Warning: That perfect alignment job from yesterday turned into a 2 hour headache today

I had a 2015 F-150 come in yesterday, did a four wheel alignment, everything was dead on, camber and toe were spot on. Customer picks it up this morning, comes back in an hour later saying the steering wheel is crooked. I rechecked it and somehow the rear toe had shifted 0.15 degrees on the right side. Had to redo the whole thing from scratch, found out the adjusting bolt was stripped just enough to slip under load. Replaced it with a new Moog bolt from my parts stash and torqued it to spec this time. That stripped bolt cost me a customer wait time and some trust. Anyone else run into hidden stuff like that after you think you're done?

2 comments

2 Comments

oscarmurphy4d ago

lol man that sounds brutal. did you happen to notice anything weird when you first torqued the bolt, like it felt a little loose or the nut spun on too easy? i've had a couple where the bolt looked fine but the threads were just barely hanging on, and you don't catch it until later when the torque starts to back off under driving. just wondering if there was any kind of sign you missed or if it was totally out of the blue.

walker.robert4d ago

Yeah but I think there's a little more to it than just the threads being worn. On these older Ford trucks especially, the bolt itself can stretch just enough that it looks fine but it's actually lost its clamping force. I had a front hub bearing go on my F150 and when I pulled it apart, the axle nut felt tight coming off but when I put a new one on, it torqued down way further than the old one did. Turned out the old nut had stretched maybe a tenth of a millimeter but that's all it takes. So you might not feel anything wrong when it's coming off or even when you're initially tightening it. The real test is if it reaches proper torque or if it just bottoms out early.