Straight alignment still pulls to right, due to crown of road.

The alignment guy asked me if I wanted to keep them straight as per specs, or he could adjust the toe to overcome the pull from the crown of most roads. I said straight off, adolph.

now my arm is tired by the time I get to work (daily driver dodge 1500, but still applicable to mavs/comets).

Can I adjust this myself in the garage? If so, how much do I need to pull in the wheel(s) and which direction?

Or should I just take it back and let him overcome the crown with adjustment?

OR, was he full of crap, and knew it would pull because it is not correct, so take it somewhere else?

 

You don't compensate with toe. You compensate with caster.. I mentioned this in another thread somewhere and there was someone giving flack. Caster is not a wearing angle, it's a follower and can be a pusher if the weight is right. Anyway.. you want .5 more on the right caster than on the left to compensate.

 

Can you post the print out?

 

This guy's printer wouldn't work. So he had me come look at it and it was all pretty close to center and all within the green areas.

I have 6 months warranty so I can go back in and have it re-adjusted if I need to.

 

Every one is different. At the Pep Boys I worked at (one of them), they would not charge the customer if the printer or I did not provide a print out. I guess you could write it down, just for refrence. This way if it has moved you will know.

 

I usually ask for a printout so "I can see what I am paying for". This one was free. The previous guy sent it out with the caster WAY off, so being a Goodyear shop, anywhere that is a Gemini shop or most Goodyears, will fix or re-adjust it for free for 6 months.

Cannot beat that.

 

Sears nearly went belly up doing life time alignments lol.

 

Yeah, it is a lot of work for "free"

 

If the alignment is correct there should not be a "PULL" to the right. It should gradually drift right, you should be able to go 300 - 500 yards without having to correct. If a car comes off my alignment rack and the customer complains about a hard drift I normally use Camber to correct it due to the fact that most new cars do not have any way to correct for Caster. I just use from the stock setting about .1 Neg on the right side and .1 Pos on the left and normally it straightens it out. If your alignment specs are pretty close the stock you may have a tire pull. Try trading sides with the front tires to see if it pulls the other way or goes away. If so then you have a bad tire. Now Tires can either pull or push so if the pull changes then you need to move the tires one at a time to the rear to find out what one it is. If you have different size tires front and back you can not do this.
Do a little more checking to see if it is something other than the alignment causing your Pull.

 

If they did alignment correct, the "crown of road" isn't enough to wear your arm out, you will simply just drift to the side slowly.. .if you are constantly fighting it... then that's a problem either corrected via caster, or if caster is unable to adjust (some new models cannot) then you can adjust the camber bump positive on the left and neg on the right evenly (usually .1 on the machine according to instructor at the school)... but before you start messing with alignment, check tires... we had one with a new tire on one side, and a candidate for replacement badly on the other, was causing the new tire to "pull" to the yellow line meven with correct alignment... something worth considering?

 

Gahh fordmaster you got my post! Stupid phone calls

seems we have similar ideas, good to know my automotive tuition isn't going to waste!

 

I'm curious if the school(s) are teaching or showing students "other" tricks. Have they mentioned cradle adjustments? I stopped automotive a few years back. Back when I was doing it I would find "other" ways to achieve the #s and there are tricks you learn when it means pay or no pay lol. Anyway, just curious what they teach..
Scott's alignment issue is with a Dodge truck. He was going to install some alignment cams and I'm not sure if he did. I forgot about tire pull. A printout would tell a thousand words.

 

Yeah the printout really would... and i'm nut exactly sure about "cradle" adjustment? is that the actual term? I have heard of a Geometry Adjustment... where you start with toe, then move to camber and then caster... to start from the ground up... and i've also heard of some of the newer dodge vans using a camber "spacer"? Dunno... the alignment section was just briefly touched on... but the instructor i have, was a mechanic for 30+ years, and then retired to teach and pass along some of the finer points... fortunately for me he's especially familiar with old fords... since he has an ol' 55 ford panel truck and his daily driver, the 70 mustang fastback... haha i keep telling him i'm going to steal those window vents..... but all that aside, tire pull can definately play hell with you, and we had one a toyota tundra that they pulled into the bay at work that was pulling simply because some idiot replaced wheel studs and the new stud had a non-threaded gap too high, causign the tire to be mounted "wobbled" as my instructor called it... haha

 

DOH! cradle adjustment! you are talking about loosening the control arms, and using the alignment rack and a breaker bar or come-a-long to re-seat the control arm! i think? haha it's late... and i'm tired

 

No. I am referring to the cradle. There are cars out there that have the power plant mounted to a metal frame support that is then bolted to the unibody. Usually there are 4 major bolts and maybe a few other bolts that bolt controll arms and stuff to the body. These cradles can move if struck just right. Even tho there may be guide holes where dial rods would go, they may need to be loosened and positioned at or off those guides depending on the #s, wear pull etc...
Being that Scott has 20s, I'm curious if my impression of 20s is what I think it is (I think that's what I'm trying to say ). In my opinion 20s are rough on a vehicle as far as alignments. Kinda like wide tires on the front makes it harder to steer. Not saying that's the issue here, just curious of the differences between his 20s and my 17s. Based on my experience, I will keep my 17s. 20s look awsome, but to me they create other issues like making my walet stay skinnie