Rear tires/axle misaligned -- a congenital defect or poor bodywork?

[Dino]

You were glued together poorly after that wreck.

Agreed.

[johnnyapollo]

On my truck there's a distance descrepancy between the front wheels and the back of the wheel-well -- it's most noticeable when I've got the wheels turned and am washing the truck - been there since day one and my truck has never been hit. You've got to remember that these were pretty much hand-assembled - I don't believe Isuzu went the whole robotic route in assembly as the production numbers didn't justifiy it so there's some variation in measurements. As the parts go on, some could be slightly mis-aligned but as long as the mechanics and esthetics aren't violated, it passes inspection. If the rear-end is slightly to one side it probably doesn't affect the driving or alignment of the truck much - it would be more important in the front as you're cornering, for the two sides to be within a tighter tolerance. In your case the mechanic probably did set the axle assembly slightly to one side - do you notice a difference while driving? A difference in handling? If not, it probably tracks parallel to the length of the car. Just talking out loud.

-- John

[ZEUS]

Grant, keep in mind, after you lift your VX your axle will shift a little more to the right due to what I stated before. It might be negligible. You might want to double check the clearance between your drivers side tire and the frame and what not. I might even suggest flexing your VX out to see how close the tires come to rubbing when one side is compressed into the wheel well. A simple fix might be to cut the panhard bar in two and sleeve it with a larger diameter tube to lengthen it. <shrug> I would suggest replacing it though, because maybe the tracking issues you had before weren't just from your tires, but were worsened by the axle being slightly askew. Lifting it might also worsen your tracking problem and increase the risk of an accident. This is all just speculation of course but I think it is something to think about. Keep us posted!

[CSTYLES]

I just did my lift with the help of a couple friends and noticed the same thing, the rear axle has shifted about 2 inches to the right. I've read posts on the Calmini track bar extension and was wondering if that would fix the problem.

OR could I just have someone fab-up an adjustable track bars for me? The $340 for stock one ought to buy a heavy duty custom track bar. Stinkbug is selling the custom lower links for about that.

I took the VX to get an alignment after the lift and they "fixed" my front end alignment by cranking the torsion bars back down. This was after I explained that the reason I needed an alignment was that the truck is now lifted and sitting on bigger tires. I don't want to say where I took it, I'm a little embarrassed (Merchant's).

[MrCrowley]

CSTYLES, thats just funny. To fix your alignment, they lowered your truck?

[CSTYLES]

It would be funny if it weren't so sad.

I asked them if they could work on lifted vehicles, they said no problem. The guy was too busy looking at a computer monitor to realize that he was completely frustrating my purpose. Needless to say I didn't pay for a thing, just had him put it back and drove home. Kind of made marking the bolt and counting out each turn on the t-bars pointless. I now have no frame of reference. I read that the height should be 37.5" from the ground to the highest point on the cladding for each wheel well. I am between 37" and 38" all around (wasn't a level surface where I measured last night). I guess I should have the suspension all figured out before I take it to a shop that actually knows how to align the front end...

[tom4bren]

CSTYLES,

If your ever down around Fredericksburg, there is a great front end shop just down the road from me. They wouldn't touch the CV repair job for me but aligned the front end after & did a great job. They also did a great job on my TLC after a 'friend' accidentally took it 4 wheeling through a drainage ditch & FUBAR'd the alignment. Let me know if you're interested in contacting them.