Alignment help

[Ron Sebastian]

Any experts here with input on this readout? Truck tracts straight and rides good, am I all set?

 

[idahovette]

Should be ok, but there isn't any caster measurements??

 

[AuroraGirl]

Should be ok, but there isn't any caster measurements??

good call, how much you wanna bet the guy who did the "alignment" has a ferret mustache and acne and also is the best alignment guy out there, he knows what hes talking about.
his station thing told him how to do a leaf sprung truck and the program either was dumb, he was to lazy set it up for a measurement, or he views it unimportant.

I wouldnt trust the data on it from adam anyway

I dont know very well off top of my head, but his camber being off, this could be ball joints, could be rust jacking on any of the interfaces that the hub and ultimately the wheel sit on. (spindle, knuckle, hub,rotor technically because its pressed..?) and wheel itself?
before getting a insert for ball joints to correct or a shim for the spindle or something, maybe it would be best to go over that if this isnt somethign the OP already has been over or would know what its like in there lol.

Because Im just not inclined to trust a shop that doesnt think caster is important or readable. lol

 

[Ron Sebastian]

Thanks, when I go back I'll ask about the caster. By the way I don't really trust this but they do seem to bend over backwards to make me happy. They spent hours balances the tires and I still don't think they did a good job. They did the ball joints replacement twice because of bad parts, no questions asked.

 

[Grit dog]

To be fair, it would be tough for caster to be “off” on a straight axle leaf spring truck unless the axle was shimmed for driveshaft angles on a big lifted truck. Or otherwise bent up or spring perches modified. And if it was excessively high or low it would be noticeable.
The rest of the numbers are fine/perfect. Just a dab of positive toe is right. And camber is perfect as well. 0 or 0.1 is insignificant.

 

[SquareRoot]

V=4wd=straight axle=no caster adjustment. Toe and go.

@AuroraGirl Would you to massage the ballpoints on my Dana 60?

 

[scrap--metal]

They did the ball joints replacement twice because of bad parts, no questions asked.

Are you confident that it was bad parts and not improper procedure? I know that replacing the ball joints on a 10 bolt calls for slightly goofy torque procedure. Lower ball joint nut gets torqued, adjusting sleeve for the upper ball joint gets torqued, upper ball joint nut gets torqued, then the lower ball joint gets torqued to the final spec.

A "know it all type" of guy WILL do it incorrectly because they won't bother torqueing the adjusting sleeve properly, or in sequence. A good friend of mine is the "know it all type", and he replaced ball joints several times in the several years he owned his truck. It was NOT the fault of the ball joints themselves.

 

[scrap--metal]

V=4wd=straight axle=no caster adjustment. Toe and go.

The axle could be shimmed relative to the leaf springs to change the caster, right?

I'm not sure why that would be done, and I've never heard of shimming a front axle (only rear axles for driveline angles), but I think it could be possible if someone wanted to do it.

 

[idahovette]

@SquareRoot ,A couple of different ways to adjust Camber and caster shims for the leaf springs. That was the old way....set the toe and let 'er go. NEVER was the right way to do it!! @Grit dog is right, the camber is good and it could use a bit more toe. You never know what the caster is unless it's printed out on the alignment results, but if it goes down the road good, the battle is just about over?

 

[SquareRoot]

@SquareRoot ,A couple of different ways to adjust Camber and caster shims for the leaf springs. That was the old way....set the toe and let 'er go. NEVER was the right way to do it!! @Grit dog is right, the camber is good and it could use a bit more toe. You never know what the caster is unless it's printed out on the alignment results, but if it goes down the road good, the battle is just about over?

The way my K20 rides, I'm lucky the tires touch the ground as much as they do. I'm too busy trying not to spill my "open container" let alone worrying about caster/camber. If it were a C20 it would be a different story. With the price of gas now it doesn't matter anyway.

 

[AuroraGirl]

To be fair, it would be tough for caster to be “off” on a straight axle leaf spring truck unless the axle was shimmed for driveshaft angles on a big lifted truck. Or otherwise bent up or spring perches modified. And if it was excessively high or low it would be noticeable.
The rest of the numbers are fine/perfect. Just a dab of positive toe is right. And camber is perfect as well. 0 or 0.1 is insignificant.

I think the camber spec is looking For it to be between 1 and 2 degrees while he has almost none on both sides.

I cant imagine why you want that unless its a tire wear thing especially on turning?

 

[idahovette]

GM had NO clue about that front end when they decided what the camber specs should be. When they first came out with that design, after a few thousand miles the outside of the front tires were GONE. The accepted spec in my world is anything between 1/2 degree positive(out at top) and 1/2 degree negative(in at top). Like @Grit dog said the camber reading that they "SAY" it has is great. We hoped for as much caster as we could get without resorting to a huge shim for the axle/leaf, just didn't want to create another problem with the front driveline angle. The 1 1/2 degree camber spec was way off the wall for the best tire wear.

 

[Grit dog]

To repeat, camber should be 0 or as close to zero as possible.
And it’s not adjustable on a solid axle without offset ball joints, which are used to correct excessive camber.
Acceptable wear limits or tolerance is, I agree, +/- 0.5 deg. Even at .5deg it may start eating tires.

 

[bucket]

Negative camber can be beneficial for handling characteristics on an IFS car, but certainly no use on a solid axle 4x4.

 

[idahovette]

Negative camber can be beneficial for handling characteristics on an IFS car, but certainly no use on a solid axle 4x4.

@bucket ....handling....really Andy?..we are talking 4wd here......lol.. There are shims for camber changes that go between the spindle and axle housing that I have used for YEARS and also different degrees of sleeves to use on the upper ball joint. The shims work very well, better than the sleeves IMO. Never seen offset ball joints for a K series?