Aligning rear end? (1 Viewer)

[Ohthetrees]

Hi, I just took my LC into a shop that specializes in aligning higher end vehicles, sports cars, track cars, etc. I went there because the other local alignment shops (firestone, sears, etc) have horrendous ratings in my area. It was a little pricey, but they have a great reputation, and do things like load sand bags into the truck during the alignment to simulate your typical load.

My question is how did they manage to align the rear end? I thought the rear wasn't really adjustable? I do have aftermarket metaltech upper and lower control arms, I wonder if they adjusted those? Just curious, obviously I'm happy they did.

 

[abuck99]

Great question to ask your alignment shop since as a solid axle there is no camber or toe adjustment in the rear and I doubt very much they touched your MT link arms with out charging you( which would only change pinion angle and axle position forward or aft). The track bar would position axle left or right but nothing for camber or toe to adjust.

 

[jLB]

Great question to ask your alignment shop since as a solid axle there is no camber or toe adjustment in the rear and I doubt very much they touched your MT link arms with out charging you( which would only change pinion angle and axle position forward or aft). The track bar would position axle left or right but nothing for camber or toe to adjust.

True, but if I'm reading the "rear" numbers correctly, and believe the before/after, it looks like the solid axle was "squared up".

The "before" appears to show the whole rear axle was pointed slightly (-0.29*) to the left.

The "after" appears to show the rear axle nearly squared up (-0.01*).

The "toe" would appear to just be the results from squaring the axle.

Wouldn't shortening the driver side MT control arm(s) (or lengthening the passenger side MT control arm(s)) allow one to "square up" the rear axle?

 

[CBdeJ]

I have all my suspension work and alignments done at Tru-Line. Great bunch of guys and they do quite a bit of work on Land Cruisers from what I gather.

 

[abuck99]

Wouldn't shortening the driver side MT control arm(s) (or lengthening the passenger side MT control arm(s)) allow one to "square up" the rear axle?

To clarify my post- toe can be adjusted but there is no toe angle adjustment for the rear.

“Square up”= Thrust angle right? Yes in theory doing this would manually adjust the thrust angle- but I am still guessing the rear MT control arms werent touched and the thrust angle was more likely adjusted at the front end- which I beleive should have an impact the rear toe numbers (distance between front and rear wheel centerline).

If the OP has a chance to confirm how the arrived to the rear toe changes with the shop that did the alignment, that will clear the speculation up.

 

[white_lx]

It is difficult to determine what is square at the start, unless one would use the solid axle axis as a line of reference. One could have easily mentally rotated the vehicle in before-condition to get the rear axle straight. Note that the rear toe-in L and R are opposite.

Next you adjust the front wheel toe-in to line up with the rear wheels rears, and all of a sudden it looks like the rear is straight. Not sure if this makes sense?

 

[Ohthetrees]

I’ll see what they say.

 

[Ohthetrees]

Heard back:

The rear camber is corrected with the leveling out of the vehicle. The rear toe & thrust angles are adjusted by either positioning the rear suspension, or via the adjustable arms you installed in the back of the vehicle. I do not recall specifically with method was required on the back of your Land Cruiser. Good questions though! Thanks for reaching out.
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abuck99 said he’d be surprised if they adjusted the rear links. I wouldn’t. This is a shop that is known for high end work and “doing it right”. It was a pretty expensive alignment too. But as the reply shows, we don’t really know for sure.