FJ60 Alignment info

[IS2SPICY4U]

Has anyone here done an alignment on their 60-series without the alignment equipment?

I replaced the tierod ends this weekend and the steering wheel is off by a quarter turn. I made measurement marks and counted the number of turns when I took off the old ends but still it seems that the alignment is off. I just want to know if this is something I can correct myself-at-home-DIY or if I need to take it in at the alignment shop.

 

[OSS]

The steering wheel can be not centered but the alignment be ok on these monsters. There's only one alignment adjustment normally accessible on the 60: Toe in.

Toe -In can be checked and adjusted at home. It requires measuring the distance between the back of the tires and then the front and comparing the two. With 31" tires, the distance between fronts of the tires should be from 0" to 0.25" less than the distance between the rearwards side of the tires. I prefer 1/8" toe in. It seems to track the best.

Centering the steering wheel is mostly cosmetic if the toe in is correct. You can do it either by realigning the the steering shaft one spline (usually) on the shaft inside the engine compartment, or by turning a relay rod under the truck. I never liked messing with the relay rod, so my tweaks were always on the steering shaft in the engine bay. You'll need to loosen the steering shaft u joint lock bolt to slide the shaft off the splines, then slide it back on when it's centered.

 

[IS2SPICY4U]

The steering wheel can be not centered but the alignment be ok on these monsters. There's only one alignment adjustment normally accessible on the 60: Toe in.

Toe -In can be checked and adjusted at home. It requires measuring the distance between the back of the tires and then the front and comparing the two. With 31" tires, the distance between fronts of the tires should be from 0" to 0.25" less than the distance between the rearwards side of the tires. I prefer 1/8" toe in. It seems to track the best.

Centering the steering wheel is mostly cosmetic if the toe in is correct. You can do it either by realigning the the steering shaft one spline (usually) on the shaft inside the engine compartment, or by turning a relay rod under the truck. I never liked messing with the relay rod, so my tweaks were always on the steering shaft in the engine bay. You'll need to loosen the steering shaft u joint lock bolt to slide the shaft off the splines, then slide it back on when it's centered.

Thank you. I'll give this a check.

 

[roadstr6]

Relay rod is easy. Point wheels straight ahead. Put key in ignition and turn to accessory position to unlock the column. Loosen the jam nuts on the relay rod and turn the rod with a pipe wrench. After a quarter turn, check your steering wheel to see if it is going back toward center or if it's going away. You may need to reverse the way you're turning the rod to get it going the right way. Turn the rod, check your wheel. When the wheel is straignt, lock down the jam nuts. It usually only takes a couple of turns either way to straighten the wheel.

 

[ravenplague]

I just did it this weekend. Just as stated above, it was pretty easy. I did spray penetrating fluid on the threads a few days prior as my rig is pretty rusty. They moved easily.
There is a forum in the FAQ's I believe that goes into detail about front toe.
I have 31's on my rig and noticed some outside wear. My toe in was about 1/4 inch difference from back to front so i adjusted it to a little less than 1/8th of an inch. So far so good. I spent more time double and triple checking the center of the tire and the distances than actually adjusting it!

I couldn't find the actual torque setting for the jam nuts so set them to 25 foot pounds per a suggestion on a 40's forum. Anyone know for sure?

 

[BaileyCatDaddy]

I’m not sure on the torque spec but you don’t have to measure the middle of the tire. You can just go to any part of the tire you can easily notice and measure from.

 

[Willard]

I couldn't find the actual torque setting for the jam nuts so set them to 25 foot pounds per a suggestion on a 40's forum. Anyone know for sure?

No Jam nuts for the 60, they are clamps
Page FA-4 in the 1984-1990 Chassis and Body FSM For Sale - 40, 50, 60, and 80 series FSM for a hell of a price.

 

[DFXR]

Has anyone here done an alignment on their 60-series without the alignment equipment?

I replaced the tierod ends this weekend and the steering wheel is off by a quarter turn. I made measurement marks and counted the number of turns when I took off the old ends but still it seems that the alignment is off. I just want to know if this is something I can correct myself-at-home-DIY or if I need to take it in at the alignment shop.

There is a pretty good diy alignment thread in the FAQs. If you read through it you'll find a couple different approaches to measuring toe-in. After replacing my tie rod ends I used the method where you remove the wheels and clamp flat bar or angle to the disks. Worked pretty well. This will make sense once you read through the thread.

