got alignment today

[992drjimmy]

Got alignment today since doing the lift springs and spindles and rear SOA. The shop immediately told me putting the ball joints under the upper control arm was unsafe. I see alot of people do this and ihave done it many times on 4x4 s10's. ANy way got the alignment. They also note the drivers side being an inch lower than the pass side. I knew this but dont know if it was like that before the lift. I only measured the drivers side before starting the lift. Anyone else have or notice this after lift?? I read about how the lowered guys correct it. Will that work for lifted too? Went to a knew alignment shop that id never used. The one i usually use tried ripping me off last time. Ihad my wife take the 4x4 last time after i had put all new ball joints on. They told her it needed lower ball joints both sides. Needless to say she called me and i went right to the shop and showed them they were new. They didnt really have an answer then. I took some where else then and never had aproblem.

[Blackie]

Quote: Originally Posted by 992drjimmy

Got alignment today since doing the lift springs and spindles and rear SOA. The shop immediately told me putting the ball joints under the upper control arm was unsafe. I see alot of people do this and ihave done it many times on 4x4 s10's. ANy way got the alignment. They also note the drivers side being an inch lower than the pass side. I knew this but dont know if it was like that before the lift. I only measured the drivers side before starting the lift. Anyone else have or notice this after lift?? I read about how the lowered guys correct it. Will that work for lifted too? Went to a knew alignment shop that id never used. The one i usually use tried ripping me off last time. Ihad my wife take the 4x4 last time after i had put all new ball joints on. They told her it needed lower ball joints both sides. Needless to say she called me and i went right to the shop and showed them they were new. They didnt really have an answer then. I took some where else then and never had aproblem.

Did they have a reason why it was unsafe? I call BS. I can only guess they say it is unsafe because if all 4 bolts were to break...the BJ would separate from the UCA.
The drivers side sits lower on s10's because the gas tank is mounted on the drivers side. Most people call it the "Chevy lean".

[992drjimmy]

They said that if i were too stop hard or somethinglikethat, that all 4 bolts would have the head sheard off and the Ball joint seperate from control arm. That lean sure is noticeable lifted. Really bugs me!!!

[Blackie]

Quote: Originally Posted by 992drjimmy

They said that if i were too stop hard or somethinglikethat, that all 4 bolts would have the head sheard off and the Ball joint seperate from control arm. That lean sure is noticeable lifted. Really bugs me!!!

WOW.....that was their reasononing!!! I guess anything is possible but if you "stopped to hard" and had the heads shear off of 4 grade 8 bolts.....you've got some pretty shitty luck

[low98]

either get the spacer for the lean (which i recommend) or you can do the trick "norcalss" showed the lowered guys how to do

[992drjimmy]

YEah he started out by coming back to me and saying, do you know your upper ball joints are in wrong.

[low98]

here's the url:

http://www.s10forum.com/forum/f12/he...sticky-351702/

[992drjimmy]

what are you refering to by spacer. You mean spring spacer. No way id try to get a springspacer in there, Had too hard time getting just the spring in.

[BillsDuster]

No reason the balljoint under the arm is unsafe, if ya keep up on maintance and don't lose the bolts the balljoint will break befor the bolts ever do. I know first hand, I replaced my balljoints on my 95 and got hit broad side not long after. The kids car grazed the front tire, the balljoint half pulled apart but the bolts didnt budge.

As far as the lean goes, almost every s10 leans as we all know. Gas tank and driver are on the same side. I had my sway bar off for a while and I couldn't take the lean so I put it back on and used the "sway bar trick" it level it out. Basicly shorten the sleave of the endlink on the high side (passenger side). The sway bar will force the truck to sit more level. Easy fix compared to installing the coil spacer.

[low98]

yes it's a coil spacer and back a couple of years ago mine was priced at $23

http://rover.ebay.com/ar/1/710-53481...4&toolid=10001 http://powerandplay.com/truck_access...ell_Tech_4930/

or you could just try that trick i posted a link to earlier...GL with whatever you do and good looking truck

[992drjimmy]

Goin to try the sway bar trick tomorrow. being lifted it is so noticeable. It really BUGS ME

[dimerunner88]

theres a guy on here that bagged his truck using AIM stuff and they had him put the balljoint under the control arm an after a couple months it broke, i don't remember what happened except now he has them in correctly.

[BillsDuster]

Quote: Originally Posted by dimerunner88

theres a guy on here that bagged his truck using AIM stuff and they had him put the balljoint under the control arm an after a couple months it broke, i don't remember what happened except now he has them in correctly.

