Front End Alignment Nightmare!
Front End Alignment Nightmare! I have been around the world and back going to different places including the dealer to get an alignment still not set right like I was trying to get it. Today I took it back to the last place because the service manager wanted to try to look at the alignment the tech did while he was on vacation. Anyway he ended up raising the caster on one side spent along time. He was using a cheater bar with the special tool to adjust the camber and caster because he was unable to turn it by hand. Then he broke his tool-stripped the threads.
Now he tells me the lower control arm bushing on the passenger side is not letting him adjust it at all. He could not even move it back to where it was when I brought it in. I have so much play in the steering wheel that ever little bump or crack in the road moves the steering wheel and can be felt. I have been told that the rack and pinion is the problem and it is popping as well. All this has happened since I had them align the front end. I got a second opinion on the rack and they say it is shot as well.
All this happened when I bought 2 new tires and starting having a slight shimmy in the steering wheel and spent 10 trips to 3 places having the wheels rebalanced.
Now my car rides rough and every bump seems to be greater than it was before all of this alignment junk. I don't know where to go or what to do but to start over with someone else.
Is it possible all this damage could have come during alignments. I am really got a mess. This is a nice car and has 78,000 highway babied miles on it. 99Z
Now he tells me the lower control arm bushing on the passenger side is not letting him adjust it at all. He could not even move it back to where it was when I brought it in. I have so much play in the steering wheel that ever little bump or crack in the road moves the steering wheel and can be felt. I have been told that the rack and pinion is the problem and it is popping as well. All this has happened since I had them align the front end. I got a second opinion on the rack and they say it is shot as well.
All this happened when I bought 2 new tires and starting having a slight shimmy in the steering wheel and spent 10 trips to 3 places having the wheels rebalanced.
Now my car rides rough and every bump seems to be greater than it was before all of this alignment junk. I don't know where to go or what to do but to start over with someone else.
Is it possible all this damage could have come during alignments. I am really got a mess. This is a nice car and has 78,000 highway babied miles on it. 99Z
You need to start troubleshooting. It's going to be a combination of several things.
Ball joints
Tie Rod ends
Tires - well balanced
Verify the ball joints in the control arms are good. Usually you will be able to tell because one side will look like it has more negative camber than the other side.
Tie Rods are going to be hard to describe...but play in the wheel is the most notable symptom.
Bushings should be simple - visually they are cracked or missing pieces.
Tires just make sure they are balanced.
Also what kind of tires do you run up front? Dont be so subjective, remember wide tires anything over 245 is really wide. These wide tires have a natural tendency to follow uneven roads no matter how good your alignment.
Good luck
Ball joints
Tie Rod ends
Tires - well balanced
Verify the ball joints in the control arms are good. Usually you will be able to tell because one side will look like it has more negative camber than the other side.
Tie Rods are going to be hard to describe...but play in the wheel is the most notable symptom.
Bushings should be simple - visually they are cracked or missing pieces.
Tires just make sure they are balanced.
Also what kind of tires do you run up front? Dont be so subjective, remember wide tires anything over 245 is really wide. These wide tires have a natural tendency to follow uneven roads no matter how good your alignment.
Good luck
I am running the same tires I have for the last 10 years. It drives bad now ever since I let all these people work on it. They checked the ball joints and say they are good. They said the lca bushing was good 2 days ago before the realignment.
Sorry you are too far away for me to correct all your problems. Can you not find some local f body drivers who can steer you to some shops who know how to correct your problems ?
Have you tried to page for f body drivers in your town?
I will see if I can find a local in Memphis who I met there several years ago while I was dynoing in your town, do not know if I can find him but if so he CAN help you.
will try to get back to you later, Johnny
Have you tried to page for f body drivers in your town?
I will see if I can find a local in Memphis who I met there several years ago while I was dynoing in your town, do not know if I can find him but if so he CAN help you.
will try to get back to you later, Johnny
We don't really have anything like that here. Nobody around here really cares about their stuff. I have tried some websites of some local clubs and have not found anyone yet. One shop I was recommended to told me if I was worried about my wheels getting scratched putting those adapters on the wheels that I needed to just go somewhere else.
Could anything now be damaged by him cranking down on that tool while working on the slots in the lower control arms for the adjustments? He used a cheater bar and broke the tool because it would not go any farther and he was trying to make it do so.
