Hello guys,

My question for you today is about front end alingment. My 04 truck has a certain affinity to drift to the right. In an attempt fix the problem, I had the wheels rotated and and my second consisted of swapping right to left. Neither helped. It is a slow drift which escalades rapidely if left unchecked. Driving at any speeds required me to bias the steering wheel to the left (which becomes a pain during long drives). If you take the 9 and 3 o'clock reference point, I have to constantly keep the wheel at 8:30/2:30 (I'm sure this is not too good, in the long run for the power steering???.

I am planning on bringing it back to the shop on friday and would love to be armed with as much info as possible or have ready to explore problem solving questions for them.

Thanks

Claude

 

The are many road factors that can be credited to a vehicle drifting. A drift to the right, as you are having, can be from the crown of the road that allows the water to run off of it. When it is safe to do so, drive on the wrong side of the road. See if it corrects the problem or causes it to pull the other direction and if this happens, your truck is probably fine. If it still pulls right, even on the opposite side of the road, you need an allignment.

 

Thanks for the reply. I did do the other lane test and still drift to the right. Have tried both sides of one of our newest highway and still no luck. Tried at different speeds and on a variety of roads in an attempts to eliminate the environmental factors, such as wind deflection etc... I have checked my tire pressure cold and warm and made sure they were equal (from side to side) and in accordance to factory specs. What else is there to do???

Claude

 

Could be sticky pins for the pads on the caliper of that side.
The stiction or light dragging could also do it.
Either way, the dealer can help you out.

 

A slight drift is also tuned into the alignment from the factory to allow the vehicle to drift right in case the driver falls asleep at the wheel.
I have been doing alignments for many years and your problem sounds like your alignment is got to much caster on the left side or not enough on the right, it depends on what the readings are to what needs to be changed.
A front pull always goes to the least amount of caster, so in your case the right is lower then the left. I always set my alignments one half degree higher on the right then the left. This usually cures the problem and allows the vehicle to track straight. There are some cases where more or less is needed. All vehicles are different.
I recommend finding a good front end shop and having it realigned, specify that you want the pull removed. I always test drive before alignment, but there are allot of folks that just look at the numbers.
Get a before and after printout of the alignment. All good machines have printers. If you can't seem to get it aligned right post the alignment results and that will help me determine where you problem is.
Hope this helps and good luck.

 

Just wanted to add 1 more thing to what hightech said.Most vehicles have range for specs. with a preferred setting, and some vehicles do not.Both sides could be in specs. i.e. range 2-6 degrees and you might have 5 on left and 3 on right.Some techs.don't even look at no.'s they just look at the machine and see the pretty colors.

 

Hey, I like pretty colors!!!!! .

Thanks Hightech for the informative session. I will make sure to ask for the before and after print out and will chat with them about the factor right biais. If by some chance I fall asleep, I don't think it will matter if my truck was sets with left or right biais because of the nice roads we have in south Louisiana. I am sure that even with a right biais the truck would track left, then right, etc...

I will post the specs (if they have the machine with the print out)

Claude

 

Guess what ladies,

I went to the dealership friday and most of the alingment problem was due to a loose steering column, which messed up with the steering box. The temporary fix was to tighten the bolts holding down the column and will be replacing the steering box next Tuesday. Hopefully I will be able to post the alingment numbers.

Nevertheless, the right sided pull was much much better and the truck drove like it just came from the factory.

The moral of the story: Alingment problem, look at the steering play you have. If excessive, get it checked before it messes the steering box.

Claude

 

I think there is some of these issues over in the SD section, good to know what it was

 

How bad was the pull Dr_Pain?
How much better is it now?

The best was of determining this is to get a nice piece of plat road with an even camber (around 2% is good), get on the left side of the lane (drivers wheel right on the line) and time how long it takes the passenger wheel to hit the right side of the lane (passenger wheel right on the line).
If it takes less than 25s for the vehicle to cross the lane, you have a wheel alignment problem.

 

On a new south Louisiana flat road, the truck would have been in the ditch in about 10 seconds. The opposite lane test results: I would have crossed to the right lane in about 15-20 seconds.

Since tightening the steering column, the time it would take to be in the ditch from the right lane is about 15 seconds or so. Does not sound like a major improvement but that in addition to getting rid of the steering wobble....what a difference!!!!. I just came back about 10 minutes ago from the shop where they will put it on the rack to give me a pre and post alingment print-out and will change the steering box..... More to come!!!

Claude

 

My new 04 drives perfectly straight but the steering wheel is cocked to the left a little. It was like when it had 13 miles on it. As for rotating your tires left to right. I wouldn't do that. I 've always been told that once a radial starts runnign in one high speed direction all the time (highway) that you don't want to flip it around and reverse its direction cause it won't steer right. Maybe just an old wives tale but I tried it once and sure enough it didn't steer right

Just my 2 cents

 

I have over the years have had Ford buy back 2 vehicles from me because of alignment problems 1 was a 1990 4wd F250 that when the front end would not pull then it would pull during braking—it always pulled even across the crown of the road. They had this vehicle about 4 months out of the 8 that I owned it. The replaced calipers, rotors and various front end parts even tinkered with the thrust angle before giving up on it.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>

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After discussing this problem with Ford engineering in Dallas as well as the GM folks because of a similar problem the “old wives tale” about the vehicle pulling to the right is just that an “old wives tale” ! If the vehicle is perfectly in alignment, it should drift ever so slightly with the crown of the road. Please know the facts before talking to the service folks!!<o></o>

 

Thats sounds like Ford, I have had to adjust the steering gears on both my F250 and on my Ex. Checking for play in the steering is always the first thing on a alignment. If you don't the alignment can't be done.
Good luck on the repair, hope it gets right. Or left I should say.