LUVTruck.com

Bought some new tires from a major tire chain a few months back when I got my '75 LUV. Took it back in a week ago as there was a vibration that felt like tires were out of balance up front. The tire guys rolled a couple of big floor jacks up under the front, popped the wheels and rebalanced them. When I tried to drive the truck afterwards it was pulling HARD to the right. Before going to the tire shop I had set toe-in at home and lubed all the front fittings, tightened up the steering box and had it steering and driving very nicely.

So, they gave me the usual rash when I brought it back in, "Well there's nothing WE DID to cause the problem, and afterall it's an old truck etc." you know, like you might as well drive it off a cliff, and what the heck do you expect from that piece of junk, and don't try your rip-off scams on us.

Well, I got them to check alignment and it was all way off, so they re-aligned it, begrudgingly, for free. Now it's all over the road, pulls to both sides as it wants to and is downright dangerous even on dry pavement. I figure they tweaked a lower control arm or something when they lifted it with the floor jacks, and then used the wrong specs to align it back up.

Do any of you have the correct alignment specs for a '75 Chevy LUV? How about the correct jacking points from the Factory Service Manual that shows their error in improperly using floor jacks up front? I have the printout out from their alignment machine and can post the results if that will help. One other problem is that all those specs on printout are given in degrees, and not inches or mm's, so it's all undecipherable to me. I've never heard of degrees of toe-in/toe-out etc., you know, like compared to what?

I'm going to dog these guys right into the center of the earth on this one 'cause the whole attitude was all wrong and they imply that I'm a liar, thief and cheat. I'll gladly take them to court! Thanks for any help guys....

#11

Well right now I'm at school and can't post the info on the alignment specs. but I have a haynes at home that has the specs, the problem is that my comp. at home took a dump with all the syware/adware it had on it and when we took the firewall down the thing went nuts, so now i'm stuck to a slow laptop at home... yippee....

_________________
-Old ride-82 Luv diesel 5spd with some upgrades
-Past rides-82 Sierra, 78 Coupe De'Ville, 91 2dr Blazer, 86 RX7, 86 Porsche 944T (rear-ended and totaled)
-Curr. rides- 1970 Ford LTD 4dr, 390 4Bbl, 2nd owner! With a few Extras 00' Civic beater...

Understood! I just loaded a new anti-V and Security Suite and it's sucking the brains out of my processor. It would be quicker to send out a carrier pigeon. But, a buddy is sending me another computer in a couple of days, and a guy gave me yet another hotter motherboard and processor last night so there's hope.

Thanks!
#11

in order to do an accurate reating on the allignment you need an allignment machine! you can do toe with some accuracy but you cannot measure:
camber ( the angle of inward tilt between the top and bottom ball joints)

caster ( the angle of forward tilt between the top and bottom ball joints)

steering axis inclination ( which is directly related to steering components and upper' lower ball joint angles)

all this effects the drivability of the vehicle and will cause it to either drive its self or be undriveable!
I would suggest getting under the truck with a few jack stands under the frame. and inspecting for damage to components, wear to any joint or bushing and bent or broken rods, bars, and frame fasteners. be sure to physically shake all joints and the wheels to feel for play. a prybar is handy too!

_________________
Government... if you think the problems we create are bad just wait till you see our solutions

Yes, the tire shop put it on an alignment rack and checked all settings and changed some after that. I usually do my own toe-in adjustments on my trucks as it is simple to do with a tape measure and is accurate if done right.

There is a big ding on the lower control arm on driver's side, but the truck was pulling to the right, not the left, so It's not likely that this is the cause of that problem which was a result of tire balancing work. Since it has been aligned on an alignment rack it is now all over the road, pulls to either side depending on God knows what, and the steering wheel is still off center from normal. The truck steered just fine before I took it in to have tires rebalanced, and before it was jacked up from the front with 2 large floor jacks.

I was requesting factory alignment specs so that I can compare them to the printouts from tire shop alignment which are all given in degrees, including toe-in. I'm not bright enough to translate toe-in degrees to simple inches, like 1/8 inch toe-in etc. It drives like it has excessive toe-out and camber doesn't feel right. so I need specs to compare to printout.

#11

Which side the ding is on does not tell you which side it might pull to. It would be all about the geometry of things and what direction it got bent into. If it is a fresh scar I'd guess they screwed up the LCA with their floor jacks.

My first thought was that they might have jacked on the strut arms that go from the LCA to the frame in the front. If one of those was out of whack it would screw things up. You could loosen both nuts on both sides, then retorque them correctly and it should help even if the strut bar is bent. The length matters if it got bent, but not as much as how hard it is pulling on the LCA.

The longer this goes on the less likely it is that you will get them to fix it. Sounds like they buggered something with the floor jack in their hurry to fix things. Then when they did the alignment, they opened up a new can of worms. If you have worn front end components, having things a bit out of line could help mask that. The poor alignment keeps pressure on everything and pulls the slack out. Once lined up, all the slack is free to make it wander around like pushing a cow on a rope. My 79 did that after I finally got it lined up. Most of my slack was in the idler arm shaft bushing (or lack thereof) and that is a common wear point. Have someone wiggle the steering wheel back and forth while you get under the truck and feel for parts/joints that have slack in them. I'd bet the idler arm shaft will be wiggling back and forth, probably some slack in the tie rods too.

Right away you should get under there and scope out everything for fresh marks that would show where a floor jack might have hit something it shouldn't have. If you can get them to, have them repeat that jacking procedure and see what they jack up against. Like I said, the longer this goes on before you get them to admit guilt the harder it is getting to accomplish that.

Thanks 800XL, that's some very good advice!

I agree that the jacking procedure was the culprit but couldn't see any but the LCA dent for proof. Unfortunately the idler arm is very loose. I have a replacement for it, but don't want to put it in before the problem is taken care of. I'll bet you're spot on regarding the strut arms. The driver's side LCA is the one with the ding, but truck was pulling towards passenger side. Like you said, the side the ding is on isn't necessarily the side it will pull to. I'll check the strut arms tomorrow before I go in there.

I'm going back tomorrow to put a little squeeze on them. It helps that it's a small town and everybody knows everybody else, plus there's 3-4 tire stores in competition. This is a major chain I went to so that helps some too. I want them to try a little harder to fix it. Once I'm done with them, or if they authorize it first, I'll install the new idler I got. Thanks for tips.

#11