legacycentral bbs

Hi, today i went in align my car since installing a newer steering rack and u joint. the technician's notes said that "the rack was improperly installed and front toe was maxed out. cannot adjust to spec." the service adviser did say that it looked like the steering wheel was the wrong way (i have no idea what he meant by that"

i did do all the work myself and had no problems while installing. the steering wheel was waaay off to the right.

with this said i went ahead and drove the car home, the wheel was straight and the car drove fine. over looking the graph it really seems like they didn't adjust much up front.

before and after camber left: -0.5 right: -0.6 (no change)
before and after caster left: 1.6 right: 2.3 (no change)

before toe left: -0.30 right: -0.47 after toe left: -0.25 right: -0.24
before steer ahead: 0.08 after: 0.00

i went ahead and poked under the car to see the amount of thread left on each side of the steer rack arm. theirs no thread left on the left side (driver) and enough on the right. can i fix this myself by taking the control arms off the knuckles and turning the wheel more right and adjusting the outer arms???

You need to unbolt the "u-joint" that connects the steering column to the rack, center the rack, then center the wheel.

Once that is done align by eye and take it back to the shop

thanks for the help ciper, i see what i must do now. just to add to what you said once i center the wheel and center the rack i'll probably have to adjust the control arms right? picturing it in my head that the wheels will be pointing to the right after i correct everything with align of eye.

Exactly.