So, some of you may know I got in an accident with my nearest and dearest recently. I haven't been able to actually drive the truck, but I clearly have a monstrous alignment problem. My wheels are like this \....../ lol

I have looked under the truck, and I cannot see any bent parts, the tierods don't look like they have "jumped threads" and as near as I can tell, the cambolts didn't slip at all. I am wondering if the movement is in the joint of the inner tierod or if the rack itself has a component that could slip out and cause this toe-out problem. It's seriously about 1-2" out of toe.

let me know what you guys think, thanks a ton as always!

oh, PS.. I'm also on the lookout for stock bumper parts, if any of you custom bumper guys are interested in freeing up some garage space, I'd like to know I need the bumper cover, reinforcement plastic, bumper structure, and the crush brackets... pm if interested, thanks guys.

 

Have you jacked the front end up and turned the wheel left to right whole observing everything underneath?

 

My wild guess is a bent control arm. Is the camber visibly off at all?

 

Camber actually looked about normal. Both the camber and caster was always a bit out due to some modifications I made, the shop was never able to get it just right. But it didn't look much different. The toe is far out now though.

I will be doing upper arms, lower ball joints, tie rod ends, and I'm going to pull the sway bar off and check it for trueness. I think it may have been torqued quite a bit from the massively hard hit that drivers side took in the ditch.

Kent, when I had it jacked up, I didn't think to start it and rotate the wheel, though that should have been an obvious move lol. I will do that tomorrow and see if the rack is acting funny or if I can see anything at full lock left and right. I loaded onto and off of a flatbed just fine though, other than the blown rear tire. The steering wheel is way off center when going straight too. At least a few degrees more than it was.

It was fine in Salt Lake, but then the dolly ride to Missouri knocked the alignment out a bit, and this wreck made it all worse, rightfully so I guess lol.

 

Hey FrenicX,
I would have a good gander at the knuckle on the drivers side and compare it to the passenger side. A "massive hit" could have bent the arm that the Outer Tie Rod connects to.
Just a thought,
WvChamp

 

steering rack seems fragile. +1 on starting the truck and turning the wheel.

 

I'd find someone with a frame jig and check everything out!


If it took that big a hit, you may have junk for frame rails.

 

Upon further inspection, with plenty of light. It seems like my cambolts may have actually slipped. Specifically the front one on the drivers side. That side has been saturated in trans fluid from my used leaky 5.7 power steering reservoir, that could have made it easier than the others to slip. I really don't see anything else that screams "oh hey look, I'm broken"

The rack seems to work just fine, moves each side to the bump stop. But I don't trust these mevotech ball joints, I think they may have been damaged. The rubber boot has been off them for months already, I've been hoping to get time to replace them, the rubber dissolved in a week after installing the arms lol. Don't buy mevotech.

Also, the bracket for the sway bar on the drivers side has slipped about 3/16" upward.

So, well see. I'm at least getting the bumper and such done myself, i was thinking of throwing new lower arms at it again, then uppers and tie rods. But I may get everything checked for trueness before I spent money on the suspension.

By the way, does anyone have a part number for the quick struts, I can't seem to find them forsake anywhere anymore. Those come with springs right?

 

Ok, good news... upon even further investigation.. it appears that BOTH drivers side cam bolts have slipped. The wear marks from the rubber bushing as it touches the inside of the slot (chuckle) shows where the control arm WAS, and how far the cam bolts may have slipped.

If both cam bolts slipped as far as it looks like they did, that would cause my 'toe out' problem. It would also cause a bit of a camber problem too. Remember I said it looked like the camber was straight? Well, before this accident, I was noticing how much "negative camber" that side had, and knew I should get an adjustment some day, but now it looks straight so that also supports the slipped cam bolt theory

So I'm going to do all the suspension work, bumper work, and I will skip the small dent repair on the hood and door but the rear axle, bedside and fender will be handled by a shop.

This should save me some money, so I can treat the truck to some other mods to make up for how poorly I treated her lol

 

Good deal. I wonder if antisieze would help when reassembling those pia strut bushings.

What happened to the fuel mileage when you did the motor and gear swap btw?