How are these Alignment Numbers?

NateMob

New member
Just spent the last hour and a half at the local stealership getting an alignment. After a ton of coilover adjustments and new upper control arms I needed one bad. Went in with a very heavy steering feel and the wheel did not return to center leaving turns and such. This shot shows what I went in with.
y5ydyguv.jpg


The guy said he had to do it twice because there seemed to be a ton of play in my steering rack. Here is what I paid for and left with.
y8u3uhas.jpg

I obviously missed the minimum for caster, how about everything else? New tires going on soon and want to make sure my alignment isn't going to chew them up, I want to leave that for the trails.

I guess poly bushings and a safari rack are in my near future.
 
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Not sure I understand why it took him two attempts, but that's another story. At least I can see he is using a John Bean Aligner, he get's a few extra points for that. The Caster angle is not going to wear your tires, although some would argue that extremely Pos+ Caster angle could wear your tires if you had a toe issue. You did, but now you don't. That is the one thing he corrected in the report that is of most benefit to you in terms of tire wear. Neither your before, or after Camber settings would hurt much.
Caster is instrumental in steering returning to center. As such it's good he gave you some positive caster on the one side which had none. A little more would be good, mainly I'd lie to see less cross Caster (difference between sides). If your rack bushings are worn it will affect centering of the wheel, but not toe because the length of the rack would not change. If the rack or tie rod ends have play, that should be addressed very soon.
 
I think IBall is all over this. Agree that the cross-camber could be an issue - not tire wear but perhaps pull to right. Particularly on crowned roads. Also - what is going on with the SAI in the second report? You can hardly see it but it looks like the left changed by quite a bit from first report...both before & after - can't see the other secondary angles. Guess I didn't know this was readily adjustable.
 
Well SAI is not adjustable directly, but it can be changed. SAI is measured as an imaginary line between the upper and lower steering pivots(in this case ball joints), as compared to vertical. So on long arm short arm suspension like a gen3, as you move camber in or out, that angle changes necessarily. SAI is measured to help diagnosis bent parts mostly.

Here are some illustrations.


https://www.google.com/search?q=steering+axis+inclination&tbm=isch&source=iu&imgil=ws5koiwiz7NE_M%253A%253Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fencrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com%252Fimages%253Fq%253Dtbn%253AANd9GcSMntTjKLs7nvdYk0Jnr4PE-yMGSVSuOaAd1cWF-noOgU-1NtEd%253B300%253B300%253B5psBvA0Zm2ZwWM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.procarcare.com%25252Ficarumba%25252Fresourcecenter%25252Fencyclopedia%25252Ficar_resourcecenter_encyclopedia_suspsteer3.asp&sa=X&ei=3CCrUof7J8H1oATxzIHQDQ&sqi=2&ved=0CDIQ9QEwAw&biw=1280&bih=623#imgdii=_
 
Thank you very much to both of you. It drives much better now and does have the slightest pull to the right. I can live with it, i just feel like its part of driving a lifted 4wd. I just dont want to eat up tires on the pavement.
[MENTION=102597]IBallEngineer[/MENTION] do you have a build thread somewhere for your FJ62? That thing is sweet.
 
[MENTION=88391]NateMob[/MENTION] No, sadly I don't have a build thread. You have to understand I started building this thing 17 yrs ago, I didn't even have a digital camera until 3 yrs after that. I'm not sure if Pirate was around even, but I never liked that forum anyways, everyone is more interested in flaming than anything. Eventually I'll build my 3rd Gen, and I'll document it fully. I used to have a photobucket account, I'm going to get another one up so I can post pics. I do have some pics of things I've done.
 

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