alignments, with 0.25 caster lead, and 0.50 camber lead, perfect toe. And the truck still pulls right, because someone put the one leaf spring in backwards. This will through your thrust angle out, and cause the truck to track left, and you turning right to componsate for the pull.....or vice versa.

Well, since I have made no changes in the rear end (aside from u-joints) since I originally installed the rear axle and springs, I don't imagine there is an issue here. The problem only started within the last 6 months or so.

Originally Posted by Duro5341

Maybe a rear drum is over adjusted, and draging?

I was kind of thinking this myself. When I jack up the rear end and check for free spinning of the rear wheels, it seems there is a slight drag on the right, but only slight. It does not seem sufficient to actually pull the vehicle over.

Originally Posted by Duro5341

Also keep in mind the road crown, most vehicals will pull slightly to the right, because it's following the crown of the road.....

Yeah, I thought of this. I also keep in mind where the wind is coming from (at least on the highway). Thing is the pull is even noticeable at slow speeds on residential streets, where the road crown and wind are much less of a factor - there's definitely something "mechanical" going on here.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll talk to the alignment shop and take another look at the rear brakes.

[Duro5341]

the road crown will be the worst in residential, and older parts of downtown

I suggest going down a 3 lane, 1 way street.......in the middle lane. This will put your truck in the center of the crown, and should trrack straight, or very slightly to the left. Or also hit a major highway (401, QEW, 403, 400 up here), a major 3-5 lane each direction highway.....and be in the center lanes again. This will eliminate any crown issues.

Maybe someone has over tightend a front wheel bearing. Torque to 35ftlbs, and back off 1/3 of a turn max....i dunno just throwing ideas

Duro

[Zilverado]

Thanks for the ideas, but...

I'm pretty comfortable saying this is not a road crown issue. I have driven the truck long enough to know that this is something "new" issue, or at least not normal.

As for the wheel bearings, the problem existed prior to me changing the bearings and as well after. I am pretty confident with the torque I applied to the bearings, so I don't think that's the issue either.

Like I say, I'll maybe have the alignment shop take another look at it.

[454HO]

How are the front tires wearing?

If there is no obvious wear problem, my guess would be the caster angle is different between the left and right front wheels. Did the alignment shop give you a printout the last time you had work done? Even if it shows the wheels are aligned 'within manufacturing specs', it doesn't mean it is a perfect alignment. The manufacturing specs usually allow some tolerance (say for example +/- 1°) to the the perfect setting, and a lazy alignment tech may decide that +1° on the left and -1° on the right is good enough. That 2° overall difference could cause a very noticable pull.

[Zilverado]

Well, I'm certainly no alignment expert, so I can't tell if the numbers on the print out are ok - they appear to be "within spec".

Any comments?

[85X3]

Start your truck with hands off steering wheel. If you notice a slight movement in the wheel, you may have a pump issue. Get a can of Power Steering Additive/Treatment. This is only a guess, but I've seen this condition several times before, and it works.

[454HO]

Originally Posted by Zilverado

Any comments?

The caster angle looks very good, only 0.04° difference between the left and right. But the camber angles seems kinda wierd to me. It looks like quite a bit of positive camber on the left side.... but I would not suspect that would cause a strong pull to the right.

[Zilverado]

Originally Posted by 85X3

Start your truck with hands off steering wheel. If you notice a slight movement in the wheel, you may have a pump issue. Get a can of Power Steering Additive/Treatment. This is only a guess, but I've seen this condition several times before, and it works.

Thanks for the advice - I'll try that...

[Zilverado]

Originally Posted by 454HO

The caster angle looks very good, only 0.04° difference between the left and right. But the camber angles seems kinda wierd to me. It looks like quite a bit of positive camber on the left side.... but I would not suspect that would cause a strong pull to the right.

If the numbers look OK, that would explain why I think I remember the vehicle tracking properly right after the alignment. I'm just wondering if something has happened and how???

I understand that "Toe" would be adjusted by effecting the tie-rods, but how are caster and camber adjusted? And is this something that can suddenly go "out"?

[Duro5341]

You should have.......as a general guild line
This should be followed even when in manufacture spec.

This will give you a slight pull to the left, and keep you on the crown of the road

0.00-0.25 degrees less caster on the left
0.25-0.50 degrees more camber on the left

Keep in mond you have positive, and negative numbers..........when I say "more" I mean more positive than the other side, and vise versa for less

Thanks
Duro