Alignment issues after suspension rebuild & tie rod replacement. Help!

Hey everyone,

I recently did a full suspension rebuild on my truck as I had tons of inner tire wear. I have a 2002 prerunner v6 double cab. I am the 3rd owner and have owned it since 2016.

Timeline as this was all over the span of a year. I appreciate everyone's help on this and I went above and beyond in detail.

TLDR: My truck was barely able to be aligned and the compromise is that my caster is way off on my drivers side. Both passenger and drivers tie rod ends literally have zero exposed thread and two experienced professionals were left scratching their head. Apparently my cam bolts are maxed out, not well versed in alignment stuff. Second professional is speculating that I was given an incorrect tie rod or that there are not enough threads on it. I notice play in the rack and pinion on driver side, but removed boot and inner tie rod is secured and no slop. Pinion is on drivers side and suspect that's the reason there is mild play.

The only PN that isn't "correct" are my oem lower ball joints. I noticed that after I got the initial alignment done, little thread was exposed before I replaced the lower ball joints. Random pictures I thankfully took confirm this. See below.

I have photos with the old and new lower ball joint and honestly they look pretty darn similar. Fit fine on my truck and my understanding is that they are 4x4 variant which shouldn't make much of a difference? Idk please scold me if I am wrong.

Before I go off buying the correct PN lower ball joint, does anyone have any pictures of their rack and pinion with outer tie rods? Pictures of ball joints too?

The locking nut on the tie rod looks super thick and the autozone one I saw seemed to be half that thickness. Autozone locking nut is about 1/4" and one on my truck is 1/2". I assume the one I have is OEM but not 100%.






Timeline
05/29/23: Outer tie rods blew after putting on spidertrax 1.5" spacers. My understanding is that spacers do not affect alignment. I noticed that after I got an alignment done that I had very little threads left. Part numbers are below and here you can see the before and after:

Part Number Part Name Price Quantity Total

• 45047-39175 Tie Rod End | Driver Side | 1998-2004 Tacoma 4WD and PreRunner $53.81 1 $53.81
• $70 45046-39295 Tie Rod End Sub-Assembly
  45046-39295 Tie Rod End | Passenger Side | 1998-2004 Tacoma 4WD and PreRunner $53.81 1 $53.81
• 45503-39075 Steering Tie Rod End $189.89 2 $379.78

Old blown outer tie rod and inner tie rod


New inner and outer tie rod and old lower ball joint after alignment. Very little threads exposed 2-3 at most. Drivers side.


06/25/23: Installing new lower ball joints after learning these can lead to catastrophic failure lol
Part Number Part Name Price Quantity Total
Parts I have installed

• $190 43330-39815 Toyota Genuine Parts - Joint Assy, Lwr Ball (43330-39815)
  43330-39815 Suspension Ball Joint (Right, Front, Lower) $147.85 1 $147.85
• $166 43340-39585 Toyota Genuine Parts - Joint Assy, Lwr Ball (43340-39585)
  43340-39585 Suspension Ball Joint (Left, Front, Lower) $147.85 1 $147.85

Correct PNs

• Lower Ball Joint | Passenger Side - Toyota (
  $192 43330-39556 Suspension Ball Joint
  43330-39556)
• Lower Ball Joint | Driver Side - Toyota (
  $136 43340-39436 Ball Joint Assembly
  43340-39436)

Old vs new

Online says it fits? Lol. Dealership did say it did not fit and I proceeded bc I wanted new bolts. Yes, dumb on my part.



05/16/24:
My truck can no longer hold alignment and have inner tire wear. Told I need a new suspension due to bad bushings. Bought shock coil assy from suspensionlifts.com. Everything else OEM. Changed rack and pinion bushings with energy suspension bushings.


