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Alignment Walkthough...

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BIGCHEVY4X

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I have an 89 blazer with a pro comp 2 1/2 lift and im trying to do an alignment. It drives straight and has no issues was kinda just doing it as a learning experince. I have access to a hunter machine and set it up and these are the results....

Camber L-.3 R -.3
Cross Camber 0
Caster L 7.0 R 8.0
Cross Caster -1.0
Toe L-.13 R -0.8
Total Toe -.21

Where would I start adjusting? Thanks
 
Usually start in the rear, however solid axle has no rear adjustment so :thumb:

The order you are suppose to go in these days is camber, caster, toe.


Your camber and caster look pretty good and they should be because with a solid front axle, to my knowledge there is no way to adjust them, your toe isnt bad but it would be better to have it equal side to side. the way it is now, it probably a very slight pull to the left.

Rear wheel drive vehicles you want the toe slightly negative, so i would adjust the drivers side to make it equal with the passengers.

Im not sure if the hunter machine you are using goes back far enough to have specs for your k5, but if it does that will give you what you should set toe to. If not i would make them equal and slightly negative (which means they are slightly pointing outwards away from the engine at the front of the tire) and call it good. Maybe someone else will chime in and have personal experience, ive never aligned one of these.
 
wage92 said:
Usually start in the rear, however solid axle has no rear adjustment so :thumb:

The order you are suppose to go in these days is camber, caster, toe.


Your camber and caster look pretty good and they should be because with a solid front axle, to my knowledge there is no way to adjust them, your toe isnt bad but it would be better to have it equal side to side. the way it is now, it probably a very slight pull to the left.

Rear wheel drive vehicles you want the toe slightly negative, so i would adjust the drivers side to make it equal with the passengers.

Im not sure if the hunter machine you are using goes back far enough to have specs for your k5, but if it does that will give you what you should set toe to. If not i would make them equal and slightly negative (which means they are slightly pointing outwards away from the engine at the front of the tire) and call it good. Maybe someone else will chime in and have personal experience, ive never aligned one of these.
Click to expand...

In my experience, it is usually best to set the toe at 0 and give it a try. If it wanders, toe it in 1/8" or so and that should take care of it. Toe out will make the truck wander lots.
 
I just got an alignment check on my 89 yesterday (after an axle swap). Here are the recommended settings for you:

Camber - Between 1* and 2*
Caster - Between 7.5* and 8.5*

Cross Camber - (-0.5*) and (0.5*)
Cross Caster - (-0.5*) and (0.5*)
Total Toe - 0.0* and 0.28*

I've been told to set your toe inward about 1/8" for stability.

You can adjust the caster and camber with an adjusting sleeve in your upper ball joint, but it's more of a combo type adjustment. And you change the pre-load pressure on the upper joint as well. However this is what I have on my truck.

Another method is a Camber adjusting ring that goes behind the spindle. I'm thinking this is a better way of doing it but it also doesn't address the Caster.
 
I have a question though on the toe.

I only have one adjusting sleeve on the tie rod (not on both ends with a lock nut)...... so how can I adjust the left and right separately? Or is that all I got?

My current left toe is at -0.88
My current right toe is at 1.27

I know it needs adjustment though......
 
So confused LOL

I don't get how you can have different side toe measurements. I also don't see how you get different caster from side to side. The different caster sounds like a balljoint/king pin issue to me.

Everything is adjustable. Caster comes from shimming the spring perches. Camber comes from the shims you put between the spindle and knuckle. I don't recommend the balljoint preload sleeve adjustment. (though I've never seen it to be honest) The plastic shim at the spindle is a solid and easy way to adjust camber. I have one on each side.

Setting the toe is simply moving the tires. If this affects steering, you need to go back and reset your draglink. I'm running ~3/16 toe in @ 48". Meaning....with the tires off the ground, I used two 4' levels, placed horizontally across the side of the tire. Measured @ the ends on the front, then the back, and adjusted my tierod accordingly.

I used the same setup for adjusting my camber. Jacked the truck up off the ground, put the level vertically across the tire and used a magnetic digital angle finder to see what each side was at. They were terribly positive. Did the math and figured out which spindle shims I needed. Pulled apart, put shim in, assembled, checked, done.

Caster was found using my crossover steering arm for reference. To be honest, I can't even remember what I set it at. I did the math and ordered my zerorates with a 4 or 5* (can't remember) cut in them. I've got proper caster and no shims :D

truck drives like a dream
 
K85:
The upper ball joint sleeve can be turned and basically moves the ball joint front to back.....and also left to right. But you only get a little bit in each direction. Add more in one direction you end up taking away in the perpendicular position. Yea, kinda confusing.....and the pre-load is also all over the place.

I have the tapered ball joint sleeve and I think I may end up going your route instead. I've seen some steel camber shims but not the plastic ones. Where did you get them?

Also, shimming the front axle tube is OK for Caster?
 
Here's how you do alignment on a 70's/80's GM truck:

1) Set toe
2) Adjust drag link
3) Drive

You can set toe by measuring the front and back of the tread with a tape measure. You want just a hair of toe in. Really, you are only adjusting the RH tire, but this will cause you to move the steering wheel a bit to track straight again. That's why you start with toe.

The draglink gets adjusted so that the steering wheel is centered when you're going straight. Usually some trial and error. However, if any major changes have been made (lift, drop pitman arm, crossover, etc.) you need to confirm that you get full travel from stop to stop before the box bottoms out. If you can't get this and straight steering, you may have to pull the wheel and recenter it when you're done. For minor changes (like new TRE or balljoints), you just tweak the drag link adjuster a bit and you're done.
 
BIGCHEVY4X said:
Camber L-.3 R -.3
Cross Camber 0
Caster L 7.0 R 8.0
Cross Caster -1.0
Toe L-.13 R -0.8
Total Toe -.21
Click to expand...
Camber is fine.
Caster is fine.
The machine is adding the toe numbers, so they are in opposite directions. The question is whether negative means toe-in or toe-out. I assume all the units are in degrees. If you have 0.21 degrees of toe-in, it's probably fine. No need to mess with anything.
 
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