I never have been able to get my steering wheel dead straight again, but looking back I'm not sure that it was straight when I got it...

 

[Willard]

After replacing my tie rod ends I used the method where you remove the wheels and clamp flat bar or angle to the disks. Worked pretty well. This will make sense once you read through the thread.

I have been doing this for years on multiple vehicles without ever having an issue. I find it more accurate than finding a common point on the tire.

 

[IS2SPICY4U]

Thank you. I'll give this a check.

So.. I tried this one today. Here I thought I was going to be way off based on how the steering wheel now looks like, but I guess I was only off by 5/16's

I used the FSM method: mark the middle of the rear of the front tires tire at the hub level and make a measurement from tire to tire. Move the car FWD until the mark is now on the front of the tires. Then measure again.

Mark at rear measured 59"7/16 and at front it measured 59"2/16.

I'll check the other methods described in here to compare.

 

[IS2SPICY4U]

I did the toe-in adjustment yesterday. I used a caliper this time to measure how much the tie rod ends are coming in/out of the tie rod. I got them pretty much equal distances. Tighten everything backup.
Drove it around the block a few times making sure of equal amounts of right/left turns. Seemed to do pretty well.

Drove in to work this AM and I noticed something was off. Although the steering felt pretty smooth compared to before, but still something felt different. Once I pulled into the parking garage where there is smooth concrete, I could hear a very slight tire rubbing noise. Once I parked I looked at the front of the truck and ever so slightly seemed like one side was a little off. I re-read this post in here:

Relay rod is easy. Point wheels straight ahead. Put key in ignition and turn to accessory position to unlock the column. Loosen the jam nuts on the relay rod and turn the rod with a pipe wrench. After a quarter turn, check your steering wheel to see if it is going back toward center or if it's going away. You may need to reverse the way you're turning the rod to get it going the right way. Turn the rod, check your wheel. When the wheel is straignt, lock down the jam nuts. It usually only takes a couple of turns either way to straighten the wheel.

And I noticed what I did wrong. I did not turn the key to ACC to release the steering. So when I turned the tierod to adjust, I was just probably adjusting on the tie rod ends posts that connect to the arm on the knuckles. And now one tire is off center.

So now I'll have to adjust again.

 

[rickyrockrat]

36274E manual says 27 Ft-lbs on the nuts for the clamps. That same manual says (assuming 28in tires) 1mm +/- 1mm on the front/back of the tires, for what it's worth. 1mm is a little bigger than 1/32. The procedure there says to mark (and measure) the center of the rear tread at spindle height (there is camber), then roll the truck forward until the rear marks are at the front, and measure the difference.

That doesn't seem like much toe-in, so maybe I'm just not reading it right:
mm (in.)
Inspection STD is 1 +/- 4 (0.04 +/-0.16)
Adjustment STD is 1 +/-1 (0.04 +/- 0.04)

 

[KWalkerM]

I literally centered my wheel today and did the driveway alignment less than a week ago on 37 inch swampers. I found that adjusting the relay rod to be much easier than pulling the steering rod between the box and wheel/firewall. They were brand new Tie Rods though so nothing was seized on.

For the future, measure each section of links from the center of the ball joint to center of the ball joints before removing. I found the zerk fitting holes with the zerks removed to be the best point of reference. Then write the length down.

When you reinstall, the new parts wont be exactly identical by counting threads due to small changes in the manufacturing process overtime. By measuing first you have a set number to mock up the new steering components and get you super close to the original alignment. After that its really easy to finalize the driveway alignment. Also, I do all this with the tires on the truck and tires chocked. That way if you mess up your measurements you can see roughly what the distance should be and things don't move that shouldn't.

For the draglink/relay rod I took a chisel and marked the power steering box and pitman arm in a line where the tires were dead center straight in case I screwed up on those measurements as well. You then have a backup mark if you screw up the measurement when putting the steering rod together. Measure like above, the measurements wont be as dead on since the ball joints arent in the same orientation at the drag-link/Y link and pitman arm.

Also dont forget to loosen the steering stabilizer when adjusting the relay rod. Once its all mocked in check the wheel and adjust as needed. Here is the end result of mine. I have a 1 ton kit but its pretty much the same just beefier.