4x4 Alignment Rant

[ronclark]

I just have to rant about this. i just want to pull my hair out.
i have a Dana 35, leveling coils,and i got some 4° dual camber bushings from Napa.
i got a lifetime alignment from Firestone, i been back so many time its not funny, there just doing toe.
i called a few shops in town most want to junk my dual camber bushings, thy say there garbage and will not do a alignment with them.
i found a shop that said thy could do it. well when i picked up the tech said my dual camber is junk and wanted to put in some fixed ones. the truck is better but still not right.
the best he said he could do is

Right side
Caster 1.0°
Camber 0.5 °

Left
Caster 1.1°
Camber 0.5°

Toe 0.10°

i am tired of feeling like i am being ignored and my truck is not right.
at this point i am thinking of getting some tools and doing this myself.
i just cant see why this is so hard

sorry for my rant

 

[disciplerocks]

The D35 isn't that hard. I say do it your self. It just takes a little patience.

 

[Ranger44]

I want to know what's wrong with those measurements.....

They seem right within spec to me. If the truck pulls at all it should be slight. If it's severe....try swapping front tires. If it changes....you know it's in the tires.

Btw, Not many vehicles "dead on" specs are 0*.

Though I do agree, the techs are being lazy, and to use the adjustable bushings....would be know different than installing a fixed bushing. They'd just have to follow the chart provided.......

 

[ronclark]

I want to know what's wrong with those measurements.....

They seem right within spec to me. If the truck pulls at all it should be slight. If it's severe....try swapping front tires. If it changes....you know it's in the tires.

Btw, Not many vehicles "dead on" specs are 0*.

Though I do agree, the techs are being lazy, and to use the adjustable bushings....would be know different than installing a fixed bushing. They'd just have to follow the chart provided.......

Well it does not track right, it just goes here and there.
from what i have read here the specs here are
Camber 0.5°
Caster 3-4° is best
Some more caster keep it self center better.

 

[Ranger44]

Camber is going to have the biggest affect when it comes to pull. It has 10x the affect caster does. When it comes to the adjustable bushings, it's give and take with camber and caster. You can't adjust one without taking some from the other.

I'd take myself to a better shop than firestone.....if it were me.

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

Caster is absolutely important to getting it to drive right. They are morons if they can't figure out the 2 piece adjustable bushings. They come with a chart that tells you how to set them depending on what you need for adjustment. That is no where near enough caster to get it to not wander all over the road.

You want your camber nice and even and then use your caster split to compensate for road crown.

 

[shane96ranger]

I just have to rant about this. i just want to pull my hair out.
i have a Dana 35, leveling coils,and i got some 4° dual camber bushings from Napa.
i got a lifetime alignment from Firestone, i been back so many time its not funny, there just doing toe.
i called a few shops in town most want to junk my dual camber bushings, thy say there garbage and will not do a alignment with them.
i found a shop that said thy could do it. well when i picked up the tech said my dual camber is junk and wanted to put in some fixed ones. the truck is better but still not right.
the best he said he could do is

Right side
Caster 1.0°
Camber 0.5 °

Left
Caster 1.1°
Camber 0.5°

Toe 0.10°

i am tired of feeling like i am being ignored and my truck is not right.
at this point i am thinking of getting some tools and doing this myself.
i just cant see why this is so hard

sorry for my rant

I have the same problem at the Big O here. It still pulls right, and they tell me it's within spec, so they washed their hands clean of it. I talked to the manager and everything, but to no avail. I'm going to take it to an alignment only shop after I level it though.

 

[chrwilkins30]

i have the same problem with firestone. They say one thing then the next time they same something different. I don't like them.

 

[legoms013]

I have had good luck with firestone and i have a lifetime alignment there. They won't use my adjustable bushings that I had but they put in some fixed degree ones and it drive fine.

You are right though that they say something different every time you go in there, usually cuz its not the same alignment technician always doing the work

 

[mhughes165]

if the manager of the firestone wont do anything for u then i would tell him u wanna talk to his boss, u PAYED for a lifetime alingment and they should have no problem alinging it into spec, u will probably be talking to there district manager at that point and im SURE that they will adress ur problem, they HATE when they have to deal with customers because there staff at the stores should be compitent enough todo so

 

[ronclark]

I know it can be done better i just dropped in the bushing and thy started out at 0.5 camber and a caster of 2.3.
so I know there just lazy.

 

[Yellowsplash]

I agree with sasquatch, you need to have atleast 3* of caster or it will jump all over the place. It sounds like they have no idea how to align with the dual adjustable bushings. Its because of this I quit letting anybody touch my truck, although I never really let them in the first place except for alignments or inspections. I now do all of my own alignments at a buddys shop. That way I KNOW its in spec exactly the way I want it.

 

[ronclark]

I been doing some research on alignments, boy there sure a lot of hatred against the TTB system. I am woundering if the techs feel this way too and that's why thy don't care to align the TTB system.

 

[4x4junkie]

Bred by ignorance most likely.
I strongly suspect the training materials these guys are given does not properly address the procedure on a twin-beam setup. Many of them aren't able to figure it out on their own either so instead they just tell you it's junk and won't bother with it. Pretty comical they can't even figure out how to twist two sections of a camber bushing to change the degree on it, and then call them junk too.

I say screw the haters and do it yourself (it's not rocket science or anything). Once you figure it all out, you should be able to do it in a matter of 30 minutes or so using simple tools at home (I've been doing it myself for over 20 years now).

http://www.therangerstation.com/Magazine/winter2008/steering_tech.htm


.

 

[Jim Henderson]

Boy o boy did I ever get the run around today,,,,,, I wish I would have researched this thread before I went to my alignment appointment today.
I would have saved myself $200.00 .
I don't think the mechanics up here ever heard of fully adjustable bushings.
Thanks for putting that write up together for us 4X4 Junkie!!! Now I think I could probably figure this out , and not start lowering my truck.