Steering Wheel not Straight Centered Why
 

I got my H3 aligned 3 times in the last month by 2 different garages... each time I left with the steering wheel straight and it goes crooked by a half inch after driving it for 30 miles.... Why? I'm not hitting any potholes or taking it off road...

Mine always was from the factory. Maybe something with the shaft? I had my steering shaft replaced and it still does it.

Mine started doing that after I leveled it. I had it aligned and then drove it and noticed it was crooked, so I took it back the next day to have them fix it and they put it back on the rack and printed out a sheet that showed the tires were set dead center and my steering wheel was still slightly cocked.

It's minute enough to not really bother me, but I definitely noticed that it started after I leveled my truck.

Yep same with mine... started doing it after it was leveled.

s;oppy work??
 

i dont know what "stretches"but i once hit a curb and the vehicle left wheel toed out when the right was set straight. the steering wheel appx 4 inch off.

there was a slight play in the tie rod but the shop said it was not caused by the hit,,it was wear. i still wonder if something "stretched"
?, or got out of place?

bottom line is: when a gm shop, cadillac/hummer, replaced the tie ror and aligned it, it was DEAD ON straight and stayed dead on.

not a 1/8 inch could be detected rolling down the road.

i think some shops just cant get it right

tom
btw

to fix it yourself, take one turn on each side the same way.
if too much,etc, do one half. its just a matter of tweaking the adjustment,THE SAME DIRECTION

i did a replacement of cross member, and spindles on an 80 mustang,added adjustabld camber plates,aligned it with two stretched strings. it tracked, steered straight, no tire wear and NEVER saw a shop!!.
on the makers advice i pulled the plates all the way back and you could let go the wheel and it just went straight ahead!

some luck involved??!

Good stuff... where is the adjustment to straighten the wheel to do it yourself... I know on my Wrangler it was easy to do with just loosening and turning a sleeve then retightening it.

My wheel did the same thing when I took it off road in Rausch creek. The upper control arms shifted slightly out of adjustment and that's what caused it. I had to get it realigned and I made sure the upper arms were torqued properly and it's all been good since. I wheeled it in Sedona, Moab. and Colorado and it all stayed true. The plastic inserts in the slots of the upper control arms are used to set the alignment up at the factory. When I did the alignment at my friends shop all the inserts came right out except one (they have to be removed if the alignment has to be changed). That's the one that shifted. Funny thing was that it drove fine and didn't pull at all but the wheel was crooked. I figured since I had to get it taken care of anyway I raised it up about 1 1/2 inches and then set it all up to factory specs. Torqued the bolts up (114 ft lbs). I marked everything so I could bring it back into place should it shift again and so far 12K later and a bunch of wheeling trip and all is good. Once everything is set with the caster and camber angles, toe in and wheel centering is taken care of by adjusting the tie rods. One thing to remember is that something could have gotten bent although that clearly wasn't my problem. My was a shift out of position of the upper control arm due to a big stain when off roading in Rausch Creek.

thanks guys
 

now i guess the upper stuff got pulled/pushed on mine, since i had toe out on left with right straight ahead.

b4 the shop, i tried adjusting the tie rod ends but it was too much.

i use two pipe wrenches to loosen the locknuts,,do a turn,,lock them same way,,good and tight. the
"turn" is the shaft going into the tie rod end,it rotates in a ball inside the rack

tom

I got a bit of a laugh from this. My steering wheel favors the passenger side slightly when i am going straight. I thought perhaps it was because i haven't leveled yet. :0

Had it in again for alignment... was in specs but the wheel was to the right. Now it came out with the wheel to the left. go figure.