He's toxic.


You're toxic dude. You heard it from me.

​​​​​​​SmD

 

Actually, no, I'm not.

You asked what could make it tilt like that. It's hard to see from the pic if it's excessively castered or excessively toed. But the alignment's WWAAAYYY off.

For that, I HIGHLY recommend getting a pro to align it.

While aligning, the professional will find what's broken if anything. And call it to your attention.

At that point, you can try figuring out if you want to tackle it or not.

But TBH, I'd feel safer if, at this point in your journey, you had a pro do the work. Safer for you, and safer for me on the road with you.

RwP
​​​​​​​

 

Whatever you say to justify yourself. You still mock.

​​​​​​​SmD

 

Like it or not, he's telling the truth. If you want to tackle this yourself, get under the truck an start inspecting your front suspension. We can't do it for you. Your alignment is off for some reason or another. Whether you want to determine the cause yourself or pay someone to do it is a choice only you can make. If you want this forum to assist, you will need to remove the wheels an take pictures of everything and post them here so we can hopefully see what is going on to steer you in the right direction.

 

Dakohta,
It is a DIY repair assistance by other DYIers forum.
Your picture does not show much to go on.
What you call mocking is guys pointing out facts that come across as funny to other guys whom have made similarly silly mistakes. Its also to inform others your level of comprehension so they don't waste time telling you things you won't understand.

Use the search functions and read the posts that come up. get some idea of things so you understand the lingo.

If you are out west and have Les Schwab near you they do alignment for $70ish. I put in all new front end parts on my not a dakota truck and took it to them to align it.
If you are hard up and want to fix it yourself to save money you are simply going to have to read a lot, get dirty and maybe even wet at this time of year. You will also need the correct tools to include good jack and jack stands to prop the truck on.

 

*is amused*

Intelligence and competence is toxic to stupid and incompetent.

It's up to Dakohta to have me toxic, or not, to him.

!I! find that funny myself.

RwP

 

the problem comes in where the OP may not know what he is looking at, how to tell what is bad. I have been here long enough to know that Ralph DOES know.

I will add, DON'T cheap out on store brand parts. those $14 ball joints are only $14 for a REASON. Buy a name brand. It will be well worth it in the long run. Dana/Spicer, Moog (my#1 choice), TRW, etc. Even NAPA has a "cheap line" and a "good" line of parts. Front suspension and control, is nothing to fool with... it HAS to be right. Not "close enough". Your life may depend on it. and your insurance rates. They LOVE to jack up rates of someone who has been in a wreck...…
and yes, if you don't know what you are doing, at the very least find someone who does. Whether it's a buddy's driveway, or a regular repair shop. Don't be afraid to ask someone that knows, for help.
The problem being that pictures on a website may not be enough. I'd have to be there, jacking things up and shaking things down for myself, to see what you have (or don't) And you have to jack the suspension up a certain way, to properly check the ball joints and such// or you won't see any problems. Many don't know this.
That said, I am about to replace EVERYTHING on the front end of my '92. Its getting rattley and it has 220K on all of its original parts.I am doing this as a course of normal maintenance, if 1 ball joint is shot the others aren't far behind.

I scouted Ebay for most of what I needed, a piece at a time, (warning; some sellers on Ebay think their parts are worth more than the guy at the local parts house does, have to scout around here) and got a few pieces from Rock Auto.
Take a look, I got genuine MOOG outer tie rod ends (I think it was older stock) in Car Quest boxes for $5-something each. Car Quest got swallowed up by Advance, they aren't their own company no more, so a lot of old CQ stock got returned to the warehouses..... instead of reboxing everything in new packaging, they "dumped" it. When Car Quest was still Car Quest, MOOG made all of their front end parts. Not so much any more. You need to research the part numbers that you need, and search by those numbers. The ball joints fit lots more than just 87-96 Dakotas. They fit old Chryslers and Dodges back to the late '50's. 1/2 ton pickups til 93, full size vans til '03. so they are plentiful.
I got my ball joints for less than half of local, across the counter prices.
now if I had to replace my suspension parts "now" I'd have gotten my stuff local.