Nothing really, I've been super busy these days, and it is pretty hot out to be working.
I went for a drive the other day and the tires were squealing in sharp turns. In the parking lot at the grocery store I could've sworn that the camber looked visibly negative on that driver's side.

I also got some tire rub on the back of the fenderwells. I think the drop spindles moved the wheel position back a bit.

I've got Monday off this coming week, so I think I'll take it in to get a legit alignment.

 

So I took a closer look at the drop spindle I bought, but haven't installed yet, and comparing to your photos, there is a difference in the machining.

If you look at the picture of the top of my hub carrier, the ball joint mount is about 1/8" lower than in your hub carrier. I don't know if this is critical or not but the difference does make me go, "hmmmmmm"...

 

Hey Mr. D, I can totally see that. But it looks like both of my spindles left and right match eachother. What part number is your spindle?

After a short drive, I remeasured things, and was able to do a little better alignment.





I did end up removing a couple shims to ge the camber better.

 

It appears to be the same as yours; it has "2000" cast in the hub carrier.

 

Any better yet?

 

Just finished a spin 'round the neighborhood and it is waaay less squirrely. I think a lot of that is due to the Toe that I adjusted, and probably a bit of the camber. I am also missing a steering damper, which I may replace as the old one was pretty free moving.

I will still get an alignment tomorrow to get things just right. Then maybe I can trust the rig for a highway drive.

The one thing that really bugs me is that the extent of steering angle that I get is much more acute than in used to be. I used to be able to turn into my driveway easily, but I now have to do a double take to turn in. This isn't too bad for driving/cruising, but suuuucks for parking.

 

"Squirrely" steering tends to lean towards Toe-out and not enough Caster. For street driving I've found keeping the Toe closer to stock spec is best for smooth, relaxed driving. Street + spirited driving, I cut toe down to about half to start. For track I like to have zero toe, and Auto-X a zero to small amount of Toe-out.

Lowering our little trucks tends to put different than stock stresses on the steering gear. That Idler Arm has a lot of play in it allowing a lot of up and down motion of the Cross Link. The steering stabilizer/shock is a bandaide in a poorly engineered set-up, which is why most vehicles are moving to Rack and Pinion steering.

On that note; if you want to consider going to a Rack set-up go look at a guy here in Cali, StabFab, they've got a kit available for just that. Might find things you wish you had.

For now though, work on that alignment.

 

I have often looked at those stabfab upgrades. I may very well do that down the line, but for now I will work with what I have.

I seem to remember having a lot more steering angle with the old spindles. I don't know what the hang up is, but I am only getting about 21 degrees of rotation in either direction.

I am currently sittung at the shop while I get an alignment

 

Many people have talked about the toe in/out issues with drop spindles. Didnt realize there was more steering issues to follow

 

Well the mechanic at the shop said that they couldn't do an alignment. I asked why, and he proceeded to explain to me that in order to align it that some of the camber shims would have to be removed, and that is not something they do at that shop.

 

That's just.... weird.

They're camber shims. Adjusting camber is a part of an alignment. You insert or remove them as needed. I wonder how they adjust camber? Or maybe he's only worked on cars with struts; camber cannot be adjusted on strut suspensions....

 

HUH? An alignment shop that won't adjust Camber??

 

For the streering angle thing. I know some models have different length pittman and idler arms for power and manual steering.

Anybody know more about the Pickup steering? I've never paid that much attention to it in rlation to the pickup.

 

Never mind, no different part #s for power or manual steering. in the pittman arm.

 

Yep, a shop that does alignment but doesn't touch camber shims... a shame. I have an appointment at a Toyota dealership tomorrow morning. $150 bucks for an alignment, I'll take it.

The pitman arm was something I had to look up back when I did my power to manual swap. the weird thing is that the only thing that I changed, really, was the drop spindles.

 

You in the Ca bay area? Find a mom and pop/ mexican owned shop. My people will align your fckin lawn mower as long as you pay

 

Where they at? My mower pull to the right something fierce!

 

stock suspension or lowered? (-;


Dropped the truck off at the dealership, updates will come this afternoon.

 

Dealership wouldn't touch it because it was lowered. I called half a dozen other shops, and most of them would not work on a vehicle that required shims. One shop would, but they were a high end shop that wanted 500$. I only have time to take care of this because I was fired from my job last week, I ain't spending 500$ on an alignment.
I do have the chart from the first shop of how far things are off, guess I can use that as a baseline.

 

Wow. No wonder your truck feels squirrelly.

You need more and positive caster for the steering to self-center and toe in, not toe out....

Also: I'm disappointed but not surprised to hear the dealer refused to do your alignment. They rarely touch modified cars. I'm planning to install drop spindles and take it to a really good alignment shop (West End) that used to be a few miles away until they moved to a new location about 30miles away....