alignment results

[75chev4x4]

Hey guys been working through a wandering problem with my 75 k20 truck and wanted to see what you guys thought about my aligmnet specs. Since I have had this truck it has always wandered around going down the road. I have replaced the ball joints, tre, dre, leaf springs 2" lift all the way around, borgeson steering shaft, new steering box, shocks, steering stabalizer, drop pitman arm so the drag link is flat, had the tires balanced, and had it aligned. Long story short the thing is still all over the road and not fun to drive. I'm trying to figure out what else could be wrong that I'm overlooking otherwise I'm going to get rid of it cause I'm into this thing 8k and its still drives poor at best. Anyway wanted to put up my alignment specs from last week when I had it in to be aligned. No other work has been done to it except for the borgeson shaft I just put on.

Left front
Camber 0.3 degrees
Caster 3.7 degrees
Toe 0.19 degrees

Right front
Camber 0.5 degrees
Caster 3.9 degrees
Toe 0.20 degrees

Total toe 0.39 degrees
Steer ahead -0.01 degrees

Does this seem about right for this truck with a 2" lift? Tires are 265/75/16, thanks for looking!

[76stepsidechevy]

Are there shims on the front spring to correct the pinion angle?

[75chev4x4]

No shims on the front springs.

[75chev4x4]

Couple shots if this helps. I'm out here looking at the center link and is it possible it is on upside down? The threads are facing down on both ends? That or I'm just getting crazy and thinking everything is wrong haha. Thanks.

[425HP409]

I do alot of alighments in my shop on older vehicles and have found the following information to be helpful. The toe in specs for the older vehicles were in inches, but the new alignment machines read in degrees. The Caster and Camber look OK on your specs, but you have too much toe in. You want 1/16" to 1/8" total toe, this correlates to .08-.16 degrees. With .39 degrees, total toe, in you have over 1/4" toe in, which will make the truck wander big time.
ps. I have been doing alignments since 1963
Charles

[75chev4x4]

Ok very good to know. Thank you 425hp409. I'm a younger guy and love working on these older trucks and its really satisfying to get advice from guys who have worked on the for a long time. I have been taking it to firestone for alignments but I might go find a small shop that is better at these trucks and see if they can get it where it should be.

[86c20]

one thing to think of is the tires them selfs (belts bad will do it) and bearings also. if you have bigger tires on already weak baerings??? what about the springs and cupps in the axle its self? that one i dont know but would think that 425hp409 may??? do you get a shimmy when breaking only some times? that is what my k30 is dooing and was told springs and cups.

[75chev4x4]

Doesn't really shimmy might pull very slight to one side but not much. Tires are in good shape and not too big Imho. Just for kicks I was this ki g about putting my dads wheels and tires off his f250 on my truck and take it for a drive see if there is a difference. New bfg at 285/75/16 so should be close to mine.

[425HP409]

The thing about aligning the older vehicles, you have to set it up according to the factory specs that were in effect at the time the vehicle was built. Your alignment tech will have to ignore the "preferred settings" that the alignment computer will have and just set it up according to the earlier settings.

[75chev4x4]

Originally Posted by 425HP409

The thing about aligning the older vehicles, you have to set it up according to the factory specs that were in effect at the time the vehicle was built. Your alignment tech will have to ignore the "preferred settings" that the alignment computer will have and just set it up according to the earlier settings.

Ok. Just looked in my Chilton and they say 0 toe in on the 4wd models. Any advantage to that vs a little 1/16 toe in? Thank you sir.

[Desert1957]

Originally Posted by 75chev4x4

Ok. Just looked in my Chilton and they say 0 toe in on the 4wd models. Any advantage to that vs a little 1/16 toe in? Thank you sir.

Yes on the Toe setting, Think of it this way.
GM and most manufactures are trying to achieve a 0 toe setting while going down the road , so a 1/8 setting works out to about 0 with the normal resistance on the front tires going down the road.

Any more than 1/8 toed in and one tire will always be toed in while the other is straight, causing constant correction of the steering wheel or road wander.

There are many things in the front end that add up to too much play overall , pitman arm , idler arm, steering box adjustment, recheck all parts fo ANY play before condemning alignment specs.

Desert