Hard to control on bad roads after rebuilding front end

I just rebuilt the front end of my 2006 Gen 1 sr5 DC(not leveled) struts are Bilstein 4600, inner/outer tie rods/ sway linkages, control arms, ball joints and bearings are all still A-OK and I noticed that, in spec, the alignment shows a pretty positive camber in the front. I have it set to .5 or so, and when I look the truck dead on, the positive camber is pretty severe. Now, I don't have any irregular tire wear or anything, I run my pressures 32 front/ 32 Rear and I run a slightly oversized p265/70r17 Cooper AT3 4s. In Tucson a lot of the roads are pretty jacked up, and the truck just throws the wheel left and right. Its hard to control. I'm going to redo the alignment again after the first 500 miles of the parts settling in.
Any clues as to what it could be? Should I tinker with the alignment? Lower my air pressures?

(Come to think of it, I also have a left front caliper that's starting to seize up sometimes. And that's next on the list)

 

Was it doing this before all of the front end work?

 

A little less than it does now. The play and noise on the front end is gone though. So that's a plus I suppose.

 

So, alignment sounds like a part of it, but there's probably more. Do you have your current alignment numbers?

Also, I'd take a look at the steering rack bushings. Replacing them made a huge difference for me.

 

I don't. I was using up the last couple of hours of my shop being open on my day off to do all of the work. I did the alignment quickly and as straight as I can get it before I close the doors. But I know that adjusting it will help.

But I haven't thought of doing the rack bushings. Good call!

 

I'm confused by this part, were all of those parts replaced?

If you didn't replace the coils then there is nothing to settle and no reason to wait on getting alignment corrected (assuming all of the above was replaced). You may have caster on the low end. If your camber is that bad you may have got a "toe and go" alignment job where as long as the truck drives straight they think the job is done. I would take it elsewhere.

Edit

If you only adjusted the tie rods then a lot of the trouble might be in the camber and caster. I install all my parts but alignment is black magic to me, I take my truck to a good shop for that sort of voodoo.

 

It sounds like there was no real alignment job done. Take it to an alignment shop and have it done properly. Also recheck all of your replacement work to make sure it’s all torqued and seated properly. Should be done with the vehicle weight on the ground, not while it’s on Jacks

 

It is your alignment, need a real alignment when messing with that stuff up front. Go to a trusted alignment shop, not the dealer or a quick in and out auto shop, they often just set the toe and move on.

 

0 to -0.3 camber
+2.4 to +3.0 caster
.08 to .20 total toe in

 

So I went underneath, and reassessed all the bushing and everything was intact and no splitting or play, once I hooked it up, the alignment fell in. What I mean by that is that when I initially set it in after installation, all was green and strain .05 toe and .05 camber. Dead set.

After 600 miles I measured it again and I had a severe toe in of .63 degrees on either side which would explain any erratic steering. It took a few turns of the tie rod. Now it's all smooth as butter. What made me check it was the camber and odd tire wear. Sometimes you'll run into new parts working themselves in, and as a shop we typically recommend a recheck after the first 500 miles for initial break in.

Long and short of it is, It was the alignment, and all is well.

 

@Konniekay91 Other than the Bilsteins, what brand did you use on the other components? Looking to do the same... Anyone else have any preferences? Mevotech, Delphi, TRQ, Moog, etc?