Alignment and steering issues. Help!
 

Hey guys, I need a little help on this one because I'm stumped at the moment. A little while back, I did a ton of work on the front end of my 92 Dakota v-8 4x4. Upper ball joints, control arm bushings (that was fun), inner and outer tie rod ends on both sides, front shocks, etc. The previous owner did the lower ball joints and they're still good. I got the alignment pretty close, but not perfect and finally got fed up and bought a good camber gauge to straighten out the caster/camber on the wheels. The passenger side came out fine, but the drivers side of the truck has a really bad and noticeable negative camber. I pretty much maxed out the adjustment on the upper control arm and it's still a few degrees negative. I'm just wondering if there is another adjustment I missed, or if the tie rods can really throw the camber off that much? Or maybe if I screwed something up on the installation?? Also, it feels like the steering is binding up when going down the road like it's almost fighting against itself. And to top it all off, at one point or another during my most recent adjustments, the truck started pulling hard to the right again throwing the alignment off for a 3rd time. Normally I wouldn't mind too much, but it's all over the place in the snow and has become a real chore to keep the truck on the road. I don't have another daily driver and can't afford to take it to an actual shop with an alignment rack at the moment so I'm pretty much stuck back at square one now as far as the alignment goes. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

What are your camber and caster reading now.

I just double checked the camber again. The gauge is reading 1/2 degree positive on the passenger side and that looks pretty good. The driver side is reading about 1 degree negative but if you look at it from the front, the tire looks like it's leaning in like 5 or 6 degrees. It's chewed through about an 1/8 inch of tire tread in 2500 miles.

Are you using a hunter or snap on aligner? Because I would need to know the caster specs.

To me, it sounds like something's either bent or shifted. I'd try to lift it to have a close look and do some comparative measurements.

Thats why I need what the OP is using to check the alignment. The caster will also adjust the camber too. You can't do a correct alignment without looking at the caster sweep. And set the toe. If the Vehicle has been damage the OP should have inspected the suspension first.

I can check the caster measurements tonight. I had the P/S lines off last night to change out a bad pump and didn't want to get fluid everywhere. Not sure if that is a coincidence or it failed from being overworked with this steering problem but there was a ton of metal in the fluid and it didn't sound too healthy.

The caster measurements as it sits right now are 1 1/2 degrees positive on the driver side and 1/2 degree negative on the passenger side.

edit: might have forgotten to mention, the torsion bars are cranked and the rear is leveled off to match. Not sure if that matters or not.

I've never done an alignment myself (I know people with an alignment rack), but I would say that the height is likely the problem, due to the change in geometry. The factory manual repeatedly states that the ride height has to be set to factory specs before adjusting the alignment.


Since you evidently want more height, I'd try lowering the front a bit, and trying again.
Of course, make sure the height is exactly the same on both sides.

EDIT: You will likely also find that the binding issue is also due to the ride height. My neighbour had his torsion bars fully cranked on his dak for a day. He had put some bars from a v8 into his v6 and cranked them as high as it would go. (I'm not 100% sure if they are different strength, but he figured they were). He checked them when the truck was on stands, and tip of the upper control arm was hitting the steering knuckle on a turn, when the suspension was fully downwards. His were likely so tight, that it even on it's wheels, it was probably hitting a tiny bit.