Trending Topics
good alignment techs are hard to come by now a days, make sure your tire pressure is set before the alignment , also the cross member moves aswell so if you need more caster that can be adjusted.
it does take a while on f bodies to do an alignment ( if its done right) , typically it takes me about 2, 1/2 hours to do mine, (old machine) its alot of setting, re reading the alignment setting again ect...
EDIT : If the rack is worn out, like worn outer tierods, or something internal , it would cause the shimmy you feel in the steering wheel.
LS1 Tech Stories
The Best V8 Stories One Small Block at Time
6 Common C5 Corvette Failures and What's Involved In Repairing Them
Pouria Savadkouei
Retro Modern Bandit Pontiac Trans AM Comes With Burt Reynolds' Autograph
Verdad Gallardo
Top 10 Greatest Cadillac V Series Performance Models Ever, Ranked
Pouria Savadkouei
Top 10 Most Powerful Chevy Trucks Ever Made!
Hennessey's New Supercharged Silverado ZR2 Has 700 HP
Verdad Gallardo
Coachbuilt N2A Anteros Is an LS2-Powered C6 Corvette In Italian Clothes
Verdad Gallardo
Awesome K5 Blazer Restomod Comes With C7 Corvette Power
Verdad Gallardo
10 Camaros You Should Never Buy
10 LS Engine Myths That Refuse to Die
Verdad Gallardo
i'm interested to know what those specs are now as well.
The car was lifted on the crossmemmber I believe. I was watching him and then the manager told me I could not stand out there with him. He had me bring it back to him and I ended up with a worse positive camber readings.
Camber +4 +5
Caster 4.5 both sides
Toe .01 0
I told him my rear tires would need to be adjusted to the correct pressure and he said he would adjust them but he did not. When I drove down the street one of the rear tires was 28lbs and the other was 15lbs and the one with 15lbs keeps going down so that is another problem now.
I have been to 4 shops in Memphis and I am still trying to get this fixed. I am going to another alignment shop this week to get the rack and pinion replaced and whatever else has got messed up. He doesn't have a printer to print off my alignment specs though. I want to get the camber back to +1 or +2 where I use to have it. I hope this shop will actually listen to me and not just do whatever they want to.
AS a side note my rear wheels got more pressed in on the lip from the stupid adjusters because he let someone esle put on the rear wheels after I told him and showed him the problem. He promised me he would take care of it and not let it happen again. I decided to put my painted wheels back on the car until they get finished with everything so my SLP Chrome ZR1's will get no more damage. The shop said it would not matter on the alignment becaue they are the same size.
Camber +4 +5
Caster 4.5 both sides
Toe .01 0
I told him my rear tires would need to be adjusted to the correct pressure and he said he would adjust them but he did not. When I drove down the street one of the rear tires was 28lbs and the other was 15lbs and the one with 15lbs keeps going down so that is another problem now.
I have been to 4 shops in Memphis and I am still trying to get this fixed. I am going to another alignment shop this week to get the rack and pinion replaced and whatever else has got messed up. He doesn't have a printer to print off my alignment specs though. I want to get the camber back to +1 or +2 where I use to have it. I hope this shop will actually listen to me and not just do whatever they want to.
AS a side note my rear wheels got more pressed in on the lip from the stupid adjusters because he let someone esle put on the rear wheels after I told him and showed him the problem. He promised me he would take care of it and not let it happen again. I decided to put my painted wheels back on the car until they get finished with everything so my SLP Chrome ZR1's will get no more damage. The shop said it would not matter on the alignment becaue they are the same size.
I told him my rear tires would need to be adjusted to the correct pressure and he said he would adjust them but he did not. When I drove down the street one of the rear tires was 28lbs and the other was 15lbs and the one with 15lbs keeps going down so that is another problem now.
I have been to 4 shops in Memphis and I am still trying to get this fixed. I am going to another alignment shop this week to get the rack and pinion replaced and whatever else has got messed up. He doesn't have a printer to print off my alignment specs though. I want to get the camber back to +1 or +2 where I use to have it. I hope this shop will actually listen to me and not just do whatever they want to.
