My old alignment guy dissapeared so I took it to a Butler tire to get aligned like 6 months ago and it was kinda iffy. I have hardly driven the car since, but I know they will try to charge me again if I take it back. Guy doing aligment had a friggin cast on so I couldn't make him take it for a drive. It always seems to do this though and then gets a manual adjustment afterwards.

Steering wheel in center position is straight, but so is at about 20 degrees to the right. Any turn to the left will go left immediately after 0 degree but to turn right it has to go past 20 degrees to the right. Box is fairly new and tight, as are all tie rods bjs etc... I'm thinking I just need to pull the toe in on the right side a bit? Does this sound right (how much to start with)? ? Sorry I haven't messed with alignments too much. Car is lowered probably 3" and we went with -1 degree on the camber, I have the other readings in the car at home, but I'm pretty sure he was just getting it in the green on these. It does have an adjustable panhard bar, so I'm guessing this is from the thrust angle? However wheels are centered in the middle of the car?

 

these are excellent specs. i would find a shop that will align it with precision to whichever of these best fits you cars usage.

 

Sounds like the toe wasnt set with the dead spot in the center of the steering box "centered". You can have the wheels pointed straight and the wheel straight, but the steering box is preloaded to one side. I spent a lot of time messing around with my own alignment struggling with this until I got the hang of it. You just have to set the wheel straight and check to see that it's in the center of the dead zone at the same time. Since I was doing it with old school methods and tweaking it by hand in my driveway, I had a lot of other concerns during my process. For every toe adjustment I made I wrote down my measurements before, my measurements after, and had to re-check the straightness of the steering wheel and ensure it was in the center of the steering box's dead zone.

Here's a thread I wrote about it a while back.. not suggesting you do this but it may be informative to you.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...alignment.html

If nothing else, I would assume the toe and caster and camber are right on and accurate, so I would adjust the tie rod adjusters on each side in the same direction by some increment (write it down) and see how much closer that gets you. IE turn both sides a half turn and see if it "Centers" the steering wheel. As long as you move both sides the same amount and each wheel moves the same direction, the actual toe wont change. The only where it sets when "neutral".

Just be careful figuring out which way to turn each side. The tie rods are reverse threaded and opposite on each side of the car, and what you want to to do is turn each wheel slightly in the same direction by the same amount. You're going from different sides of the car and getting to the adjusters from different angles, and turning it "Counter clockwise" while looking down the adjuster from the spindle-side tie rod end will move both tires different directiosn. You want to toe one side in a little, and toe the other side out the same amount to change where "center" is. You want to turn them opposite directions by the same amount, basically. Just look at them and visualize how it works and how toe works and you'll see what i mean pretty quickly.

In fact, now that I think of it, since the alignment is already done, you actually can just put the car up on jackstands and adjust both sides the same amount. Toe one side in 1/4 turn, and toe the other side "out" 1/4 turn. Can you visualize what Im saying? As long as you can keep track of how far you are from where you started and keep the adjustments synchronized, you will maintain your alignment guy's settings, which are still valuable and useful to you. As long as you move both tires in the same direction, your toe is still fine and the worst you can do is get your wheel farther off center. If this happens, just do the same thing in the other direction and it will be more centered.

Or just find an alignment shop to do it. Your call.

 

Sorry for the late reply, I had a chance to read replies but not comment last weekend.

Infernal - YES!! That is what it seems like! I'll make some adjustments on both sides to straighten it out. Maybe pull the toe in just a touch since I think it is at 0, and that does not match what Plum posted. Thanks guys, great help! I've had trouble finding another shop to do good alignments, one most can't get the car on their rack, and two most places won't touch it cause it is lowered. I don't mind tweaking it though, so this is a great help.

 

Toe at zero is fine as long as it isnt darty on the highway at highway speeds. If you find it darts around a lot in that situation toe'ing it in a tad will help that.

 

It does a little bit. Just try like a 1/16th adjustment and see if that helps?

 

Yeah. That should be plenty. It doesnt take much. Darty can be caused by loose/worn steering components too, so keep that in mind.

I would wait until you can get the wheel centered how you like it before you toe them in, because once you do that you wont have nearly as easy of a reference to get back to the alignment guy's settings again.