Part Number Part Name Price Quantity Total

• 48068-35120 Lower Control Arm | Passenger Side Front | 1995-2004 Tacoma PreRunner & 4WD
• 48069-35120 Lower Control Arm | Driver Side Front | 1995-2004 Tacoma PreRunner & 4WD
• $20 48452-35020 Suspension Adjust Cam
  48452-35020 Toe Adjust Plate | Front Inner | 2003-2009 4Runner | 2007-2009 FJ Cruiser | 2005-2015 Tacoma
• 90080-11283 Suspension Control Arm Bolt
• $23 48409-35050 Suspension Adjustor Cam Sub-Assembly
  48409-35050 Cam Sub-Assembly, Front Suspension Toe Adjust
• 48610-35050 Upper Control Arm
• 48630-35030 Upper Control Arm
• $58 43310-39016 Toyota Ball Joint - 43310-39016
  43310-39016 Upper Ball Joint | Fitment in Description
• 90105-14105 Suspension Control Arm Bolt
• 90080-17208 Upper Control Arm Nut

All correct PNs.

06/01/24:
Pictures of my inner tie rod bc felt play in rack and pinion drivers side. Slight debris, and little oil. Inner tie rod looks secured and that it has not backed out. Cleaned the residue and it looks yellow, suspect that it's from the grease on the inner tie rod.


Outer tie rods are maxed out, no threads left. Passenger side. Second professional suspects that my tie rods lack extra threads?



Drivers side earlier today:

 

Im presently at work so I admittedly skimmed through this but do you have a lift or anything? If you do, some kits require you to trim the inner tie rod threads to allow for proper toe adjustment. Otherwise post your alignment sheet too so we can see where exactly things are presently at

 

So the tie rods will adjust your toe in and out. The eccentric bolts will do you caster, and I believe Tacomas don't really have camber adjustment built in. If your truck is lifted, achieving the proper amount of camber may require an aftermarket upper control arm. I know the PN's will be different for the LBJ's but I'm unsure of the exact difference. My 04 is a TRD OFFROAD. That said, the LBJ's won't affect the alignment unless they are indeed a different casting with a different bolt pattern. They appear the same in the photos so...

DID you replace the inner tie rods? If you are going to do the full job, I'd throw those in there too. Although they won't affect your ability to adjust your alignment if they have play, it will cause tire wear. Play in the inner tie rods can be hard to spot with just your hands. You may not be able to pull on it hard enough to get it to move. Food for thought

With regard to your tie rods, when you replace those you are supposed to count the amount of turns it takes to get out, and then you thread the new one back in the same amount of turns to get the alignment close. Also did you compare the parts when you pulled them? Again these will only affect toe in and out. If you are unable to achieve the camber, you may just need UCA's to correct for the lift (if you have one). If you don't, I'm lost b/c your parts, provided they are the correct PN's, shouldn't affect your ability to align your truck.

EDIT: Check your bushings in your rack and pinion. All the joint's can be new and tight but if your bushings in your rack are shot and it moves around, the alignment will be done but then shot to hell as your rack moves around as you drive causing tire wear.

Get under the truck and have someone turn the wheel and watch for the rack to squirm around under load from turning the wheel back and forth. If if moves, buy new bushings. Cheap and kind of easy to do.

 

I appreciate your lengthy response. I do not have a lift and also did rack and pinion bushings this year. I also replaced inner tie rods last year too. My truck is also the TRD Off Road variant.

When I got the tie rods, they looked pretty darn close. One thing I would like to note though:

I counted the exposed threads on the old tie rod before removing. When I put the new tie rods on, I matched the exposed threads. When I went to drive it, man my toe was way off which I also found weird too. Like my tires were squealing and I thought I was a turn or two off, but after I got the alignment I had little to no thread exposed.

With that thought, I’m seriously wondering if my tie rods are lacking threads. That’s why I bring up the lock nut and wondering if Toyota shortened the lock nuts and reduced threads on the new tie rods.

 

I also forgot to count the turns to remove the tie rods and only relied on the exposed threads. First time doing it and these are all learning lessons

 

Something on the driver's side is MEGA bent or way unadjusted. That could be the cause to your tie rods being maxed out.

