Poor alignment or tweaked frame?

I went and got my truck aligned yesterday, and they could not get the driver side to where it needed to be. I was told I’m either gonna have to get adjustable UCAs (currently have JBA) or go to a body shop to fix my frame. I’m going to start with getting an alignment from a different shop because I’m not 100% sold on the due diligence of the first one I went to. Has anyone had a similar issue or experience?

 

How much lift do you have?

It's not unusual for an alignment shop to not do their job, in my experience. I'd suggest a 2nd opinion, unless you're over lifted and you do need the UCA's.

 

A lot of people with Tundras have had places botch alignments... so my guess is they are idiots. Did they charge you for that advice?

 

I have Toytec Boss 2.5 Aluma Coilovers set to 2 inches of lift (leveled) with JBA UCAs. The shop that did the install did this most recent alignment. I didn’t get the alignment report when they initially aligned it after the suspension install, but they said everything seemed fine then.

 

This shop specializes in Tundras, so I know (or like to think) that they know what they’re doing. If anything, it would be them being lazy. Not sure what specs they (or at least tried) to align it to. Those definitely aren’t JBA specs, which I told them to align it to.

 

Crawl under and look at the alignment cams on the LCA and take some pics. Negative camber (which I think means the top of the tire is tilted in) on the left side means the LCAs are adjusted too far outboard. If there is any room to move them in, then they screwed up.

Caster is less important but they should be very close on each side, and if I recall correctly, the right side should be a little more than the left. Caster is adjusted using the same cams; to reduce it you'd move the rear pivot in or the front pivot out.

Is there any chance you hit something hard enough between the two alignments to actually bend the frame?

 

If your frame was tweaked I would think your thrust angle would be fucked. It looks almost non existent.

 

There have been maybe 2-3 times where I’ve taken it off smooth pavement, but nothing any other vehicle couldn’t handle. I seriously doubt I did anything that would have screwed it up. Here are the alignment cam pics. Top one is the driver side, bottom is passenger.

 

Those are the front ones, and they are both all the way in. There are cams on the rear pivots also.

 

I have a 3 inch Ironman lift with JBA uppers and my alignment shop didn't have any problem getting it aligned. Try another shop.

 

Top picture is driver side, bottom is passenger. These are the best pictures I could get- my cat skid makes it hard to get up in there.

 

That's wild. All 4 of your pivots are as far in as they go... so it appears the shop wasn't lying, because they don't have any room to move them in further and fix the negative camber. My first thought is that your lift is not enough for the UCAs you've got. That seems unlikely, but maybe? JBA says the arms are for lifts up to 4", so it's possible. Another possibility is that their measurement machine was out of wack.

Something else to look at. Park on a flat surface with wheels straight ahead, and eyeball your camber. Sight along the outer edge of each front tire and compare it to the rear. What you are looking for is vertical tilt. Negative camber means the top is tilted in, and this should be obvious on the driver side and less so the passenger.

 

The driver front tab should stay where it’s at, while the rear you could rotate more clockwise. This will angle the LCA more to the right like “/“ cuz right now it’s parallel to the crossmember like “|” This will give a little more caster but more importantly it will push out the wheel further out to possibly correct your camber. The toe will need to be corrected as well. Hope that makes sense.

 

That will increase camber, which is already too high... yes?

 

Oh shit my bad, I was thinking he had positive caster.

 

Doh! I think we are both confused. His camber is negative, and moving either pivot out will make it more negative. That's what I meant.

 

I’ll do that when I get a second. My “lift” is enough for these UCAs. JBA says the ideal lift height for these UCAs are 2-3 inches of lift, and my CO are set to 2 inches. One thing that might affect it- I put a winch and front bumper on, so is it possible that pulled the suspension down far enough? It looks ever so slightly lower than before, but not much. I imagined it wouldn’t have that big of a difference on it because these springs are 700lbs springs, and the bumper/winch setup is only about 85-90lbs heavier than stock bumper after all the parts are swapped out.

 

It does seem weird that your driver side is quite a bit worse. Have you had the truck since new? Any accidents?

Check your axle to fender height on each side as well to see how much the lift is.

 

Why did you bring your truck in for an alignment, what is it doing? Does anyone one else drive it besides you? Show some pics of the 3 sides of the driver's suspension, just to eyeball things

 

Well, the driver side is about 1/2 inch lower than the passenger. I got the truck used- no accidents. Like I said before, everything was perfect right when they did the install.

 

I got an alignment because the suspension was done settling (first alignment after the install and initial alignment). This started recently (2 ish weeks ago), but when I got up to 65+mph, my steering wheel would go crazy. Felt like the death wobble Jeeps get. I’m the only one that drives it. Hope this isn’t picture overload lol.

 

Holy shit, check for loose nuts/bolts before something falls apart! A lot needs to be taken apart to install the front shocks.

 

I would assume that the shop would’ve ran into something if that was the issue? I’ve gotten up to 60 without any issue (after this alignment)- so I think it’ll be fine. I’ll have to get on the actual highway to see…

 

I'd absolutely be checking for loose nuts/bolts if my truck suddenly started vibrating at a particular speed. Start with the driver side and don't wait. It could turn from loose to absent pretty quick.

 

Pictures are good but can't really see the whole suspension. Can you turn the wheel and grab a couple pics of the knuckle and lower

Just looking for irregularities

 

Uh oh…I just installed a bunch of red stuff on mine as well, my alignment comes at the end of the week…I haven’t experienced anything but nice yet. I’ve had my truck on the freeway once since I installed my parts…but no strange vibrations at all. I don’t know if this has anything to do with your issue, but your coil over looks to be adjusted all the way down, to me. IIRC, I believe I read somewhere not to adjust them all the way down, or the spring wouldn’t have enough preload on it to stay seated properly? I could be mistaken, I like bourbon…
Here’s a couple pics of mine about an hour ago…I’m sitting about 2.75 above stock, 24.25 and 24.50 measured from center of hub…

 

Let me know if you need better pictures- I was trying to beat the rain while taking them.



(Camera was zoomed out for the pic below so it could get everything- don’t mind the weird perception)

 

Nothing jumps out here. Your uppers are definitely not maxxed for a 2" level. I would definitely start with verifying the alignment at another shop. Everything about this alignment looks terrible. You did have terrible shaking at high speeds but you have to rule out the alignment. Since you never got the original alignment report, you can't even verify that the condition is something that wasn't always there after the initial install. If it still can't be aligned, I'd swap the uppers with the factory and see if you got a bad set.
Rule out what changed before you jump to something like frame damage.

 

Okay, I’ll start with getting a new alignment from someone else. Now I just gotta find a shop… Like I said before- the shaking started 2-3 weeks ago, and after this most recent alignment, it doesn’t seem to be there. I haven’t done a whole lot of HW driving, so I’ll have to test it out a little to make sure. Thanks for the input- I appreciate it. I’ll update the thread later.

 

Good luck. Keep us updated