I have a few questions about the steering on my truck.

First off The steering links are 3/4X5/8 heims. The heimes are the expensive chromo ones.

When driving the truck on pavement It'll pull either to the passenger or driver. Depending on the road. If I hit a bump or something it'll pull strong to which ever side.

Visually looking at the tires it looks like they are towed in. Top of the tire is pointing inboard.

What do I adjust to get the alignment where it should be?

Almost forgot. The bump steer is fing crazy! Is this normal on a sas'd truck?

top of tire in means you have a camber problem. bump steer is a caster problem.

Ok, so what needs to be adjusted?

Post a picture from the front of what your steering looks like. If you're leaf sprung and there's any significant angle on the draglink you'll have bumpsteer. You want that as level as possible unless you also have a track bar. If you have a track bar, you want it parallel with that.

As for toe, you can check that with an extra set of hands and a tape measure. Measure a common point (tread centerline, or common outside shoulder) in front and in back on the tires as close to hub level as you can. The front should be toed in 1/8-1/4".

Finally got around to taking pictures. I need to know what needs to be changed/adjusted. Looks like my front passenger has a camber issues. How do I fix it?

The previous owner made the tie-rod link. I only have the ability to adjust the heims outboard. Right now both left and right heims are adjusted all the way inboard on the link.

Is there an adjustment for camber on those axles? On a Toyota axle, the tires leaning in like that would have to be bad wheel or trunnion bearings- there's no adjustment. Either the axle is straight or it isn't. I've never looked at Dana axles.

-Spike

As fare as I know it's a straight front axle from a 80-83 waggy.

I haven't be able to find anywhere I can adjust the camber on my axle. The axle has flat top knuckles from a Chevy I think.

If you get the toe right and look at it again, I bet the camber is fine. Camber changes when you turn the wheels from center due to the caster angle. It looks seriously toed out in the pic.

Did you use left and right hand thread hiems? That will make adjusting the toe and getting your steering wheel straight providing you left enough room to do so when you built the links.



Maybe this diagram can help you some.
Lator....

Camber and castor are a beyotch in the driveway. I've seen posts from Datz and Reddog about d44 alignment jigs but I don't see them in the How-to's.

quote:

Did you use left and right hand thread hiems?

On the Drag link Yes. The tie-rod was installed by the previous owner. I would assume they are reverse threaded hims installed. In the morning I'll check for markings.

Anyways the tie-rod link was measured to long. There is no room to adjust the heim inboard.

The camber and caster should already be set on a straight axle right? All I should have to do is set the tow?

yea dude, your seriously toed out by alot.... i would just put it up on some jack stands and use a measuring tape to get it close. you want about 1/16th to 1/8th inch toe in.

quote:

Originally posted by LordBiotree:

Anyways the tie-rod link was measured to long. There is no room to adjust the heim inboard.

you are going to have to cut it down to fix the problem... like i said in my previous post, you are toed out wayyyy too much.

Camber can be adjusted with special ball joint crowns (I think that is the name). Caster can be set when welding the leaf spring perches on or by cutting and rotating the knuckles to keep your driveshaft angles tollerable. I also think that you will have bump steer (at least a little bit) until you put a track bar in there so that the axle follows the same arc as the draglink. Your draglink looks pretty straight across, so I imagine most of your issues are coming from the toe.
Lator.....

Looks like your right springs are sagging a tad bit more than your driver side.