 

Could you elaborate a bit more on what is unadjusted?

realistically the only thing left untouched is the spindle or the rack and pinion itself. I never drive my truck hard womping etc. both spindles looked fine when I did the upper ball joints, but something else I can also look into. Thank you.

 

I'm honestly wondering if you were sold two right side control arms/ball joints. Could you by chance also post a picture of the whole suspension on a side from under the vehicle. Wheels can stay on. Just a picture to see the details of the ball joints, arms and, eccentric positions

 

Ask and you shall receive. See anything that I potentially put backwards? I checked upper and lower control arms and I don't think I put em on backwards or on the wrong side. Do the lower ball joints look in the correct orientation if you compare to your rig?



Rear Drivers

Front Drivers

Rear Passenger

Front Passenger

Assy Drivers


Assy Passenger

 

The eccentric cams are what adjust the caster and camber. If they didn't adjust that right that could explain your crazy caster. If the adjustments are maxed out, your knuckle isn't bent and your arms are correct your frame is bent. This could also explain why your toe is maxed out or vice versa. They messed up the caster to get your toe into spec. For everything being new nothing should be maxed out. All the alignment numbers are inter related. Bad caster will cause the toe to go wonky etc. The question is the caster bad or the toe bad and why. Everything looks correct.

 

Guys is it me or does it look like I have less thread lol

Found two Tacomas on the road and asked permission if I could look at their trucks

my truck


Two different trucks

 

That alignment sheet is hard to read. I'm seeing negative caster on the left side? That's not right

And yes you should have more threads showing on each inner tie-rod

 

Yeah off to have a convo with Toyota parts tomorrow. Hopefully they work with me, I’m human and I make mistakes too. That being said, I own up to it and fix em

 

Yeah in toyota world they have so many model and chassis options...

you always put the old part up against the new one from square one...

especially with the 5lug/6lug incompatibility thing


this isnt right.....

 

Thank you for pointing that out too. That may be my fault for choosing the incorrect LBJ, hopefully it's just a tie rod issue.

 

When I installed new tie rod ends recently, I noticed that the new NAPA parts had “extended” (more) threads towards the knuckle side than the OEM parts did. The overall dimensions were still the same.

So if you didn’t count the number of turns and just matched up exposed threads, then you may have screwed them in too far? This is just my guess.

 

Thanks for chiming in, but I think when I matched the exposed threads that I did not screw them in enough!

I first changed the tie rods before anything else. When I matched the threads, the tires were sitting like when you make a pizza with skis! So it had to get screwed in all the way and I think I am lacking threads.

 

Hey all, reviving my old thread. I went to the dealer and whatnot and I confirmed that I did get the right parts. I would like to evaluate if my spindle may be bent. Anyone have a good way of comparing besides putting it side to side to a new one?

I looked at the frame from the hood and that looks pretty symmetric from a visual inspection point of view.

 

I don't see where you listed the outer TRE part numbers you installed. Do you have those?

Not sure how your dealer can make the claim that you got all the correct parts. If I read your earlier post correctly, the LBJ part #s you installed are definitely not correct.

Parts I have installed

• $190 Toyota Genuine Parts - Joint Assy, Lwr Ball (43330-39815)
  43330-39815 Suspension Ball Joint (Right, Front, Lower) $147.85 1 $147.85
• $166 Toyota Genuine Parts - Joint Assy, Lwr Ball (43340-39585)
  43340-39585 Suspension Ball Joint (Left, Front, Lower) $147.85 1 $147.85

Here are the Toyota P/Ns for my '02:

Passenger side (RH) 43330-39556
Driver side (LH) 43340-39436

Do you off-road your truck hard? Or has the truck been in a front end collision? If the answer to these two questions is no, it is very unlikely you have a bent spindle. IMO, until you get all the correct parts installed, it is premature to start worrying about a bent spindle or frame.