fourplayoffroad

1/4 is too much..... it should be 1/16 - 1/8.. rear wheel drive vehicles toe out when they are driving, front wheel drive vehicles toe in. I've done my own alignments, I only took it to schwabs to get it alinged on the rack and get my caster and camber numbers to verify what I was doing in my own shop. the front housing didn't really need to be caster corrected as I've said before my caster is at 6* positive.

drew303

Theres no way to change camber on a solid axle, only caster (with spring shims) ... Every solid axle ive seen has a slight positive camber. \ /

drew303

also, theres no way you'll get a positive camber situation from "setting the trunion bearings up wrong" ...

Regardless of the shims you're using, the only possible way to effect camber would be bearings that are to loose, and in which case would be damaged rather quickly resulting in a negative camber / \

EFI85

I have to agree !!

jswizz

Well at least what your saying gives me hope ( pos ) camber . Still this thing is all over the road ,after what I v'e done for it . I am hoping new springs will help since mine are severly neg arc ,
I REALLY APPRECIATE ALL OF THE COMMENTS ON THIS !,: IT IS SEVERLY AGGONIZING NOT BEING ABLE TO CORRECT IT

jswizz

Ok so not sure if this is quite the same as above ! BUTTTT today i had a set of rims and tires in back of the runner and it drove like a new truck ,"comparably" with the weight . So It may have helped steady the rear leafs ,or the shackle I have . I'm assuming . sending a rib shacking all the way to the front , CUZ thats where it felt like it was from. So I am still hoping new leafs will help this .

85Hilux

I have read all these alignment threads and I have the same problem on my 85, and you guys seem to have the best info in here so hopefully the OP can tell us how he solved it or someone can help me.

The thing wanders all over the place and gets worse as you go faster. checked underneath nothing seems really loose on the steering components when I tug on them, but I am sure some bushings could use replacing but I can't see that alone being the issue with such big tires.

I have noticed the tires look like this \ / both with the stock wheels and my 32's with or without the 1" spacers. you can see it clearly in person.
The axle has no damage on it and looks fine.
so I took it to alignment shop it definitely has positive camber but they say thats normal?

The springs definitely look old, Jswizz did the springs fix it for you? Trying to get this thing original and street worthy again, all help is appreciated.

I attached a pic of the alignment, there is definite positive camber, and my caster is no where near 6 degrees at all.

Is this why the truck wanders all over the place? or something else. there is no wobbling or anything its always smooth just wants to randomly go left or right if you are holding it straight, if you correct it will fix it then want to wander the other way, I do alot of shimmying of the wheel to keep it straight.

ojm3

I went through the same situation as you and i just recently fixed it about 3 days ago. the only difference was that my tires were negative / \ I replaced the drivers side tie rod end, and steering dampener. After this i did a home alignemnt by measuring the distance between the tires at the front, and back of the tires. I then set my toe IN about 3/16 or 1/4 inch at the front. I used my tape measure for this. Afterwards my truck handled incredible! My tires were proper to the pavement, and all my shakes, shimmys, and getting tossed into the opposite lane problems were gone.

85Hilux

That would be good news if its just the tie rod end and I don't mind trying a new dampener.
I think I am going to start a new thread about wandering just in case I may have other issues, I took a bunch of pictures so maybe people will be able to help me spot any issues I am really just starting to learn about solid axles.

84foyota

Ok Guys I have some details to offer.

First of all the truck is supposed to have some camber. That is the tires out at the top when you look at the truck from the front. This is normal but is influenced heavily by the use of offset wheels or wheel spacers. You are basically moving the wheel out away from the pivot point of the steering which will also "enhance" the camber on the truck. Larger tires also add to the effect as again the top of the tire is farther from the centre of the axle. The angle is the same but the distance is more.

It also effects the "scrub radius" of the axle. If you were able to draw as line straight through the trunion bearings you will find that the lower one is actually slightly farther out then the top and if you extend the line all the way to the ground it should land at the centre point of the tire tread. When you use offset wheels or wheels spacers you move the wheel out of alignment from the this perfect "scrub radius". On a truck it's not a big deal but if you were carving corners on a race car this would make the car push like crazy.

None of this however will make the truck wonder on the road when you are trying to drive in a straight line. For that you must look at the caster angle or the amount of variation in caster angle. Basically the axle is rolling forward and backword when you speed up or slow down or is just way out of wack! If you still have stock steering the roll of the axle will also shorten and lengthen the distance between the steering box and the axle and make the truck turn right when braking as the drag link will force the wheels to turn right.

You need to reduce the roll in the front axle and ensure the axle has POSITIVE caster. Think of a top fuel dragster....they have tons of POSITIVE caster. This meens the axle is tilted backword so the top axle pivot is set back from the lower. Again if you draw an imaginary line through the bearings while looking at the wheel from the side this time and extended it down to the ground the line should touch down ahead of the centre of the tire tread patch.

I will try to add some diagrams to ilustrate this when I get a chance.

Basically don't worry about the camber and pay attention to your caster. Most lifted trucks with taller leaf springs will need shims to set the caster back the proper setting. Negative caster on truck is a bad thing and is very dangerous!

Also if the springs are week or worn out they will create a rolling problem which means the caster angle becomes variable. Even the bigger tires will create enough friction on the road to force the caster out of wack on the highway if the springs are weak. The stock truck has a tie bar to prevent roll but it becomes too short when you add lift springs and many people remove it. You can get away without the tie bar provided you springs are stiff enough to prevent roll when you brake and accelerate. I have made a custom tie bar for my truck which is slightly longer then stock and holds the axle at the proper caster angle.

Also check your drag link for movement. You can actually tighten up the joints if needed. If you have a lift you should also have a dropped and adjustable drag link. If not your steering box is not centered properly and not on the detent (they engineer a "Notch" in the travel a centre to help you drive straight). You can get one of these from Summit racing of all places and they are $70.

That's my five cents on the topic.