Hey everyone,

I finally got around to lowering my truck this weekend. I used 4 inch drop blocks in the rear and had an alignment shop lower the front via T bars right before the alignment was done since I also got new tires. With that being said, my steering wheel is off center when driving. If I had to describe it, the wheel is no longer at 12 when the wheels are straight but rather 10. This wasn't the case until after the blocks were put on. Did I somehow throw off my steering wheel with that mod and is there a way to pull the wheel and reset it?

Thanks
1992 Toyota pickup base
17 in mustang cobra wheels
4 in blocks

 

that sounds like the shop doing the alignment made sure that only 4 of the 5 important wheels were in spec (driving wheels but not steering wheel). I have corrected that by adjusting my tie rods directly opposite from each other to get the steering wheel to be at a different rotation when travelling straight and true.

 

is the front end level?

 

Id take it back to the alignment shop and tell them the steering is off. Adding blocks to the rear suspension wouldn't mess with your steering or front end alignment. You paid for an alignment and that includes steering wheel like justin danger stated.

 

Are both rear tires centered in the fender? Sounds like you might be dog-walking.

 

What's dog walking mean? And from looking at it, both rear seem centered.

 

Level with the rear or level left and right? Either way, the truck looks level front to back but I'd have to measure when I get home left and right to say exactly.

 

Is that adjustment something I can do by myself or I have to go to a shop? The truck rides so much better with the tires and alignment. There is significantly less road noise as well. Seems to turn easier as well.

 

Level in front left and right. But if i were you id take it back and have them redo the alignment

 

Dog tracking, dog walking, crab walking is when somehow the rear axle is taken out of whack by a collision, bent leafs/frame/hangers and then it tracks crooked. I'm thinking this because you didn't do anything to the rest of the truck really so it seemed likely. I mean much more likely than a T-bar adjustment.

 

That actually happened to my buddy back in the day, the wheel wasnt centered in the wheel well. We took a hard look and realized one side of the axle wasnt on the centering pin on the blocks

 

This makes sense but at the same time I did the drop in the rear before I took it to the alignment shop, wouldn't the mechanic have seen if the rear was out of tolerance?

It should be noted that I took an angle grinder to the top part of the upper leaf spring where the male end since the blocks I bought had a much too small female side. I made it flush so that the block was not hovering above the leaf instead of sitting flat on it. I had already taken my truck a part so I didn't want to bother trying to return my blocks to find another set since my wife didn't want me to do it in the first place.

 

Well, something happened somewhere. Just for fun, measure from the leaf hanger to the block and/or the axle from left and right. We need to find the baseline if to your perception it's still visually centered in the fender. I mean shoot, maybe just take it back to the shop, would they have a warranty?

 

I just took a measuring tape to the wheels and they both checked out to be basically the same gaps on both sides of the wheel using the wheel well as a reference point. The guy while at his shop told me he could either make my wheel straight but the truck would lose some turning radius or keep it as is and have a crooked steering wheel with full turning ability.

 

You can take the steering wheel off and rotate it on the spline if the guy at the shop is correct.

 

That's my next move. But of course I stripped the screw at the bottom of the steering wheel trying to remove it. As far as removing it and putting it back on, is there any center notch or something that would prevent me from just making it go 12 o clock for me when the spline isn't?

 

Generally not that I know of. But in all fairness I haven't taken a toyota pickup's steering wheel off before.

 

Yeah. Well biggest issue is that stripped screw. But it's a 19mm and a whole bunch if wiggling/pulling to get the wheel off. What I've always done (if possible) is coast to a stop having gone perfectly straight, and strike a line on the shank with a sharpie so you have a clock-reference point, because I've NEVER got the wheel off without immediately forgetting where it was haha. Reset the wheel and you should be close.

 

You what? Are you saying the centering pin in the leaf spring was too large for the block so you ground the head off and installed the blocks?

 

Basically. But all is well. I ended up taking the steering wheel off and put it back on and now it matches the direction of the wheels. As far as the blocks I did grind the head off the top of the bottom leaf. Once I had it centered I snugged it down and it's been good ever since. I highly doubt my blocks had anything to do with my steering wheel but maybe the rear Axel moved a fraction (I measured and didn't see anything significant) and caused it to misalign. Either way I'm rolling straight now.