FirstToy

I got a alignment and now it drifts to the left. It was perfectly straight before where I could let go of the steering wheel and it would stay straight.

It's more noticeable at freeway speeds and I have to hold the steering wheel slightly to the right to keep it straight.
If I hold the steering wheel straight, it will gently drift to the left.
It is not a violent pulling, but I do have to hold the wheel slightly to the right to keep it straight.
The truck does not track straight, so it isn't a crooked steering wheel.

I took it back and they swapped front tires. It still does exactly the same thing- pulls to the left.

No vibration or shakes- smooth except for pulling issue.

I'm taking it back tomorrow but anyone know what it could be? I know they are going to blame the tires - which I have religously rotated and never had an issue w/ alignment before this. And if it was the tires, wouldn't it pull to the right after they swapped it- or at least do something different? It does exactly the same pulling as before the tire swap.

They used some laser machine to do the alignment

jimbo74

caster is not advanced far enough on the left side, is way too much on the right side, or the wheel was not centered correctly when aligned....

sometimes tires can do it, but you said its the same after cross rotation, so that kinda throws that idea out

FirstToy

ok that's helpful. I'll ask about it in the morning
Here's the spec sheet they printed up:
Caster:
(initial) Left: .5 degrees Right: .1 degrees
(final) Left: .8 degrees Right: .5 degrees
Specifications: 2.5 min. 4.0 max

jimbo74

just a tech fyi.... dont know how in spec those #s are.... but caster should be about .5 degrees higher on the right side of the vehicle because the US roads are crowned.....

jimbo74

it really doenst matter what the caster spec is as long as the right side is around .5 degrees higher

have them set it there and testdrive it.... then have them do the toe and camber... i bet it will be better

FirstToy

Ok so the final caster should be something like:
(final) Left: .5 degrees Right: .10 degrees

? So the right side should be about .5 higher than the left?

This could explain the pull b/c the gap was larger between the two sides originally?

jimbo74

when i did alignments, what i was told and worked on pretty much all the alignments that i did with pulling problems was that the right side needed to be higher than the left by around .5 degrees....