inside tire wear

Bain

Bain

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Joined
Jun 5, 2009
Location
lenoir
On my 98 IFS Tacoma with a 3 inch lift and 35's.. no one can get my front tires to align right. They are wearing on the inside and lean ( /----l l----\)and cherp when going around curves. Does my truck have a idler arm that could be bent? Or does it sound like a ball joint problem or bushings? Thanks
 
alignment

If the truck is aligned correctly the tires should not lean at all. I would start checking for worn parts i.e. balljoints, wheel bearings control arm bushings, struts and lower strut mounting bushings outer and inner tie rods etc. (check balljoints with no load on them, jack up under the control arm)
The rack and pinion takes the place of pitman and idler arms. I aligned a tacoma with 6" lift and have no problems with tires.
 
I'm assuming you have spacers or adj. coil overs for the 3" of lift right. A tacoma with a 6" suspension lift most likely has a cradle lift which drops the lower control arms and had a taller spindle to keep the geometry almost stock. If you don't have some kind of upper ball joint spacer you will have trouble aligning it.

Even if the alignment shop gets your front right at ride height you still will have problems with that much lift on stock control arms. Tacomas have short arm uppers and long arm lowers. With those short upper a arms when you lift it 3" the upper arms sit at more of an angle than it should. When the front suspension unloads on the inside tire as you go around a corner the arms pull the top of the spindle in instead of down. Not only does it throw off the camber and make the top of the tire lean it, it also makes the front wheels toe out so it just chews on the inside of the tire. I've had a few tacomas come through my shop that have similar setups and dont really have as big of a problem as you are so it is pretty likely you have some other problems also like what Lewistire listed.
 
Thanks for the replys. So ball joint spacers would help me out? Im going to check my ball joints today and see how they look.. Would the spacers lift my truck any?
 
explained better than I could put it. Honestly don't believe they would sale a spacer kit if the alignment couldn't be set correctly. I would look into worn parts. In my dealings with leveling kits; most vehicles will toe in when lifted. Also, the caster is difficult to get to factory settings. I think with all good parts you should be able to align this truck without having any problems. I guess with the 6" lift marsfab is correct about lowering the entire set up. He makes a lot of sense with his description.
 
Yea I agree I don't believe I've ever seen a ball joint spacer for a taco. But like I said earlier it should correct most of your problems to make sure everything is tight in the front end. I haven't ever seen the problem as bad as you describe it on yours so I'd think you'll be fine.

What width and offset wheels are you running. If there 10" wide their most definately a lot of your problem and even if there 8" with a negative offset that could magnify the prob also
 
I has the same problem with a truck I once had, and I had a bad wheel bearing, and as soon as I jacked it up and touched the tire I knew what it was. I would jack it up and see if your wheels are wiggling around some, then go from there I guess.
 
I jacked it up and and the wheels wiggled up and down and side to side.. One lower ball joint was being held on by two loose bolts. So Saturday Ill be replacing all ball joints and tie rod ends. After that Ill probably go ahead and get new wheel bearings put in..


and I'm running 8's and not sure of the offset. The wheels have very little lip.
 
Align it yourself. its really easy, if you have patience. Just measure the center across the front tires, and measure the back. Then adjust your tie rod until you have the same number on both the front and back. I do my trucks alignment and never have problems with it. I can get it dead on too
 
4x4K5 said:
Align it yourself. its really easy, if you have patience. Just measure the center across the front tires, and measure the back. Then adjust your tie rod until you have the same number on both the front and back. I do my trucks alignment and never have problems with it. I can get it dead on too
Click to expand...

Toe in is not his issue. Negative Camber is.
 
wheels look beautiful now. after getting out the ball joints and tie rod ends I realized they were all shot. I aligned it myself and it wasnt that bad..Just time consuming. And I have an itching to go back to the shop that aligned it last month and get my money back because they obviously didnt do anything to it..
 
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