JDMSLIK

Take a good look at the mounting brackets for the lower control arms, try to see if anything looks like someone tried to 'fix' it.

jacumja

I've got a awesome mechanic, I know a lot of people say that but mine really is. He took this truck one day and it had a bad vibration in the rear, he spent an entire Saturday trying to diagnose it. He couldn't figure it out. I was the only car he worked that day, he refused money from me since he couldn't figure it out. He says, " this sounds bad but drive it until it breaks, this is the only way we'll know what it is". 3 days later it was the u joint in the back.
He's been under this thing and is the guy that rebuilt the front end, I trust him with my sister if I had one. He worked on my dads trucks and his dad worked on my grandfathers trucks, hoisting engines out of vehicles with Oak tree limbs and chains.
He put in a new fly wheel for $100 on this thing. The same problem that Toyota's master tech diagnosed as a bad Pittman arm and wanted 1300 to do.
If it was something like that he'd have seen it.
Not knocking you for advice in any way JDMSLIK but if it were that he'd have found it.
Will add this the tires never rubbed until after all the front rack work was done.
He did tell me that the front was all jacked out of alignment to try to hide something though and he adjusted it.

[N8]

The obvious problem here is noted as early as reply #4 and repeated by several others in this thread. You can tell by the shots in reply #18 that those rims have a lot less backspacing than stock and they may even be 8" wide on top of that. That's why your rubbing front & back.

[N8]

I'm sorry but if he can't diagnose a bad u-joint, his strong point is obviously not diagnosis. You can find a bad rear u-joint by simply pulling the rear drive shaft and taking a short cruise in 4-hi.

Godzilla

Just an FYI, you do not have rack and pinion.

A tire that has a diameter which is too large for the vehicle will tend to rub the fenders/wheel well before it rubs the fender in the front, unless your tire is more rectangular than circular

And as stated, your issue will be resolved with proper wheels.

jacumja

Thanks n8 for the help. So is my best course of action just to scrap it and start with a fresh pair of tires and rims and make sure the back spacing is correct?
Also my point is that I have an honest mechanic and he did pull the u joint and run it in 4 hi, he said he still couldn't say for 100% My point is that he's honest and does an honest job. Being a mech. leaves a lot of room for error and things can be hard to find. I think you'd agree with the obvious amount of knowledge you have then you've had to have a lot of experience.
Hell Toyota's " master mech" thought a cracked flywheel was a bad pitman arm after having it for a weekend. He diagnosed it in 15 seconds of crank up.
If you don't mind me asking, what is back spacing. I took auto mech. in 98 , in high school. All we ever did was, mount, balance, align and drive. I never once new about back spacing.

jacumja

Thanks Godzilla, I wasn't aware but was definetly wrong when using that term to label the area I snapped a pick of. Good to have a database of people in the know, sorry for not knowing.

Godzilla

No apologies, you cant' know until you learn. And this is a decent place to learn

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

The wheel dimensions should be stamped some place visible on the wheel, often the inside flange like Toyota does:



http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...ne_Pix/23.html
http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...ne_Pix/24.html

jacumja

4crawler no such luck I checked both front tires, neither is marked on the inside. My guess is there covered by weights. I got ate ass up in a fire ant bed though.

Squeebs

why cant it? im running 16 inch rims off a 2004 taco on my 92.

phildelfino

Backspacing is the distance from the inside wheel mounting surface to the inside edge of the rim. It controls how far in the wheel sits. Bigger backspacing, wheel sits inside the fender more. My 88 is 5 INCHES. The smaller the backspacing is, the more the tire sits outside the fender lip.
With less backspacing, the tire moved out and now the bolt is in the way.
Hope this helps.

tc

x2

Sorry - how do you go from a pitman arm to a flywheel?

He sounds like a really stand-up guy and a helluva parts-swapper, but not so much on the diagnosis.

jacumja

My fault for not being clearer, my shade tree knows the difference between his wanker and a shift knob. The master mech. at Gene Reed in Charleston told me a vibration on crank and acceleration was a bad pittman arm. The same shade tree wasted eight unpaid hours chasing another vibration down in a fifteen year old truck. Which turned out to be a u joint which he tested. Its really easy to say how easy it is to figure out whats wrong with a fifteen year old truck when your on yota tech rather than under the hood is all I"m saying.
Thanks for all the help guys I'm just gonna scrap the wheels and tires and use the tread life left to track down some black rims and either 31s or 33's all terrains. The biotttccheees are getting aligned, lug centric balanced, whatever the hell that means and they better roll right when its done.

jacumja

So just too be clear I can or cannot get the cragar black rims, or do I have to throw oem toyota rims on here. If I do thats fine I just want to know.
Also we have diagnosed the rims backspacing is what is causing the rub, what about the really bad shake and shimmies? Same problems rims?

Lumpy

The really bad shakes and shimmies are probably the tires. When tires go they can cause a lot of issues: pulling, brake pulling, shaking, shimming, noise, all around bad ride.

[N8]

Buy these and be done with it:

http://charleston.craigslist.org/pts/1204822928.html

Seriously though, the Soft 8's are a llittle less backspacing than stock so if you wanted to be totally safe you should look for some factory rims. But I'd bet that if you're into your fenders that bad with your current setup that not only are they 3.5"ish backspacing, but probably also 8" wide which will put them even further out.

As far as diagnosing the wobble - the easiest way would be if you knew someone else with a toyota that you could swap wheels for a test drive. You're still not going to isolate whether its rim(s) or tire(s), but you'll know it's one or the other.

My guess is that its tires and you need new rims anyway due to the backspacing.

Lumpy

Hell, if I were closer I'd go for them...

Azca

It seems to me that you have several problems. For the rubbing it looks to me like your torsion bars have been cranked down. What is the distance between your rim and the top of your fender? If memory serves it should be about 13.5 inches but some of the better techies should respond to this.

Second, when they did your alignment, they did it wrong, I would have them redo it. Now you ask how can I tell? Your steering wheel should be strait, you should not have to turn it to keep it running strait down the road. The technician should set the wheel strait when they do the alignment then adjust it from there. If they did this wrong I would not be surprised if they did other things incorrectly as well.

Third. Cheap rims/tires can cause all kinds of problems on shakes. I had a horrible experience with a honda on this, went through three sets of rims to find ones that wouldn't shake. If you have one steel wheel that is bent, not machined correctly or mounted correctly this will cause it. Rotate the wheels and see if it helps. Also if you have a tire that is separating or slightly out of round it will do this. Look for uneven wear or bumps or bubles in your tires.

I am sad to say that many mechanics, even ones that I know are not trying to rip me off, just throw parts at a problem to fix it, not really knowing what is wrong. I took mine to a repair shop I really trust when I bought my runner earlier this year, they said one of the steering components were bad but didn't know which one. It could cost 5 to 6 hundred in parts alone. I took it home, looked on the internet and replaced all the parts including a new steering stabilizer for under 300.

1990mudslut

In his deffense just because he has to hold the wheel at a angle while going down the road doesnt mean his alignment was done wrong.Granted if he was on decent tires and rims it would.He has said many times the tires are shot to hell and that is more than likely why it is pulling hell even the front right tire being lower on air will make it pull to the right...

seriously tho man just get new rims and tires you dont have to get stock rims just get rims with the same backspaceing as stock do a google on it and youll find the stock rim backspaceing goodluck.