Crooked steering wheel

I did some light dirt road driving last night. I don’t recall any big hits or anything that would have thrown my alignment way out of wack. When I hopped in the truck his morning I noticed the steering wheel was not straight while the truck was driving straight.

There is no wobble from the wheel and the truck tracks perfectly straight. What the heck is going on!?

 

I think there’s an adjustment for centering the steering wheel, independent of all of the settings (caster, toe, etc). Maybe you can just mess with that if it’s driving straight?

 

You shouldn't take pictures while driving at 50 mph with no hands on the wheel.

 

Agreed.

 

Go get it aligned

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ring-wheel-fix-crooked-steering-wheel.100955/
Seems like a proper alignment should fix it.

 

Take it to alignment shop they will straighten it out

 

Get it aligned, just imagine the front tire wearing because they arn’t straight in alignment anymore. Pay now, or really pay later!

 

This same exact thing happened to me. I thought i bent something. It needed to be realigned.

 

Wow you can't just undo the steering wheel and make it straight. Thats what I do in my 70 chevy.

 

Times have changed. Spoiler alert, the 2nd gen tacomas don't have carburators either...

 

WHAT?? How am I going to set my jetting?

 

Pull your manual choke

 

You should probably get an alignment, but if you want to do it yourself I made a video a while back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbQoH-ANan8
This is assuming that your caster, camber and toe is correct though. If you were off roading something probably moved. Check your cam tabs. Sometimes if the LCA cam bolts are not torqued correctly they will be to loose and bend the cam tabs. Also make sure the center pin on the leaf springs is good. If they sheer off your axle will be crooked and you will be dog tracking/crab walking and not notice unless you are outside following your truck while you drive behind it. Caused by loose u-bolts. I'm good at doing alignments, but if you don't know what your doing it's better to take it to a professional.

 

And hope you don’t get a tech too lazy to make sure the wheel is straight. I have even had alignments done at the dealer, and had to turn around and take it right back because the steering wheel was still crooked. I always tell them now, “Make sure that wheel is CENTERED”!

 

Chit happens from time to time... alignment needed. I gave up trying to get a decent alignment at the dealer, even with their new fancy-dancey alignment rig. I now go to a local Tire Discounters, comes out perfect every time, with the steering wheel centered for the first time in several dealer attempts/years!

 

If it was straight one day, then like that the next, something got smacked out of whack, maybe even damaged.
Tell the alignment shop exactly what happened so they can inspect the entire front end.
The wheel OFF that much ain't good.

 

yeah you are gonna need an alignment something moved.

That stated, it doesnt take much at all of movment to make the wheel be off that much. Thats like 1/8th of an inch of movement down at the steering rack at most.

 

100% alligment.

How often do you drive offroad? I hit super rough dirt roads pretty often, like washboards basically, and I haven't needed an alignment in literally months.

 

thats funny...