AS a side note my rear wheels got more pressed in on the lip from the stupid adjusters because he let someone esle put on the rear wheels after I told him and showed him the problem. He promised me he would take care of it and not let it happen again. I decided to put my painted wheels back on the car until they get finished with everything so my SLP Chrome ZR1's will get no more damage. The shop said it would not matter on the alignment becaue they are the same size.
Last edited by spy2520; May 27, 2009 at 08:53 AM.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chevygirl
AS a side note my rear wheels got more pressed in on the lip from the stupid adjusters because he let someone esle put on the rear wheels after I told him and showed him the problem. He promised me he would take care of it and not let it happen again. I decided to put my painted wheels back on the car until they get finished with everything so my SLP Chrome ZR1's will get no more damage. The shop said it would not matter on the alignment becaue they are the same size.
I'm not exactly following you on that one. The lip of the tire is pushed in?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last edited by spy2520; Today at 08:53 AM..
I am with spy2520 on this question, I do not understand how this is possible
Johnny
Originally Posted by chevygirl
AS a side note my rear wheels got more pressed in on the lip from the stupid adjusters because he let someone esle put on the rear wheels after I told him and showed him the problem. He promised me he would take care of it and not let it happen again. I decided to put my painted wheels back on the car until they get finished with everything so my SLP Chrome ZR1's will get no more damage. The shop said it would not matter on the alignment becaue they are the same size.
I'm not exactly following you on that one. The lip of the tire is pushed in?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last edited by spy2520; Today at 08:53 AM..
I am with spy2520 on this question, I do not understand how this is possible
Johnny
They pushed the metal spades in so far into the tires that there was no space between the wheel lip and the metal spades where it has a curve to it. I watched them mess them up so I see exactly how it happened. You would not believe the things that have happened to me when I go somewhere. I already went to another alignment shop and they showed me there was play in the steering system. I am going to go ahead and replace the outer tie rod ends so it will all be new.
Generally, but not always, if a shop has spent the money on the top-shelf Hunter equipment, they should be a good shop. I just went to the Hunter Engineering website, where you can do a "locate" for a shop that has the Hunter road force balancer...an expensive piece of equipment.
I'm not familiar with your area, but a "zip code search" of the Memphis area showed zip code 38116. I punched that into Hunter's "locate a road force balancer" option, and 80 shops showed up within a 25 mile radius of that zip code. I would think if you followed that procedure, you should be able to find someone competent out of those 80 shops listed....
I'm not familiar with your area, but a "zip code search" of the Memphis area showed zip code 38116. I punched that into Hunter's "locate a road force balancer" option, and 80 shops showed up within a 25 mile radius of that zip code. I would think if you followed that procedure, you should be able to find someone competent out of those 80 shops listed....
They pushed the metal spades in so far into the tires that there was no space between the wheel lip and the metal spades where it has a curve to it. I watched them mess them up so I see exactly how it happened. You would not believe the things that have happened to me when I go somewhere. I already went to another alignment shop and they showed me there was play in the steering system. I am going to go ahead and replace the outer tie rod ends so it will all be new.
The lips of the wheels were bent in at 8 places. 4 for each spade and it was done twice. You could see it as soon as you pulled the adapters back. It is like taking a set of pliers on the lip when you keep pushing in on the lips. They were mint wheels before.
I have been to 3 shops that have the Hunter equipment. The last shop used the equipment bent the wheels with the adapters and also said they could not adjust my caster and camber to fix it from where they put it at.
Another dealer with the same equipment set my toe at positive 7 on one side and -.1 on the other side. If you don't know how to use the equipment right it doesn't do any good.
My car feels totally loose and the steering wheel is shimming especially on unlevel roads bumps etc. I had 3 shops tell me nothing is wrong.
Another dealer with the same equipment set my toe at positive 7 on one side and -.1 on the other side. If you don't know how to use the equipment right it doesn't do any good.
My car feels totally loose and the steering wheel is shimming especially on unlevel roads bumps etc. I had 3 shops tell me nothing is wrong.
They would of had to crank really really hard on the heads for them to bend the rims in. The heads usually only have plastic handle where you can only tighten so much. sounds like you have a nightmare of a time. It really isnt that difficult to align cars. Did the tie rods have play or was it the rack? Did you have any repairs done? how much? Can you break down the cost?