I bought a lifetime warranty through Brake Check and every time they do an alignment they get the numbers in the green on the computer and not directly in the center. My steering wheel is always off and the alignment is always short of decent. I told them to put the alignment to where the sliding bar is directly in the middle of the numbers on the screen. For instance the tow will be like
0.4 to 0.6 and anywhere in there is ok. But 0.5 is directly in the center and why can't it be put there???? There response is you never want to do that! I understand that if I put a load on the back it will through it off a little buy jeez. So I am asking do you guys have any clue why? Thanks Aaron

 

Good question..... TTT for ya

 

If they are telling you that the toe-in cannot be set to spec., they are snowing you. The steering wheel should be set in the middle and each side set to where the sliding bar is exactly centered and then you will have the exact toe-in with the steering wheel centered. This is done after the caster and camber has been set. Any time an alignment is done and the steering wheel is not centered, either the mechanic does not know what they are doing or they do not care.

When setting caster you do not want the same on both sides. It should be about 1/4 more negative on the left. This will cause the truck to pull slightly left to hold the road because most roads slope off to the right. The camber should be set to spec. both sides.

It is very hard to get an alignment done properly because most who are doing it do not understand the principles involved and just set it by the book and let it go. I have seen many vehicles that would not drive right without altering the settings to overcome some bad characteristic.

My truck for example, to get it to hold the road and not wander I had it set as much caster as possible on the right and set the left 1/4 negative from the right. It now holds the road well and does not wander.

Daniel

 

If Camber or Caster is way off prefered spec. on a 4x4, something is likely bent.....as it is not adjustable without the use of offset balljoints.

Toe is easily set. The adjustment is made with the right tie rod adjustment sleeve. The wheel is the centered with the draglink adjusting sleeve.

This is not rocket science, but as was said above, most don't understand enough about it. Welcome to the computer age where monkeys can do alignments. Most mechanics are just parts changers. I seldom find a "Great Tech" in my line of work.

My guess is you got what was paid for.....a monkey trained to do crappy alignments.

A good alignment machine and a 4 post lift costs $25-35K. A good tech in my area gets paid $15-20 pr hour.

Do the math....it is hard get a good alignment for $50. It is just not profitable. Cuts have to made somewhere...either in the time spent to get it perfect or in the quality of the tech/equipment.

Ask around in your area to find the "specialists". The money you spend there will pay you back in tire wear and fuel savings.

If you are confident the toe is good, you coult get the steering wheel strait with a quick roadtest.

 

Thanks for the replys fellows. I sit and watch them all the time and know exactly the ins and outs and how it goes but I guess I need to take it to the dealership to get done. The only thing is I always find pot holes or something that throws the alignment off, so I don't want to spend 100 bucks and have to go back a week later. Aaron

 

I did not notice that you had a 4x4 until after I had posted my comments. Most of my experience is with 4x2 and that is what I was relating to. CrazyCooter has explained how to set the toe-in and steering wheel on a 4x4 much better than I could.

I do not believe that your front end should be out of alignment unless you have hit something very hard. If it is getting out often without a severe blow, I would look for another problem. If something is loose, you are probably out of spec. as soon as you drive off.

Daniel

 

One more thing, you will probably not be any better off going to a dealer. Ask around, such as the auto parts places and anyone dealing with vehicles that you know. They can usually tell you the best front end man in town. A good place to check is body shops, since they will usually send a vehicle out for alignment.

Where I live [Denison, Texas], I only know of one man that I will trust to do my alignment.

Daniel

 

Agreed, the dealer most likely is not the place to go.