1999 Suburban K1500 LT 5.7
So my 'mechanic' indicates that I will need to effect the knockout for the upper control arms to facilitate the alignment and recommended to get some 2.25 Camber bolts as the ones I have may not have sufficient range to ensure a successful alignment. he also had questions on the existing orientation of both the bolt and the lobed washer. From what I've read, there seems to be some flexibility on whether the bolt heads have to be outside vs inside vs forward vs behind, but my plan was to place them inside with the nuts outside for both forward and rear bushing mounts. Also, I have not seen anything on what the basic orientation of the lobed washers should be, at least as a starting point before taking it in for alignment. I am not convince the orientation of the current washers is correct and I believe they actually differ from side to side.
Can someone state DEFINITIVELY what the approach is here. And if they are NOT correct, does an alignment shop correct this as SOP? thank you kindly
does an alignment shop correct this as SOP?
yes, that's their job.
Get it as close as you can or tow your car in.
@boot so this clearly shows the bolts pointing to the outside which was going to be my default approach on that aspect. Still a question on how the lobed washers (both front and back and inside and outside) should set to start. I ASSUME that for a given bushing at least, the lobes should be directed the same way? But Ive seen references that show different orientations for the front bushing vs the back bushing on a given side.
@boot in that same source (for Sub K1500) at https://charm.li/Chevrolet/1999/K%201500%20Suburban%204WD%20V8-5.7L%20VIN%20R/Repair%20and%20Diagnosis/Steering%20and%20Suspension/Alignment/Service%20and%20Repair/Frame%20Bracket%20Knock%20Out%20Removal/ it states in step 7.3 to "Install the cams (4) and the nuts. Install the cams with the radius toward the frame brackets." But I'm not sure what this means. (I assume cam and lobe mean same thing, so thats not an issue) It does seem that both inner and outer for a given bushing should be the same and front and back bushing should also be the same though as there is no language addressing this aspect. It also seems that to start , the lobes should basically all the same way. And a search regarding the use of the tip vs base radius seems to indicate that when not specified, it is the base radius that is implied. I've also seen images which seem to show the lobe tip oriented up, which seems about 90 degrees different. I think I will just go with this approach all the way around as it seems they would rotate this anyway to get the correct alignment.
Forgot the bolt was keyed. So obviously each side of the bushing is oriented the same
Just to close this out, I did end up doing the knockouts myself, some of them were done previously, some were not. Only one of them was a headache and ended up have to put a rotary bit into the oval slot to clean it up a bit, but at least they are all done. Got a shop alignment done on it. Got Left Side: Camber/Caster/Toes: 0.4/2.5/0.18m Right Side: 0.7/2.7/0.16, Spec: 0.2-1.2/2-4/.02-.22 Cross Camber/Caster/Toes -0.3/-0.2/.34 Spec -0.5-0.5/-0.5-0.5/.04-.44 All Green, Im a happy camper now.
The primary issue I was running into was because I was doing a string alignment and using the rear wheels directly as the track width and was assuming it was same from an back. I only learned after all this was done that it is not on the V-hicle. My mistake, I'm not a car guy, Live and learn..