Tungsten Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 (edited) After one of my tension rod bushings failed and was repaired, the torsion bars were slightly cranked to compensate for sagging, and me changing out the entire steering linkage, my caster alignment seems to be just a bit off. After endlessly trying to get my shop to get the A-arm shims right, they just can't get it right. They say that it's not possible to get the correct shims to align the truck properly but I think they are full of you know what. I am probably going to try some other alignment place next. Anyway I came across this site for a rare car that was never in production and came across an interesting upper A-arm design. Instead of shimming the upper A-arm, they actually put adjusters on the rods that connect the ball joint to the frame. I thought this could be a very beneficial idea for anyone willing to make these for the Nissan trucks. Source: http://www.factoryfi...echassiscontent Edited June 10, 2012 by Tungsten Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nunya Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 http://www.nissanpat...adjustable +uca search, it is your friend edit: 'adjustable uca' as search criteria in the top left corner WITHOUT using custom search options turned it up on page 2 of results with the thread title of "Custom Adjustable UCA's?" 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tungsten Posted June 10, 2012 Author Share Posted June 10, 2012 (edited) well then oh well screw that apparently they can twist into pretzels with enough stress so they are better kept to smaller cars Edited June 10, 2012 by Tungsten Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamzan Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 Your shop is retarded then, it is a bit of a process to set the caster/camber properly, but not impossible. There are a few different thicknesses of the shims, according to the FSM, and I know for a fact they are still available. The place that did my old gray one when I lifted it got it right, and it took them about 4 hours but it drove straight and didn't wear the tires funny at all even with 33" tires and a 3" SL. Hell, I got tired of spending money on alignments so I just talked to mr510 and my1path, and learned to do it myself. You shim for the major adjustment, adjust the tbars to fine tune, and then set the toe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nunya Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 probably dont have long enough bolts for the needed space so they just don't want the liability of only having 2 threads holding the UCA on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tungsten Posted June 10, 2012 Author Share Posted June 10, 2012 Yeah they don't know how to use the damn machine properly. They set the toe pretty good but that's about it which makes sense considering they only mostly adjust McPherson crap anyway. The only alignment place around here that can actually get this right is like $200. Looks like I will have to align myself. Can you give me more details on how you measure these things? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmoore4512 Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 Adam said it best. I utilize grade 8 washers, and purchased longer bolts from boltdepot.com for a better price than any of the local guys could get them for. Generally I measure from outside to outside, have used middle of tire to middle of tire, and inside to inside as well. Just make sure that the truck is on a level surface and air pressure in tires is the same. Takes a little bit to get the hang of it, but its not so bad now. Best of luck bro. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tungsten Posted June 10, 2012 Author Share Posted June 10, 2012 I'm going to see how much the dealer wants to do the alignment first. If it's over $130, I'm going to try it myself. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmoore4512 Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 $130 for an alignment??!? HOLY MOTHER OF... Wow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KovemaN Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 After one of my tension rod bushings failed and was repaired This says it all to me. If the cup holding the bushing was gone or you rebuilt it, you may be pushing the bottom of the UCA forward too much or too little. When I first rebuilt my compression rod bushings I started with a fairly thick washer. After staring at it for a while I realized that it would throw the caster off pretty bad so I found some thinner washers and built new cups again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tungsten Posted June 12, 2012 Author Share Posted June 12, 2012 (edited) I think shimming the UCAs should be able to fix this stuff properly. I really don't want to go and rebuild that tension rod cup. Mine failed on the passenger side but that side seems to be good after the shop rebuilt the cup. The driver's side is the one that's out of caster/camber. Edited June 12, 2012 by Tungsten Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nefarious Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 (edited) It's really not that hard to rebuild those things, should only take a couple hours. It's just the big 24 mm nut holding the radius arm in that takes a bit of work to get off, the rest should be quite easy to get in and out...just make sure to have the vehicle on the ground and have a jack to lift on the lower control arm in a good spot to cycle the suspension a bit to get it to sit loose. I have had mine in and out a few times now, my bearing cups werent actually bad when i replaced my bushings with poly, but I am going to rebuild them anyways with really fat bearing cups to increase the caster since I have so much lift up front. Edited June 12, 2012 by Nefarious Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tungsten Posted June 12, 2012 Author Share Posted June 12, 2012 You should replace those lower control arm bushings in the process too. You will be glad you did! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nefarious Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 Yeah lower and upper control ARM Bushings and super fat bearing cups for the tension rods, Gunna aim for 7 to 8 degrees positive caster. Gunna weld some balljoint spacers to my ucas to get camber in spec and get some droop travel back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmoore4512 Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 During the time when I was doing my original UCA swap, T-bar crank lift, I had seriously considered fabbing brackets to lower the UCA mounts and then doing like the R50 guys and dropping the differential cage down to give it additional clearance. I drew it up, I need to look and see if I can find it. Basically it entailed welding a piece of square stock that was modified slightly to the bottom of the frame rail below where the factory UCA bolts would go. Then drilling and welding in some nuts on the newly lowered portion of steel... followed by using matching height steel to lower the differential cage, and finally modifying the radius arm mounts to match. The idea, (in theory) was that you would be able to run longer shocks (leaving the stock shock tower alone) all while keeping factory alignment specs because you would be lowering the whole setup rather than just cranking the T-bars. The only issue I came accross while messing with the idea was steering. Mainly because the spindle would be much lower than the factory height, but I believe that Tungsten's 2wd steering swap may have fixed that...utilizing customized (probably completely custom) longer adjustment sleeves. The idea stemmed from looking at a Trailmaster lifted D21 truck....then trying to find a kit, which was next to impossible... Sigh, I am rambling. Sorry for the thread jack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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