Steering Wheel Alignment

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

dammitjim said:
...
Where exactly is the drag link?
Click to expand...

The tie rod is behind the axle, it's adjusted to change the toe. The drag link is on the front side of the axle, it's adjusted to center the steering wheel.
 
The way I did it tire run-out was not a problem, put the front end on jack stands put a piece of tape on both tires and put a mark, takes two people, rotate the tires to the rear, used the leaf spring as a reference (on 80 could use arms) , measure, rotate mark to the front measure again, should be 1/8" less,

Lx450 manual calls for:

0°12’ ± 12’ (0.2° ± 0.2°, 2 ± 2 mm, 0.08 ± 0.08 in.)
 
its a very easy procedure, the tie rod that goes from wheel to wheel is the adjustment u need.
 
RavenTai said:
The way I did it tire run-out was not a problem, put the front end on jack stands put a piece of tape on both tires and put a mark, takes two people, rotate the tires to the rear, used the leaf spring as a reference (on 80 could use arms) , measure, rotate mark to the front measure again, should be 1/8" less,

Lx450 manual calls for:

0°12’ ± 12’ (0.2° ± 0.2°, 2 ± 2 mm, 0.08 ± 0.08 in.)
Click to expand...

Using that method, I prefer a push pin/thumb tack, it gives you something to hook the measuring tape to. I now have a couple of pieces of 3' angle marked for the purpose and find that much easier. None of the, did we get the mark at the same tire rotation angle, spot each time, etc, repeatability issues, much easier to do by yourself, etc.
 
So, I finally bashed my truck hard enough last weekend to knock my steering wheel out of alignment. She drove home fine and plan to investigate tomorrow morning. Read through this thread just now and now the last part about doing your own alignment is make 0 sense to me even though you guys are saying it is very easy. Can anyone dummy this down any more?

FYI the drag link does not look bent underneath that would have affected my steering wheel?
 
Last edited:
Bluetribal said:
So, I finally bashed my truck hard enough last weekend to knock my steering wheel out of alignment. She drove home fine and plan to investigate tomorrow morning. Read through this thread just now and now the last part about doing your own alignment is make 0 sense to me even though you guys are saying it is very easy. Can anyone dummy this down any more?

FYI the drag link does not look bent underneath that would have affected my steering wheel?
Click to expand...

You could've twisted the splines on the steering box. To adjust to center loosen the bolts on the collars on each end of the link. I sprayed rust penetrant on both ends the day before. Use a pipe wrench to turn the rod.
 
Yeah, got the steering back aligned. Not sure why you guys say clockwise or counter clockwise since that depends on which side you are on. IMO you should call it toward you or away from you since most of us have the truck up on stands and we are on our backs in the driveway. So for me I had to pull the pipe wrench towards me to get my steering wheel to go back to the right because it was tilted to the left. So push the pipe wrench away from you to go right to left.

The part of this thread that confused me was the self alignment. So all I did was measure from the frame to the square edge of my tire tread so that both sides were 12" and everything eyeballed straight and that's when I started adjusting my drag link to straighten my steering wheel. Assuming my alignment is fine until someone can put this in terms I can understand.
 
What you did is fine. I think what people mean by self alignment is that the steering should self center. This doesn't mean the steering wheel centers itself. It means that when you let go of the steering wheel when driving the wheels should straighten out and the truck drive relatively straight. If that's the case then you can just drive straight (into your driveway if that's the case) and then park it. From that point you can straighten the steering wheel by turning the drag link. I put a piece of blue painters tape on my steering wheel at the very bottom so that after a started turning the drag link I could see which way it was moving. Dont forget to tighten the collars when you have it straight. The FSM indicates the correct positioning of the collars on the rod so that they do not interfere when turning.
 
Great, useful thread.... so many mechanics or tyre places won't even do a wheel alignment on a lifted cars with big tyres in Aus. Show's they only know how to use a machine, they don't understand the basics behind it.
 
Now im totally confused. My steering wheel is off center to the right. Do I adjust the front or rear link?
 
Front of axle.
 
So i finally got the relay rod ends installed and the steering wheel is still off center to the right. Which way do I turn the relay rod to move the steering wheel to the left to center it?
 
NLXTACY said:
To the right IIRC, and its small turns, like 1/4 turn at a time. Less is more.
Click to expand...

Thats my problem, to the right (clockwise) looking from the passenger side or the driver side?
 
NLXTACY said:
Sitting Indian-style staring at the bumper :flipoff2:

It helps if you have someone in the seat to tell you if its right or not :p

edit: turn it going up.
Click to expand...

Okay thanks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom