Offroad Trailblazers and Envoys

Alignment?

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by Opeth » Thu Oct 11, 2012 6:56 pm

Image

3" lift, flipped UCA's, factory springs.

I feel like this should be better. Firestone said they loosened the lower control arms but when I look at my truck head on, the tires look like the tops bow out slights.

Opinions? I tried to find Kyle's pic of his specs but no luck.
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by fishsticks » Thu Oct 11, 2012 7:29 pm

Opeth wrote:Image

3" lift, flipped UCA's, factory springs.

I feel like this should be better. Firestone said they loosened the lower control arms but when I look at my truck head on, the tires look like the tops bow out slights.

Opinions? I tried to find Kyle's pic of his specs but no luck.



Take it back. My truck is sitting in the driveway with NEGATIVE camber. There's plenty of adjustment there.
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by Opeth » Thu Oct 11, 2012 7:43 pm

Tell them to pull the lower control arms out more?
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by fishsticks » Thu Oct 11, 2012 10:20 pm

Opeth wrote:Tell them to pull the lower control arms out more?



Yep. All they did was adjust your toe.

When I take a rig in for alignment (cars mostly) I stand in the bay with the guy while he aligns it... I had one shop try to tell me they didn't allow that, and I asked for my keys back.
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by Opeth » Fri Oct 12, 2012 8:47 am

Image

Kicked the LCA's out as far possible, pulled the TRE's out about 1/2" each side ( still over an inch inside of threads, tech and I checked)

I thinks that's about as good as it can get. Went to another Firestone this morning, much more knowledgeable tech than before.
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by navigator » Fri Oct 12, 2012 9:27 am

I would call the previous Firestone and make sure they know that they need to look into that tech.
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by fishsticks » Fri Oct 12, 2012 4:03 pm

MUCH better.
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by Lauron » Sat Oct 13, 2012 12:09 am

How's it handle now?
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by Opeth » Sat Oct 13, 2012 3:06 am

Before I could feel the tires rolling up onto the edges when I turned due to the positive camber. Like I could really feel the lugs of the tires, that sensation is now nearly gone. It's very minor compared to before. My steering wheel is a hair off from 100% straight, nothing serious and can live with it till I rotate the tires and do another alignment in 4-5k miles. Since these 360's steering wheels won't lock up I'm not shocked about it being a hair off.

My caster is out of factory specs, but nice they are equal distance left and right from the rear drive shaft, or parallel to one another if you will ... I have zero bump steer, or if there is any I haven't felt it.

Highway speeds are something I am getting use to being much taller, I can feel the effect of being a little top heavy.
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by fishsticks » Sat Oct 13, 2012 4:18 am

Opeth wrote:Before I could feel the tires rolling up onto the edges when I turned due to the positive camber. Like I could really feel the lugs of the tires, that sensation is now nearly gone. It's very minor compared to before. My steering wheel is a hair off from 100% straight, nothing serious and can live with it till I rotate the tires and do another alignment in 4-5k miles. Since these 360's steering wheels won't lock up I'm not shocked about it being a hair off.

My caster is out of factory specs, but nice they are equal distance left and right from the rear drive shaft, or parallel to one another if you will ... I have zero bump steer, or if there is any I haven't felt it.

Highway speeds are something I am getting use to being much taller, I can feel the effect of being a little top heavy.



You can fix the steering wheel by adjusting each tie rod in relation to one another.

Ex: Half turn clockwise on the driver side and a half turn CCW on the passenger side.
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by sker13 » Sun Oct 14, 2012 3:08 am

Due to reverse threads on one side, you actually need to turn the (tie rods) same direction eqaul amounts on both sides, in order to toe one side in (pos) and the other out (neg). Thus moving both tires lft. or rt. as req. relative to a centered steering wheel.

Ex. From under the car looking out from center. Turning both sides CCW will result in moving both tires the same direction relative to the steering wheel.

Feel free to correct me if im wrong. It has been a while since I was under a alingment rack.
Last edited by sker13 on Sun Oct 14, 2012 3:24 am, edited 6 times in total.
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by Opeth » Sun Oct 14, 2012 3:21 am

I know I can fix it, but its something so minor I'm not going to worry about it. My vent control module on the other hand is probably my next fix before winter. No heat out of the front vents is going to suck come winter.
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