HD Alignment Tips

[hoot]

Just so everybody is aware. Had mine aligned yesterday but had to guide the fellow through it as he had never aligned an HD before.

First problem was he was having trouble locating my specs on his computer. Make sure your guy knows to use the proper year truck and not get confused with the K2500 Heavy Duty (C/K). My guy almost did and I said wait, that's not it. He proceeded to flip though more screens and Sierra 2500HD 4x4 showed up. Some mechanics might just use the K2500 Heavy Duty even if the year isn't correct. Watch out.

Next came the alignment. This guy is good at aligning but a little slow at figuring out new designs. Not that this one is cut and dry.

These trucks come from the factory with a plastic insert shaped like a half a circle. The insert has a small molded hole right in the middle of it. The adjustment mechanism consists of plates on both sides of the control arms that have circular slots in them. These slots are eccentric and rotate with the main control arm bolt. There is a pin spot welded to the control are that rides inside the slot. As you turn the control arm bolt, the slot rides the pin causing the control arm to move in and out to facilitate adjustment. This setup is in all four locations, two on each side.

It looks like the factory centers the pin in the slot and installs the plastic plug. The plug will not allow adjustment. It must be removed and discarded. My guy didn't see it and tried forcing the adjustment, subsequently breaking the pin off it's spotweld. Not a biggy. We were able to get the in back in and the front end aligned perfectly with my bars cranked 5 turns. Rides starigh as an arrow with no drift. I do always ask that they set my camber at zero degreees. This puts the tires exactly vertical and helps reduce outer edge cropping. Been doing that for years. Works great.

If I get a chance I'll take some close ups.

[Burner]

Hoot,

I must agree. The only difference is that mine will be -1 or so at the top. I have found out that "city driving or hard driving" will not affect the tires with negative camber.

Burner-------> :D

[cmtndmax]

Thanks Hoot for the good info. It is always good to know what going on. Alignment is voodoo to some. Had the best place in town (so i was told)said my Jeep was out of alignment and it needed offset bushing etc. because it was out of spec. Asked them what the readings were. What i was quoted over the phone was exactly the factory spec, that i was looking at in the factory manual. That was 23 years ago never had checked since. Never been back to to that business either.

[a64pilot]

Is it just me or does it seem that as long as you don't align the things you don't seem to have problems. I quit having cars or trucks aligned years ago unless I noticed uneven tire wear or pulling etc.
So far My record is about 250,000 miles on a 92 Dakota. No alignment ever, still has even tire wear. All original suspension componets, except shocks of course, all I do is grease it every oil change. 60,000 on My Dmax and 150,000 on a 93 Z28 with the same results.

[hoot]

With the GM trucks I have found the opposite is true. As soon as I get one I get the camber changed to zero. If not the outer tread gets choppy.

One thing left out here.
You have to rotate often for even wear. You get many more miles out of a set if you rotate. I like to rotate every 5- 10,000 miles.

Some guys say the rotate their tires every day ;)

[a64pilot]

Hoot,
I change the axle the tires rotate around ;) about every 10,000, odd oil changes for me and have very even tire wear. Maybe it's because I'm a 2wd and therefore run highway tread tires? I've got 60,000+ on the stock Goodyears so far so if I didn't have even wear I wouldn't have any tires left.
Any way the point of my post is that I used to have a vehicle aligned whenever the tires were replaced and it seemed that I was having a lot more alignment problems then than now. I now only have them aligned if there is uneven tire wear.
Long story short, in the preceeing 11 years I have not had a vehicle aligned because I've not had any uneven tire wear.
I fear that by bragging I may now have evoked the wrath of the tire god's and every vehicle I now own will immedately run for the ditch if I release the steering wheel :D
On edit,
Thanks for the tip on setting the castor to 0. Why would it not be set to 0 from the factory? Is it because of wheel offset?

[ 05-21-2003: Message edited by: a64pilot ]</p>

[hoot]

a64pilot,

That's a great testament to GM and it's front ends. I haven't had the same luck with the 4x4's which is all I've had.

Your alignment problem... after you get one aligned is probably due to a bad alignment. Sometimes it's really hard to find a good alignment mechanic.

You fly Apaches? Hear all the good news about the V-22?

[a64pilot]

Hoot,
I fly Apaches or trashies, depends on who you talk to.
V-22? They flying that thing again or still, which is it? I wouldn't want to be near it when it landed on the beach, Rotor wash must be horrific.

[AlanL]

I just turned 12000 miles on my D-max (after only 5 months of owning it).

I haven't rotated the tires yet, but can see that I need to. The front tires are wearing great, even with my *spirited* driving style. The rear tires, however, are worn quite a bit more. The D-Max torque seems to be taking its toll on the tread.

-Al

[JimWilson]

a64pilot;

He's setting the *camber* to 0, not the castor. Big difference.

If you were to bend down and look at your truck from the front negative camber would look like this: / \

positive like this: \ /

and "perfect" camber (0 degrees) like this: | |

[ 05-22-2003: Message edited by: JimWilson ]</p>

[a64pilot]

Jim,
I had a brain fart, I do understand the difference. 0 caster would make for some pretty touchy steering wouldn't it. :eek:

[hoot]

a64,

Hit this site and read the news....
http://pma275.navair.navy.mil/

You may not like the downwash but you sure will be happy seeing it coming at you doing 350 knots in airplane mode and picking you up after you get knocked down.

Believe it or not, they really have that thing together now. The last big crash was the pilot exceeding rapid rate of decent limits by a long shot. It went into VRS as it came into ground effect. They also found that if they tilt the rotors slightly (15deg), VRS disappears.

The pilots love flying them from what I've heard. They claim acceleration when converting to airplane mode is phenominal.

[MaxACL]

Hoot,

Did you have to pay $65 to have the little plug removed? The GM dealer in El Paso charged $65 for the alignment and $65 for removing the "knockouts". Should I have been kissed?

Mike

[Inspector]

My 93 k3500 dooley has never been aligned in 123000 miles and the tire wear is perfect. It has been greased every other oil change and the idler and pitman arm was replaced at about 92000 miles. Other than that no problems.
Denny

[a64pilot]

Hoot,
I'm sure they will or maybe already have fixed it. Just as I'm sure that it really boils down to a money issue. "How much safety are you willing to pay for?"
BTW, what is VRS? Sounds like it got into what in the helicopter world is called settling with power. you descend at a high enough angle and velocity you run into the risk of recirculating your lift vorticies through your rotor and get a phenomially high rate of descent.

[JimWilson]

MaxACL;

If you mean should you have been kissed before you got f#cked, then the answer is Yes; $65 for 5-10 minutes of work is absurd!

[hoot]

a64,

Yes, Vortex Ring State (VRS). You are correct about safety and how much you are willing to pay for it.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=8112597&BRD=1675&PAG=461&dept_id=18177&rfi=6

MaxACL;

Jim's right. You got taken. They pop out with a screwdriver.

The older ones (88-98) cost close to $200 to have removed cause you had to disassemble the control arms.