Hi,

2005 blazer, 2 dr. base model.

student at school i am.

new upper and lower ball joints, new pitman arm installed.
idler arm looks good, all dry park test for front end looseness checks out ok after. Full removal of p/s gear box. no adjustments made outside on bench.

put back together.

used alignment machine at school.

all camber/caster/toe all GREEN.

Steering wheel straight - truck steers veers into left lane. compensate by turning wheel 15* degrees right...

Completed alignment on two different alignment machines.

Caster is less positive on right side, should actually go right..but goes left.

Teacher not really stepping in to resolve.

MY guess is hi spot adjustment on gear box to tighten down sector shaft, 1/2 turn CW, then 1/8 turn CCW. - could help.

Been on machine several times. It appears machine is just not finding dead center of steering wheel.

Shouldn't matter, never did this prior. My guess is camber/caster should be brought back to what specs were prior to any adjustment before repair of front end parts. Then of course adjust toe last.

It's just bizarre. Truck is not set back over 1 inch on either side.

anyone ever ran into this?

I honestly think +4 positive caster is a must on both sides, in the green and within 0.1 degrees of each other. Forget the road crown stuff.

 

Is it pulling left when you're not hanging onto the wheel, or is it just that the steering wheel is not straight.

If it is a pull, switch right and left tires on the front. If it pulls the other way it is a bad tire. If it stays the same it is alignment.

Don't screw with the gear box or you will regret it.

Even caster/camber between sides should work fine. Higher caster numbers make things more stable and drive better, but also more likely to pull if all is not perfect.

 

changing front tires side to side didn't change it but I knew it wasn't tires the truck was perfectly aligned by a shop prior to me doing pitman arm.

when I did the alignment I changed the camber and caster and obviously toe.

ii shouldn't of changed the toe and caster - they were factory specs however the machine had them in the red ( slightly )

Crap I can't upload a pic

that's weird

well I did hi spot adjustment it is definitely tighter to turn wheel.

car drives straight if I hold when to right 15 degrees . I force wheel straight then well you guessed it - it goes left . Wanders there - so maybe fix steering wheel by changing toe and retry .

 

Wow....I fought this very problem for six months only to find it was the RF tire and RF caliper was dragging just enough to pull steering wheel off center. Had it back to the alignment shop three times before I switched tires front to back and found RF inner pad almost gone; outer was fine.

I even had the steering gear rebuilt....and what a PITA it is to get that thing out and back in!!

 

This is what I would look into next. Spin both front wheels while off the ground and see if one is tougher to spin than the other. both should spin freely with a very slight drag with disc brakes. This should show you if you have a brake caliper sticking or possibly a brake hose collapsing causing that side brake to drag.

 

without being able to upload pics via my phone it's hard for people to see the specs. If we can just fix the steering wheel it should be okay since camber and caster are in green . Baring machine is correctly cailibrated . I'm having my doubts as my other student friend has same problem with her car .

inswiched tires side to side no change

no caliber drag

doing alignment again today if rack is open

 

Well I'm wondering if the idler arm ( the only thing I didn't replace ) somehow is causing this? I'll be performing a dry park test again and checking it out.

I assume everyone would agree that changing the tie pitman arm shouldn't of changed anything BUT TOE.

Because I messed with caster and camber and then fixed TOE I've had the problem ever since.

I too a long time ago had the truck in a shop and had to return it 3 times as well. They eventually fixed it. Never found out what they did.

My personal opinion why this is happening -> during the machine's caster sweep it just can't find middle of the steering wheel correctly because this model of truck naturally doesn't have a super tight steering wheel feel. Go drive a small car and you get instant feeling which is most likely due to rack and pinion gear box though but you get the idea.

Unfortunately I never took a print out from the alignment store that did mine after right before I did pitman arm but ....

After I changed pitman arm and went to my machine it was.

Under "ALLDATA" the specs for base model versus EXTREME model are quite different. - as seen in print out

The extreme is up to 4.7 LH and 5.3 RH!

Attached is my current alignment settings and a piece of paper showing the evolution of alignment learning.

LOL

FINAL VERDICT: SET CASTER AND CAMBER BACK TO WHAT IT WAS PRIOR TO PITMAN ARM CHANGE AND MAKE TOE ZERO ON BOTH SIDES

?!?!?

 

Bottom line, I had to fiddle around on the right hand side and get it into the green.

end of day the RH camber/caster had to be greater than the left. as per spec and all i had to do is get it into the green. then fix tow

drives like a dream

was simple fix, get it into green.