Alignment question

[thegipper]

So as long as I've owned my truck, I've never had it aligned. I doubt my brother ever had an alignment done either. For the most part, the truck tracks pretty straight but obviously there is more to an alignment than it driving straight.

Here are my concerns:

I live in the rust belt.

The truck is 22 years old.

It has a decent amount of rust.

Is is safe to assume that if I take it to a shop to have the alignment done, everything that could possible be frozen/rusted in place, will be?

If so, does anyone have a list with part numbers of all of the items I should pre-buy before taking it to a shop? I could either have them replace all of the frozen items and then do the alignment or is it possible for me to replace all of the frozen alignment items and then take it in to the shop for the alignment?

Both of the OTRE's are newish so they should be fine. The alignment shop is less than a mile from my house and I can take neighborhood roads (25mph).

Thoughts?

 

[dogtail]

Sometimes when I've had mine aligned, they needed to hit it with a torch to loosen nuts. Standard locked nut/bolt stuff. I align it every time I put new tires on it and its been holding alignment well, currently at 377K on the chassis. Are you rustproofing that thing?

 

[thegipper]

Yes I am but the rust damage to some areas is already done. The frame is still solid, it's just all of the other things are getting pretty toasty.

 

[brillo_76]

My tie rod nuts were so rusted they had to put new tierod on one side.

I would start soaking everything and heating it up with a torch. Soak some more.

The tie rods will probably be the worst of it. However, soak those lower control arm bolts. They are large enough they probably come loose but nothing wrong with serious sessions of penetrating oil. Do that for a few weeks before taking it for an alignment.

Sent from my SM-J337V using Tapatalk

 

[sleepydad]

Yes I am but the rust damage to some areas is already done. The frame is still solid, it's just all of the other things are getting pretty toasty.

hey neighbor

if those cam bolts and tie rods have never been touched there is a really really good chance some things are fused/frozen. speaking as a fellow salt belt inhabitant I can understand the pain. especially since they have never been touched.

you can soak things down good with WD, fluid film... or whatever your favorite magic sauce is but it might not matter. I have seen the cam bolts/nuts actually fused into one piece and even after the map gas torch the only way to get them off was a sawzall. the other bad spot is the out tie to the LBJ. you shouldn't have to replace that just for an alignment but keep in mind once you start to tear into it all bets are off.

sometimes you can get things off but putting them back together is not even an option and replacement of the part is the only way forward.

sometimes the natural rust protection keeps things in serviceable condition. leaking valve covers, sloppy oil changes, leaking seals all drip oil down into that area and keep things covered in old oil.

 

[thegipper]

LBJ's and Tie rod ends are all newish, one OTRE is only a couple months old. I think those items will be fine. I'll start soaking everything with some stuff this weekend.

 

[JohnMc]

The real issue isn't the nut or the bolt on the LCA, it's the way the adjusters have long metal sleeves/tubes that reach all the way through the bushing. Those seize up ****TIGHT****.

I had to replace the LCA bushings on my 99. So I needed to remove those. And they would. not. budge. I tried everything. Soaking with PBLaster (for several days in advance). Hammering. Twisting. Prying. Heating. Left the bolts loose and dove around for a while, even bumped over some curbs with a modest amount of *THUD*. Nothing.

I ended up using a reciprocating saw and cutting the adjuster tubes on both sides of the bushing to get them out.

 

[mtbtim]

I will echo what [MENTION=168172]sleepydad[/MENTION] and [MENTION=71960]JohnMc[/MENTION] have said. Since you're in the rust belt, there's a VERY good chance your cam adjusters are frozen into the LCA bushing sleeves. If you really want to get your rig aligned, go ahead and replace your LCA bushings in advance. If you don't want your rig to be down for too long, I'd pre-buy 4 cam adjusters and maybe the bolts as well. Get yourself a reciprocating saw and some Diablo Demon Carbide Tipped Blades. Those blades will make the cutting go much faster.

For more details on how to handle this job, check out these two videos. Part 1 covers most of what you need to know to do this job. Part 2 covers cutting out frozen cam adjusters and showing how to get the bushings out utilizing a press instead of a bottle jack. Make sure to read both video descriptions and comments we pinned because there's helpful information in both areas.

These are the part numbers that make up the cam adjusters:
(QTY 4) #48452-35020 - Plate, Toe Adjust
(QTY 4) #90080-11283 - Bolt w/ Washer
(QTY 4) #48409-35050 - Cam Sub-Assy, Toe

The cam adjuster sleeve that commonly gets rusted in place is in bold. You may get away with buying just 4 of those but if your rust is pretty bad, maybe just buy all new parts.


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[fourfive]

You might try loosening the cam bolts & OTRE jam nut yourself after soaking them (multiple times if needed). If you can't or if the fasteners start breaking apart, you can replace what's needed. That way you save yourself a trip if the alignment shop runs into the same issues. Also, if the alignment shop gives you rust excuses, you know they're full of shi* & can take it somewhere else.

 

[TheDurk]

Personally, I would not mess with those cam bolts until the alignment shop says you need to. You may be buying trouble. Mine has been aligned three times (after each set of tires) over its twenty year life and those cam bolts have never needed to be moved from the zero marks. The last time was after a complete frame swap and those cams were completely new (used from the donor) as well as the whole frame and they STILL ended up at the zero marks after alignment. I was pretty amazed. (Two of the old cams died coming apart.)

You said you have just done OTREs and you definitely you should do an alignment after changing those. Your tires may be at risk and that's $$$. But they may be the only thing that needs adjustment. Let the shop tell you what needs done based on the before measurements and what actually needs to be adjusted. You will probably spend less money rifle shotting only what needs to be freed up rather than buying a lot of parts to get everything freed up, even if it takes two trips to the alignment shop.

 

[thegipper]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I think I might just take it to the shop and see what they say. Thankfully, most shops around here have to deal with frozen bolts and stuff every single day.

I know I needed to do an alignment after doing OTRE's, I just haven't done it yet. It's not my DD so I hardly ever drive it. I think I've put on about 3k miles on my new tires and so far, they are wearing normal thankfully.

 

[dapanvid]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I think I might just take it to the shop and see what they say. Thankfully, most shops around here have to deal with frozen bolts and stuff every single day.

I know I needed to do an alignment after doing OTRE's, I just haven't done it yet. It's not my DD so I hardly ever drive it. I think I've put on about 3k miles on my new tires and so far, they are wearing normal thankfully.

I'm actually right in the middle of bushing replacements on my LCA and UCA. You're likely going to have frozen Cam adjusters... they're not super hard to replace once out, but getting them out is a PITA. I had to use a Sawzall to chop the sleeves out. mbtim's video was super helpful. Kind of an involved process, but not impossible.

I agree that you should take it in first and not mess with them unless you're alignment is far off and needing fixed.

 

[negusm]

How do the tires wear? If they are wearing dead even, I wouldn't have anyone touch a rust belt 22 year old car.

Tire wear is really the only reason for an alignment. I don't think you can get even tire wear if the car is out of alignment in any real sense.

My $.02.