Being bagged would be a different animal then our lifted trucks. I can see how a balljoint could break on a bagged ride as the joint is really going through its range of travel alot, aired out to aired up, up down, "hitting switches", ect.

[992drjimmy]

Ihave run them on the bottom side for years on4x4 s10 and never had aproblem.Will doing that sway bar trick tolevel thetruck mess with the wheel alignment.

[lee-mill]

Quote: Originally Posted by Blackie

Did they have a reason why it was unsafe? I call BS. I can only guess they say it is unsafe because if all 4 bolts were to break...the BJ would separate from the UCA.
The drivers side sits lower on s10's because the gas tank is mounted on the drivers side. Most people call it the "Chevy lean".

hmm thats weird, a lotta trucks/cars have the gas tank on the drivers side and they dont lean

[BillsDuster]

Quote: Originally Posted by 992drjimmy

Will doing that sway bar trick tolevel thetruck mess with the wheel alignment.

Not at all, all it will do is use the sway bar as leverage to pull down the high side. Technically it's putting the swaybar in a bind such as it would be when you take a corner hard. Ya won't notice the difference at all other then the truck will be closer to level.

Some of the lean could also be caused by the leaf springs. I'm sure they were drooped all the way out when you did the flip, there could be some binding in the shackle bushings. Maybe try jumping on the high side of the rear bumper, sounds retarted but it does help.

[992drjimmy]

SO ticked off. Last night i got a chance to check out the alignment id gotten thursday afternoon. Im looking at it and notice, dang that camber sure looks off just like it was when i took it in. Toe didnt look much better than my guess to drive it to the shop either. I get the receipt out and it has a note on it, lift kit installed adjust toe only and balljoints improperly installed. While i knew they tried telling me that balljoints were on wrong side of arm. I told them to align it any ways. Lead me to believe they had. I guess i should have checked it out before paying for it. Now ill be taking it back monday morning. I realy feel like they ripped me off $40 bucks. Im going to tell them either give me my money back or do it right. I cant believe this. One of the other shops in town always try to tell you that you need new ball joints now this shop does nothing and takes your money. So Pissed.

[992drjimmy]

With a 1.5 inch lift spring , is it that hard to adjust camber. I dont know how to adjust camber on the 2wd trucks.

[992drjimmy]

Went back to that shop today. They continued to argue that they could not adjust camber because the Ball joints are under the control arm and the the bolts will stretch and not allow camber to stay in spec. Ijust got a refund and have anappointment where i should have gone to beginwith.

[What?]

HA! They are retard and great way to lose customers.

What they don't realize is iif you put it on top or bottom, it still work the same, it still can stretch, it still can break. Difference is you are making the suspension work better altogether for alignment and balljoint than doing it stock way which means more issues.

[992drjimmy]

I dont know why, but this just really burns me up all weekend. I still feel totally screwed over, even though i got my money back. I wasted an hour of my time waiting for the alignment that they didnt do. What piss poor service.

[992drjimmy]

Got my alignment today done right at a better shop. He said its not perfect but dang near close and that was the best he could get it. Visually it looks perfect. HE said he had to take out all the shims that were in it.

[What?]

Sounds like you'll have to get offset shaft to provide extra camber so that when it's too much, you can add the shim to bring it back in. It happens and best solution to keep it aligned well.

[992drjimmy]

Tell me more about the adjusatble shaft and where to get it?

[Blackie]

You would need to make sure this is the right one for your truck but here it is:
http://store.summitracing.com/largei...=gls-702_w.jpg

[992drjimmy]

Truck drives sos nice now that its aligned. Front end has seemed to soften up already, Not so bouncy. Either that or im just used to it already. Realy think its softened up, but havent lost any height. Just wish i could find a job and get tires. Unemployment is getting tough.

[What?]

I use the from checkers, but any works and to reduce confusion, it's NOT adjustable, it gives you 2* positive camber so you can add shims to bring it toward negatie camber to straighten the tire.

If anything you can save $ while on unemployment rather than spend $.

[992drjimmy]

Actually its easier to want to spend. home all day with nothing much to do. Easy to get on-line and want to spend money. Although i can say ive done pretty well, hence the reason i dont have tires yet. Ive had the body lift laying around a couple years, bought it because id got it for only 20 bucks about 2 years ago, Wife got me the spindles on ebay after we sold some things we didnt use any more.

[992drjimmy]

One other thing, Since getting the alignment, The truck sits more level. I dont know how? but that doesnt make any sense to me.