Suspension people, looking for input (alignment)

[AudiTech]

I went into work today to get some stuff done on the truck. I mounted and road force balanced my new Blizzak DM-V1s, removed the step bars, set tire pressure, aligned it, and then cleaned it inside and out.

I'm looking for input on getting my alignment a little better. I got the front pretty well dialed in but the rear has no factory adjustments. Rear toe isn't bad but the camber is off quite a bit side to side. I'm new to 4Runners and solid rear axles. What options are available? Or should I ignore my inner not-quite-OCD and leave it alone?

 

[Jeremy556]

Looks pretty good, assuming you are doing the alignment, the more caster you can dial in, the better it will drive.

Nothing on the rear is adjustable from the factory. You can change to aftermarket upper and lower control arms, and adjustable track bar, but none of those will change your rear camber settings without changing the other side equally. I wouldn't worry about the rear.

 

[3wbdriver]

You're only looking at 1/4 of 1 degree on the rear camber. That's in the assembly of the rear axle and can't be adjusted. Don't worry about that. It's not even something you can see. Get a protractor out and try to set it at 1/4 of 1 degree. Or think of it this way. That is 1/1440th of a complete circle. :boom:

 

[AudiTech]

There's 60 minutes in a degree, cross camber in the rear is actually off by about 1/2 a degree. 1/2 a degree cross camber is quite a bit, that out of spec for most things with a spec.

 

[3wbdriver]

Correction acknowledged Ghostwriter. I will now leave this one to the experts. :yo:

 

[Ducmonsta]

I don't know what kind of alignment machine you have at the shop, but the first thing I would do is recalibrate it. If it's a Hunter, it might be worth having them come out to recalibrate it for your shop. We used to do the calibration process at High Tech at least once a month. You might be surprised what the readings become after this is done. Who knows?

 

[gm350reratliff]

I wouldn't worry about that -.27* of rear camber. If it was closer to +/-.50* or over that, then I would worry. You usually don't see a tire wearing issue until you go over that +/-.50* anyway. I would also recommend checking on when the rack was last calibrated and double check all the slide plates.

Also, I don't see where your cross camber is .50*. Looking at the printouts, the rear cross camber should be .27* (0.0* - .27*).

Most importantly, how does it drive after the alignment?

 

[AudiTech]

I don't know what kind of alignment machine you have at the shop, but the first thing I would do is recalibrate it. If it's a Hunter, it might be worth having them come out to recalibrate it for your shop. We used to do the calibration process at High Tech at least once a month. You might be surprised what the readings become after this is done. Who knows?

I would also recommend checking on when the rack was last calibrated and double check all the slide plates.

The Hunter guy was out roughly 5-6 weeks ago doing maintenance on all the machines.

If it was closer to +/-.50* or over that, then I would worry. You usually don't see a tire wearing issue until you go over that +/-.50* anyway. I would also recommend checking on when the rack was last calibrated and double check all the slide plates.

Also, I don't see where your cross camber is .50*. Looking at the printouts, the rear cross camber should be .27* (0.0* - .27*).

You're saying is it was half a degree you'd be worried.... you are incorrectly reading MINUTES as hundredths of a degree. There are 60 minutes in 1 degree. Half a degree is 30 minutes... I'm at 27 minutes of cross camber which is just shy of half of a degree. Seeing as that is about the range of what you just said you would worry about, the original question still remains, what would you do about it?

 

[Jeremy556]

...what would you do about it?

Nothing. Or, get a new axle carrier, which may or may not be worse than yours, as there isn't a published spec.

 

[gm350reratliff]

Are you sure those are minutes and not hundredths? That machine must be setup different than the ones I have used. All of the racks I have used were in hundredths (sometimes tenths). Thats how you get 3.85° caster or, for the ricer crowd, -0.80° camber all around.

Get a straight piece of angle iron that fits across the rim (only the rim, not touching the tire) and a digital angle finder to double check that camber number when on that rack.