Negative camber only in reverse?

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

OP
OP
Colby_e32

Colby_e32

Full Access Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2016
Posts
127
Reaction score
45
You can see the wheel roll in and out, that is for sure. To get that much movement, there either has to be something that is not tight or something not seated properly. Have you checked your toe angles? If the front is toed in, it will want to pull the bottom of your wheels in going forward and pull the bottom of your wheels out going backward.

Personally, I'm not sure I would spend much more time trying to diagnose it as you should get it aligned again no matter what. I know you think that the only "change" is your keys, the fact is you replaced quite a few components up there and it needs to be re-aligned properly.

Absolutely. It’s going to the alignment shop this week. However I wanted to make sure there was no major problem before doing so. I do all my work myself other than alignments as I don’t have an alignment rack.

im certain the toe is off, but camber and caster are within specs according to my gauges. I guess we shall see.

I was mainly concerned and wondering if I have the torsion keys indexed wrong or something. I marked the torsion bar on the control arm before removing it, made sure it was back in the same position upon reinstallation,

but I was not able to Mark the key itself as there’s no room for a paint marker inside the crossmember.
 

wjburken

Supporting Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2017
Posts
9,708
Reaction score
26,298
Location
Eastern Iowa
Absolutely. It’s going to the alignment shop this week. However I wanted to make sure there was no major problem before doing so. I do all my work myself other than alignments as I don’t have an alignment rack.

im certain the toe is off, but camber and caster are within specs according to my gauges. I guess we shall see.

I was mainly concerned and wondering if I have the torsion keys indexed wrong or something. I marked the torsion bar on the control arm before removing it, made sure it was back in the same position upon reinstallation,

but I was not able to Mark the key itself as there’s no room for a paint marker inside the crossmember.
I don't think changing your keys would cause what you are seeing assuming you were able to get reasonably close to where you have them cranked before. The toe angle being out would be my first suspicion.

Measuring caster and camber in a drive way or in a garage can be challenging unless you can zero out your gauges to accommodate any slope there may be in the concrete. It will allow you to get close, but as you said, without an alignment rack, that's all you can get.
 
OP
OP
Colby_e32

Colby_e32

Full Access Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2016
Posts
127
Reaction score
45
I don't think changing your keys would cause what you are seeing assuming you were able to get reasonably close to where you have them cranked before. The toe angle being out would be my first suspicion.

Measuring caster and camber in a drive way or in a garage can be challenging unless you can zero out your gauges to accommodate any slope there may be in the concrete. It will allow you to get close, but as you said, without an alignment rack, that's all you can get.

one big thing I forgot to mention, the front ride height decreases about 1” in reverse as well.
Maybe the toe is so far in, the wheels are being dragged while in reverse
 

exp500

Full Access Member
Joined
May 14, 2017
Posts
1,781
Reaction score
1,609
Definately some severe movement! Don't drive it!
Put it where you can work, back up a foot till it moves. Inspect there. If it changes when you jack it, start over and crawl under with sharpie and put a reference mark on everything, Bushinggs, keys, Cams. Jack again and inspect. Its like you are missing control arm bushings.
 

select127

Supporting Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2012
Posts
312
Reaction score
67
Location
Florida
Both my lowered tahoe and yukon always did that, back up and you get neg camber. Pull forward and it straightens out. Left it alone and never had any issues.
 
OP
OP
Colby_e32

Colby_e32

Full Access Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2016
Posts
127
Reaction score
45
Both my lowered tahoe and yukon always did that, back up and you get neg camber. Pull forward and it straightens out. Left it alone and never had any issues.

weird as hell for sure.

I have quadruple checked everything, and can’t figure it out.

it’s at the alignment shop today. I’ll let them tell me if there’s anything crazy
 

1992rs

Full Access Member
Joined
May 8, 2015
Posts
287
Reaction score
217
Location
OR
If everything checks out as tight, installed correctly AND you have not precisely adjusted your tie-rods since the refresh, id blame it on excessive toe. Happened to me before. An alignment fixed it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
OP
OP
Colby_e32

Colby_e32

Full Access Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2016
Posts
127
Reaction score
45
Here is the alignment report guys.

Even after installing the moog control arms with offset bushings, camber couldn’t get into spec.

they recommended drop spindles which I already have. The truck isn’t even low (to me) and they can’t get it right.

I had less camber with stock keys, at the same ride height, makes no sense to me.

Any suggestions would be nice. The truck does drive fairly straight now that the toe is corrected.

FAA73F9E-8657-481C-BE37-0B86D78606BC.jpeg
 

1992rs

Full Access Member
Joined
May 8, 2015
Posts
287
Reaction score
217
Location
OR
How much do you trust your alignment tech?

Looking at the sheet, it looks like they barely adjusted anything. They should be able to pull some caster out to gain some more positive camber. Aligning a wishbone like these trucks are kind of a push-pull situation, take caster, get camber and vice versa. Hence why you lost .3° caster and gained .3° positive camber on the Passenger side.

I started to think maybe the offset bushings were installed incorrectly, but if I’m reading it correctly, you purchased the moog UCA with the offset bushings already installed, correct? You should be able to get spec camber and still have good caster. But there’s been several horror stories over the years with these rigs not being able to get aligned after lowering.

Did the toe adjustment fix the camber change?

Can you also provide pictures of all 4 UCA brackets to see how it’s orientated?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Forum statistics

Threads
128,790
Posts
1,805,498
Members
91,773
Latest member
wbhidalgo17
Top