wildncrazyguy
Newbie
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2014
- Messages
- 33
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Have a newly acquired 1998 Suburban K1500. Had a free alignment check done at AAA using a coupon. Asked tech was everything tight, look good, etc. He said yes. Everything is in spec. Got new tires on the back because they needed it, front are very little wear newish Michelins. Same tires I run on my 1998 K1500 truck. Matched the two in the back to make a "set". I realize they will never really be a set, but I tried. Had a coupon for the local dealership for 69.99 4 wheel alignment. Long story short it was not done as "I have over 2000.00 dollars in front end work needed." "The alignment won't hold even if they do it." They didn't even run the alignment before sheet to see if it was even close. Aholes.
I'm not surprised much that a 17+ year old vehicle may have some wear on what looks to be original suspension parts to me. I wiggled the tires and rods and so forth, but I really didn't see much issue, plus the AAA guy didn't indicate anything amiss. (Surely they would have wanted to make some front end work money) So I took it in to get the alignment. From what I can tell it's setup with more camber (lean) and the original tires that came off the rear showed some outer tire wear. (Assume they had been on the front and were delegated to the rear with the addition of the newish front tires) The tech at the tire place that looked at the newish Michelins on the front said they look great with a little (very little) alignment wear on the outer edges. Suburban drives fine with no pulling that I can tell.
All that said, what I wanted the dam dealership to do is verify the alignment was in specs and to adjust the camber if possible to the minimum spec for better outside shoulder tire wear. Nope. They want to do some front end work for me. I'll reevaluate the front suspension a bit and do some of it myself. But in the meantime...
Is there an easy way for me to bump the camber down a bit? AAA printout indicates LF .6 camber and RF .8 camber, LF 3.3 Caster and RF 3.8 Caster, .12 toe LF and RF for .24 total. This is all fairly good from what I can find, but I'd like to get to the .5 camber that I think this model is best at from what I understand. Can I do this myself assuming the knockouts are done for this truck? I know they were done for my K1500 truck, but who knows what this vehicle has had done in it's life. When I lift the front on a jack I can visually see the camber lean and it looks excessive to me, but what do I know?
If it makes sense, I'd like to turn a couple of wrenches to see if I can get it close and looking for any advice or tricks to do so. I'm just interested in refining he camber some. I think the Suburban is pretty well aligned so I don't want to screw with anything else really. I'm just looking to take some lean off the shoulders of the tires. OR, do I just try and pay another shop to do the deed? (90.00 or so I've found !#%$&&!) My plan was to see if I could tip the RF back a bit and find me another free alignment check somewhere to see if I screwed it bad or not. I'm pretty good at seeing parallel and vertical straightness and so forth, so I could tell if I went way out, plus I'd probably have a level on them anyway to see start and finish points. Thanks.
I'm not surprised much that a 17+ year old vehicle may have some wear on what looks to be original suspension parts to me. I wiggled the tires and rods and so forth, but I really didn't see much issue, plus the AAA guy didn't indicate anything amiss. (Surely they would have wanted to make some front end work money) So I took it in to get the alignment. From what I can tell it's setup with more camber (lean) and the original tires that came off the rear showed some outer tire wear. (Assume they had been on the front and were delegated to the rear with the addition of the newish front tires) The tech at the tire place that looked at the newish Michelins on the front said they look great with a little (very little) alignment wear on the outer edges. Suburban drives fine with no pulling that I can tell.
All that said, what I wanted the dam dealership to do is verify the alignment was in specs and to adjust the camber if possible to the minimum spec for better outside shoulder tire wear. Nope. They want to do some front end work for me. I'll reevaluate the front suspension a bit and do some of it myself. But in the meantime...
Is there an easy way for me to bump the camber down a bit? AAA printout indicates LF .6 camber and RF .8 camber, LF 3.3 Caster and RF 3.8 Caster, .12 toe LF and RF for .24 total. This is all fairly good from what I can find, but I'd like to get to the .5 camber that I think this model is best at from what I understand. Can I do this myself assuming the knockouts are done for this truck? I know they were done for my K1500 truck, but who knows what this vehicle has had done in it's life. When I lift the front on a jack I can visually see the camber lean and it looks excessive to me, but what do I know?
If it makes sense, I'd like to turn a couple of wrenches to see if I can get it close and looking for any advice or tricks to do so. I'm just interested in refining he camber some. I think the Suburban is pretty well aligned so I don't want to screw with anything else really. I'm just looking to take some lean off the shoulders of the tires. OR, do I just try and pay another shop to do the deed? (90.00 or so I've found !#%$&&!) My plan was to see if I could tip the RF back a bit and find me another free alignment check somewhere to see if I screwed it bad or not. I'm pretty good at seeing parallel and vertical straightness and so forth, so I could tell if I went way out, plus I'd probably have a level on them anyway to see start and finish points. Thanks.