Gabe1994

Hello, I own a 1992 Toyota pickup 4WD 3.0 V6 Extended cab. The truck is absolutely perfect, it runs and drives like a champ. There's one big problem with it. As soon as I let go of the steering wheel, it immediately pulls to the left. I really want to fix the truck before I come to the choice of selling it. I've had a new pitman arm, idler arm, stablizer bar, changed the tires, had it aligned, lowered it via torsion bar crank and nothing seems to work. PLEASE can someone help me find out what the problem is? What I know is the frame isn't bent at all and I'm last thing is that the wheel spindle could be bent. But I don't know. I really need some help

L5wolvesf

A tight brake could do that

red90toyota

make sure all the tires have the same pressure. do the tires match ? try jacking it up and spinning the all the wheels by hand, Are any more difficult to turn than the others? does it pull more to one side or another when braking?

az4x4runner

Was it aligned after you changed all the steering components? How about the torsion bar crank, before alignment? A dragging brake is a possibility as mentioned above. After driving around, do you notice excessive heat radiating from any of the wheels?

Charchee

Let's knock out three of the most likely issues all at one time. Jack up the front and rear of the driver's side and put it N. Turn each of the tires over by hand and feel for a dragging brake or bearing as stated above. Then rotate those two tires front to back. That's going to rule out those two issues. A dragging brake will give you that symptom even if it's on the back but a tire won't so much. Hey, you don't have one of your hubs locked do you? Check that too while you have the front off the ground. Now do the same to the other side. You can even drive it between sides. If it stops after you do the driver's side then you don't need to do the other side. Also check the air in all tires.

So that's tires, brakes, bearings, and hubs. If that doesn't show it to you then you have an alignment issue. A shop can align a truck and it pass with flying colors but if they somehow miss a bad ball joint, the truck will fall back out of alignment after you hit your first bump. Typically, worn steering components will not cause a pull condition. It is the leaning (Camber) or or your caster angle (takes longer to explain this) that will cause one to pull. If it's been doing it for a few weeks, you would probably be able to see evidence on the side tread of one of your front tires. A ball joint would be the most common cause of one pulling even after it has been aligned. The only other thing I can think of is that maybe the shop failed to torque down one of your four cam bolts. They torque down to like 140 ft lbs or more if I remember right. During an alignment you may need to move them around half a dozen times so most forks, me included, don't torque them down until they think they are close to lined up. After a dozen adjustments, leaving one untorqued is not out of the realm of possibilities. I mean, you hear about shops leaving oil drain plugs out all the time.

Check it out. If you don't have a way to get two wheels up at one time. Do the same tests without swapping any tires. You may get it before you need to go that far.
Again, check brakes, hubs, tire wear and air pressure and inspect the ball joints.

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

I seem to say this alot lately But just because someone has a alignment Rack does not mean they are good at doing 4x4 alignments.

You have brought this drifting to the left to the attention of the shop doing the alignment ??

If they did not point out defective parts needing to be replaced they did not get the alignment correct .

I am lucky I found a great Shop to do my Front End Alignments !!!

Gabe1994

I've taken it to at least 3 alignment shops already and no has been able to make it stop pulling to the left. Also the pulling is instantaneously, as soon as you let go of the steering wheel both the truck and steering wheel immediately pull to the left. Each separate alignment visits have been after there was a steering or suspension components been installed. What are other ideas I can try? Can it be the bearings, any other steering components?

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

Have you done any of the above suggestions? especially did you check the left front brake caliper to see if it is grabbing?

Front wheel bearings (as suggested earlier) can definitely contribute to the issue, bad tie rod end, etc
you are gonna have to do some stuff and get dirty and report back..

az4x4runner

This is true, I've done alignments, and watched others do alignments and it's amazing what is "good enough" to some people. Down to tire pressure being incorrect when performing the alignment.

I'd do the things that were suggested, and if you eliminate the possibility of brake drag, rotate the tires around next.

Gabe1994

So if the brake caliper is stuck, is it suppose make it pull to the left even while driving down the road or just the braking? Because the truck pulls at all times while driving. Starting around 3mph it pulls immediately.

Charchee

We can guess at it all day but you need to do this at a minimum before anyone is going to help you. Lift up a front tire off the ground and spin it over forward. See how hard it was to turn it over. Then do the other side. Does it feel the same? Your truck has bearings that are preloaded (tightened up to a certain torque and then backed off to a certain degree.) You have specs for this because the preload on the bearing will affect how much torque it takes to roll the bearing over. Too much or too little will wear the bearings out faster. If one of them was improperly tightened at it's last replacement or whenever the hub was last taken apart, that could be an issue. If one bearing is really loose due to wear and the other isn't, same symptom.

I'm not saying that this is what it is but just trying to tell you that it could be any on a dozen things. The steps I gave you in my last post will get you to your answer but you are going to have to do some feeling around so we have some data to work with. Your thread will get lonely pretty fast without any feedback of test results.

stefanc

Would you be able to post a print-out of the alignment from the shop? This might indicate if there is in fact an issue with the alignment.

scope103

If the Caliper is stuck, then the brake is on (at least slightly, but enough to pull the steering) "all the time." If it's not the caliper, you could have a bent guide pin, which would leave one of the two pads dragging on the disc all the time.

But as so many have said, we're all just guessing. First, check tire pressure (because it's easy, and a common cause of your issue.) Then jack up the front, spin the wheels.

Gabe1994

Thank you all so much for your suggestions and help. I will try all diagnosis steps and get back to you

scope103

As I think about this, a broken ball joint COULD produce these symptoms. http://web.archive.org/web/201204242...28balljoin.pdf It seems hard to believe that anyone doing an alignment would miss that, but what do I know? Tire rotation will go a long way to eliminating a lot of confounding factors.

KidSheleen

Long story:
My T100 would pull to the right. I was looking at the front end and my lower control arms were so rusty and falling apart that the T100 wouldn't pass the state safety inspection. I got two LCAs from the junk yard and rebuilt both the upper and lower control arms and put a couple of coats of KBS sealer on them. New upper and lower ball joints, stabilizer end links, cam bolts (I had to cut the old ones out of the LCA to remove them), new calipers and rotors, brake lines, ASIN locking hubs, tie rod end links, and new half shafts (plus whatever else). I got the T100 aligned at a good shop especially since I had to replace the cam bolts and I just guessed on the placement of the cams. It still pulled to the right after I left the shop and the printout had the alignment within factory specs.

Short story:
I bought 4 new tires. Problem solved.
FYI: The FSM has "Check Tires" as #1 on the list of things to check for pulling to one side.

OilTrash

I don't buy new trucks because my commute to work destroys them. The obvious has been covered well so far so here are my not so
common experience.
#1: rusted cam bolts, two trucks, 3 different shops, all said the computer shows a good alignment even though the cam bolts were so rusted there was no way they could ever be adjusted.
#2 different back spacing on a rim: I go through allot of tires in my job. Threw a spare on that at first glance looked the same. Same tire same looking rim but the slight difference between them made it pull like crazy. Had lifetime deal from sears so they fixed the tire, put it back on, rebalanced, rotated and checked alignment everything looked good and it drove fine. Week later and another flat tire same problem different direction same thing at sears. The third time it happened there was a retired gentleman that figured it out. Bought a new rim and there was no problem after that.