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Swaps done, but do the tires seem straight?

NEK5

NEK5

3/4 ton status
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Location
Ipswich MA
On the ride to my meet and greet yesterday after I finished bleeding my brakes, my buddy that was driving behind me mentioned that it looked like my front tire was point out (positive camber?). I`ve taken some pictures but I`m not sure if they`ll show the issue.

Is there anyway I can check this out, or am I going to have to take it to an alignment shop. My steering wheel is off center, so I will need to go to an alignment shop anyways.

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Picture017-1.jpg
 
merace19 said:
What is that stuff on the passenger side? Its about grill high.........................
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If you`re wondering whats hanging down, its my ebrake cable setup that is about half way removed. I stopped halfway through the removal of it, and took these pics:o:D
 
BIGBLAZE433 said:
If you`re wondering whats hanging down, its my ebrake cable setup that is about half way removed. I stopped halfway through the removal of it, and took these pics:o:D
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No I can care less about that. Its that white stuff next to the house. Joke of mine. Its 70 degrees here.:D
 
put a piece of straight metal or wood on the outside of each tire then measure from inside to inside....that should tell you something...
 
twoslo4five0 said:
put a piece of straight metal or wood on the outside of each tire then measure from inside to inside....that should tell you something...
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So just place to pieces of wood vertically up against each tire, and measure inbetween them? What will that tell me? Or am I misinterpreting you?
 
yes take the tires off, (jack it up obviosuly) then clamp sheetmetal across the rotors, measure the inside and outside that will tell you how off you are
 
It only looks as though the front right tire is tilted out a little bit at the top, so will that still help me?
 
why go to an alignment shop to get your steering wheel fixed? adjust your draglink. or i'm pretty sure you can pull your steering whel and recenter it?
 
YZEATER said:
why go to an alignment shop to get your steering wheel fixed? adjust your draglink. or i'm pretty sure you can pull your steering whel and recenter it?
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Don't pull the steering wheel, it's indexed to a small mark on the end of the shaft. That coincides with the center of travel on your steering box, and it's best to keep that all lined up properly. I learned this the hard way and got everything all screwed up once. Adjusting the draglink is right though, that's exactly what it's for. You're right, there's definitely no need for a shop to fix an out of center steering wheel.
 
twoslo4five0 said:
are your ball joints good??
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I haven`t checked yet, but the PO of these axles said the front was "new", so I would sure hope so. Are the spindles off a 6 lug 10b interchangeable?

YZEATER said:
why go to an alignment shop to get your steering wheel fixed? adjust your draglink. or i'm pretty sure you can pull your steering whel and recenter it?
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I keep hearing this, I`ll have to look into it. I was more wondering about my pass. side tire, but looks like I`ve narrowed it down to worn ball joints, or bent axle tube.

I`ll look into it more, and post back.....
 
I tried to check the ball joints, by jacking it up, putting a bar underneath and lifting up to see for movement, but I couldnt really tell, because the bar went it to the tire itself, instead of actually lifting it up. Is there anything else I can do to confirm there is infact a camber issue? I`m not sure I understand what you described habitat and twoslo...
 
They are talking about checking toe-in. So if you were looking down from above your truck the tires would look like this \------/, only not that exagerated. I don't know what the spec's are for your axle, but you want the fronts pointed in a little.

I've checked this by putting a piece of tape on the front of each tire and drawing a cross with a marker on each piece. With the front axle on jackstands, measure to the center of the hubs. Now go back to your pieces of tape and put the horizontal of the cross at the same height as the center of the hubs. Now measure the distance between the vertical lines between the two tires.

Now rotate the tires to put the tape on the back of the tires. Measure the same center of hub height to the horizontal line. Now check the distance between the vertical lines again. The distance at the back of the tires should be larger. Not by much IIRC, like around 1/4".

This isn't the technically correct method of checking toe-in, but it'll give a good idea about if it's correct or even close. I've actually set mine this way and it seems to work just fine, but like I said it's not the most ideal method but it's the easiest IMO.

In order to get the steering wheel straight again, just adjust the length of your draglink. It's that simple. Most likely it's off because of additional suspension lift and you need to adjust the draglink anyways.
 
I think what they're saying is to get a tape measure and find out the distance between the front and back halves of the tires to find out if you have enough toe-in. Just pick a spot on the inside of the tire about the same height as the hub and measure the frontmost and the backmost distances. The front dimension should be smaller than the back by ~1/8-1/4".
 
In re-reading the thread maybe it's the top and bottom of the tires you're concerned about being pointed in/out. Not the front and back like I was talking about. Not sure how to check that or adjust it for that matter.

Unfortunately you never know how competent the PO might have been. You could always check to make sure the balljoint nuts are all tight.

Does it track well driving down the street. If things were very far off, you'd know. The only other thing is to watch tire wear.
 
bp71k5 said:
I think what they're saying is to get a tape measure and find out the distance between the front and back halves of the tires to find out if you have enough toe-in. Just pick a spot on the inside of the tire about the same height as the hub and measure the frontmost and the backmost distances. The front dimension should be smaller than the back by ~1/8-1/4".
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:haha: We must have been typing at the same time. Well at least we interpretted things the same way. :D
 
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