Input on Steering/Alignment Issues After Lift

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cascadiarunner

New member
Hi all, looking for input on why my rig is pulling to the right pretty strongly.

A little background:

I went to a buddy's house to install my bilstein 6112/5160s, 1.25" spidertrax, and JBA UCAs. Everything went smoothly, we finished late on a Saturday so I couldn't get an alignment. My buddy measured the toe before and after and tried to get it close enough to drive home.

I drove home 80 miles and it drove beautifully, no issues whatsoever. On Monday I took it in for an alignment, only having driven those 80 or so miles. I specified 3-4 degrees of caster as per JBA's recommendations. On my way home from the shop I noticed that it was pulling to the right pretty hard, something that hadn't been happening with our quick visual alignment or ever before.

I've since been to the alignment shop another two times trying to figure it out. They've been extremely patient with me but I know I'm being a pain in the ass. Initially there was about .5 degrees of cross caster so I thought that might be the cause but alas the technician got them both at 3.4 degrees and I'm still having the issue.

Any thoughts on what could be causing this? Alignment specs below:

hDcKR8n.jpg
 
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I don't see anything in the front to account for it and only the 19 in the rear seems a little off. Pull can be the tire so maybe swap the fronts side to side and see if it pulls the other way. Brakes were not touched? No sticking caliper?
 
83Mule said:
I don't see anything in the front to account for it and only the 19 in the rear seems a little off. Pull can be the tire so maybe swap the fronts side to side and see if it pulls the other way. Brakes were not touched? No sticking caliper?
Click to expand...

Thanks, I was thinking of doing that but kind of ruled it out since it wasn't pulling before the alignment at all. Guess I should probably just do the damn thing. Brakes weren't touched, no sticking caliper. Appreciate the input!
 
cascadiarunner said:
Hi all, looking for input on why my rig is pulling to the right pretty strongly.

A little background:

I went to a buddy's house to install my bilstein 6112/5160s, 1.25" spidertrax, and JBA UCAs. Everything went smoothly, we finished late on a Saturday so I couldn't get an alignment. My buddy measured the toe before and after and tried to get it close enough to drive home.

I drove home 80 miles and it drove beautifully, no issues whatsoever. On Monday I took it in for an alignment, only having driven those 80 or so miles. I specified 3-4 degrees of caster as per JBA's recommendations. On my way home from the shop I noticed that it was pulling to the right pretty hard, something that hadn't been happening with our quick visual alignment or ever before.

I've since been to the alignment shop another two times trying to figure it out. They've been extremely patient with me but I know I'm being a pain in the ass. Initially there was about .5 degrees of cross caster so I thought that might be the cause but alas the technician got them both at 3.4 degrees and I'm still having the issue.

Any thoughts on what could be causing this? Alignment specs below:

hDcKR8n.jpg
Click to expand...

You got before measurements so we can compare? They usually take an initial measurement.
 
Maybe not enough cross and the road is really crowned? Does it pull on different roads and speeds or just hard right all the time?
 
83Mule said:
Maybe not enough cross and the road is really crowned? Does it pull on different roads and speeds or just hard right all the time?
Click to expand...

Pulls to the right on all roads even when I’m in the fast lane of a divided freeway. Also steering wheel doesn’t seem to be straight, and seems to resist turning left a bit.
 
Last edited:
First thing is the wheel should be straight!........I hate to say try another shop but if the tire swap didn't reveal a tire pull, maybe their numbers aren't correct if they leave the wheel crooked! Good Luck and let us know when it's sorted.
 
Take note of where your LCA cams are adjusted now. Do you know where they were before first alignment? How much lift did you install? How much caster do the JBA's add? It sounds like you had things pretty close before the first alignment and now they've botched it up somehow.
I would put my LCA cams at the neutral position on all. Measure your camber with an angle finder, I use one on my cell phone with a straight edge on front wheel. Get 1-2 degrees inboard camber, measure your toe, measure across the front of your front tires at hub center, pick a spot on each and measure to it, then do same on rear of front tires using same spot, adjust so 1/16 to 1/4" toe out with tie rod adjust. Check your tie rods first and count exposed threads on both sides, if they are different, could be why steering wheel off center. Adjust both rods to get approx same number of threads exposed and toe where you want it.
Go drive it, How does it feel?
I put a 1" level kit on my '03 that has 4600 bilsteins and FJ springs and then added SPC UCAs. SPC gives +2 degrees and I adjusted another 1 degree in then did as described above and it drives fine, not going to alignment shop.
It's a lot of work, but it works!
 
rdruss said:
Take note of where your LCA cams are adjusted now. Do you know where they were before first alignment? How much lift did you install? How much caster do the JBA's add? It sounds like you had things pretty close before the first alignment and now they've botched it up somehow.
I would put my LCA cams at the neutral position on all. Measure your camber with an angle finder, I use one on my cell phone with a straight edge on front wheel. Get 1-2 degrees inboard camber, measure your toe, measure across the front of your front tires at hub center, pick a spot on each and measure to it, then do same on rear of front tires using same spot, adjust so 1/16 to 1/4" toe out with tie rod adjust. Check your tie rods first and count exposed threads on both sides, if they are different, could be why steering wheel off center. Adjust both rods to get approx same number of threads exposed and toe where you want it.
Go drive it, How does it feel?
I put a 1" level kit on my '03 that has 4600 bilsteins and FJ springs and then added SPC UCAs. SPC gives +2 degrees and I adjusted another 1 degree in then did as described above and it drives fine, not going to alignment shop.
It's a lot of work, but it works!
Click to expand...

Thanks! The JBA adds 3 degrees of caster. I added 2.5" of lift. I don't know where the cams were before alignment unfortunately. I'm not feeling qualified to mess with this stuff so I'm taking it to another shop, one that is highly recommended.

Here is a photo of the tie rods, the main photo is the driver's side, and I've added the passenger side on top (mirrored for comparison), you can see the
driver's side has more exposed threads. Could this be causing the issue?

98FUjl.jpg
 
Very well could be, looks like two more threads showing on one than the other.
I'm not "qualified" either, but putting on the SPC adjustable UCA's causes one to try and get smart on it or you could waste a lot of $$ on alignment shops that know just a little more than you do, but don't really care.
 
Well just got back from the second shop, who spent more time working on it than all three trips to the initial shop combined. I was told whoever did the alignment before was a complete idiot and the initial numbers weren't even close to the the printout I was given. Problem fixed, no more pull, steering wheel centered! So relieved to have this resolved.
 
cascadiarunner said:
Well just got back from the second shop, who spent more time working on it than all three trips to the initial shop combined. I was told whoever did the alignment before was a complete idiot and the initial numbers weren't even close to the the printout I was given. Problem fixed, no more pull, steering wheel centered! So relieved to have this resolved.
Click to expand...

Glad you found someone to fix it right. I had the same issue. Went to 2 shops and none were able to get it right. Finally found a shop that was highly recommended. The owner and tech let me help and showed me why the majority of these shops don't get it right. It is very tedious. Very small movements. You have to take into account that when you torque the settings down the value will change drastically. Most shops just get it close and then don't worry about it.

Here is mine with JBA's and Kings
 

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