80 Series steering wander (1 Viewer)

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Jul 5, 2020
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Location
California
I recently picked up my 80 series cruiser. I am new to the 80 series specifically and solid axle vehicles generally. After driving it some and new shocks, adding a rear sway bar (was missing when I bought it), new tires and a wheel alignment. I should preface by saying it has a 6 inch lift with 37 inch tires. The wheel alignment shop indicated a -3:3 and -4 caster. Toe was both around -0.9 before alignment. After alignment I was completely uncontrollable at highway speed. Bumps and curves are especially hard to control. I have caster correction plates coming, along with a steering stabilizer. I ended up having the alignment shop put the toe back to what it was. It’s at least somewhat controllable like that. It still wanders around on the road, at times abruptly heading towards the ditch. As I’m also completely ignorant of alignment terminology I’m hoping someone could help point me in the right direction. Thanks in advance!
 
Correct. Your caster is WAY outta whack. You have -3.5 caster and it should be +3.5, so you're a good seven degrees off.

With a 6" lift, I doubt caster plates will be sufficient. What kind did you order?

You should look into either lowering your rig down to 3-4" lift and get the appropriate plates for that lift, or better yet, get Delta VS front arms specific to your lift height. @Delta VS can help you sort though the right product for your rig. I think they have something that would work with your 6" lift.
 
It won’t help caster, but also check front wheel bearings for tightness. I have similar lift, tires, caster around 2.0 and even slightly loose wheel bearing load causes it to wander and wobble.
 
Keep in mind with that much lift, even if you get your caster correct, you will likely either need a special front driveline or do a 2wd conversion on the transfer case. Lifts over 3.5” tend to have front driveline vibrations due to misaligned driveline flanges. Both us and @sleeoffroad offer 6” radius arms appropriate for 6” lifts, and I would HIGHLY recommend pairing a set of arms with our 5” panhard lift bracket. You will notice drastic drivability difference with the bracket and that much lift.

Also, welcome to the wonderful world of 80 Series! :flipoff2:
 
Keep in mind with that much lift, even if you get your caster correct, you will likely either need a special front driveline or do a 2wd conversion on the transfer case. Lifts over 3.5” tend to have front driveline vibrations due to misaligned driveline flanges. Both us and @sleeoffroad offer 6” radius arms appropriate for 6” lifts, and I would HIGHLY recommend pairing a set of arms with our 5” panhard lift bracket. You will notice drastic drivability difference with the bracket and that much lift.

Also, welcome to the wonderful world of 80 Series! :flipoff2:
Thanks! Ya I ordered both from you guys this morning. I also plan on doing the part time transfer case mod in the next few months. Depends on when the H151F arrives. At any rate I will be doing some driveshaft modifications then as well. Thanks to all. I think I’m on the right track to solving this problem.
 
So as noted above this is my first coil sprung, live axle vehicle. I bought the pan hard lift and installed it yesterday. No improvement. I’ve checked wheel bearings for any play and found none. Delta radius arms tomorrow. With that said I took a pic of the front coil and attached it. I couldn’t get a great pic of the rear but trust me that they are all equally out of alignment. I’m assuming the radius arms are going to fix this and the rear upper links are adjustable but the lowers aren’t. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks again!

E966508F-2E06-4542-AA59-0D3A9B8DEEE5.jpeg
 
What's going on here? That does not look like a stock radius arm. More pictures of the front arms?

The delta radius arms should help the spring sit straighter in the bucket, but that's not your problem, the caster angle is. (Delta arms should fix that too :) )
 
No they aren’t stock arms. Not sure what brand they are. They are adjustable. I decided to just go with Delta instead of trying to make adjustments. Some mods that were done by the previous owner were not on par with what I would do, so anything like this I change and make it right/mine. Easier to understand how everything is working when you do the work your own way and understand why you’re doing it. I guess I could have screwed around with the adjustment of these but loved that the Delta arms are plug and play. Plus the delta arms are works of art. 😄
 

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