Hi,
I lifted my truck 6 inches with a skyjacker suspension lift 2 years ago, but no-one seems to be able to set the caster camber correctly. I got this set of PRO COMP camber & caster correction bushings for my lifted 88 F250. I live overseas and no-one is familiar with these... I want to do it myself. Problem is my truck is correctly aligned according to the computer at the alignment place (obviously this is no longer correct for my new suspension but noone seems to understand that)
Problem is that when I corner or u turn, my driving wheel won't return by itself, it locks, and the outer tire (front left or right) drags and screeches. What would be the correct alignment setting for my truck and lift it's got?
How do I know what the correct degree aligntment would be? positive? negative? Clockwise? Counter clockwise?.... thanks

 

I think the basic alignment specs would not change much but having raised it 6 inches, the steering geometry ( between the steering box and the first tierod end) would be upset.
Did your kit include lowering the pitman arm?

 

My 6" kit was almost dead on with alignment.

The alignment shop should be able to set the toe.

Caster is the angle between the upper and lower balljoint.

Camber is the angle of the wheel...like it's common to look at the front of one of these lifted trucks and see the wheels tipped in or out like this..... / \ \ /.

There is a camber adjustment bushing in the top balljoints. You take the nut off and pry out that bushing and replace it with a different one when you find out what you need.

Caster is not very adjustable and shouldn't be out of wack anyway.


However, with the steering problem you described, I don't think that is just an alignment problem. You've got something else going on that ain't right.

 

Yeah my kit did include a lowering pitman, this one guy algned it right the las time and corrected the problem by playing with the eccentrics, however my chassis cracked right where the new lowering bracket is and after welding it I could not find this guy who did my alignment the last time and this new one couldn't do it.

 

I would agree with you Justin.

As long as the suspension arms are dropped where they join the cross member as well as out by the spindle, they geometry of the front end hasn't really changed. The steering parts of course are now further away from the axle, so the dropped pitman arm is necessary to fix this. Personally, I'd prefer to lower the steering box and the factory arm as well. Makes it easier to replace the pitman should it ever break - using stock parts.

Something else is wonky with the front end, that's been exhaggerated by the lift thus more noticable.

The dragging or screeching of the inner tire - what is it dragging on? Turn the wheels to the lock (both sides), and each time get out and check to see if the tire is rubbing on anything. If you upgraded your tire size to something larger (often the purpose of a lift kit such as yours...) you might be dragging the tires on the inner fender liners, the tie rods, or even the frame.

The steering wheel not centering is because the tires aren't toe'd out properly. If the tires are "true parallel" to each other (when the wheel is centered) you lose the self-centering "feature". If I'm not mistaken, the F-series should have a 1 degree tow-out per side.

Caster often changes with lift kits because the lift-kit makers seem to like to level the trucks off, so a 6" lift kit often has 6" of lift in the front and say, 4" of lift in the back. Since the "pitch" or "rake" of the truck changed, the caster would follow suit. This is less exhaggerated on longer vehicles, like my crewcab, and more exhaggerated on shorter vehicles, like a jeep.

If you've ever loaded your truck to the point where the rear bumper sagged to it's extremes (i.e. a bed of rocks, sand, etc), you would have felt what the caster being "way off" is like - since the truck would be leaning back instead of forward.

 

Well, the dragging and screeching occurs from contact to the ground, however the tires do have contact with the radius arms, (all time problem) even before upgrading to the 35's meats, but it's minimum and leaves a small mark on both radius arms with no other visible harm.