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Dog tracking - Thrust angle

19K views 13 replies 8 participants last post by  eleventhtruck 
#1 ·
My friend was following me in his truck to one of my garages that I rent. When we got there, he tells me that my truck is dog tracking big time. To make sure he wasn't bull####ting me, I let my friend drive my truck and I followed in his car.....confirmed major dog tracking.

The dog tracking could be the reason I have the vibration coming from the rear that comes and goes and it's getting worse. It begins when I approach the 70 mph area.

I checked for broken leafs, U-bolts, things shifted, mostly checked the obvious stuff and everything checked out. I did not check the centering pin on the leafs/blocks. When I take off from a stop, I get the feeling of a worn pinion but the pinion is tight.

I took some quick measurement tonight and found that there is a 1/4" difference fore and aft on the rear. This leads me to believe that the thrust angle is off. If the rear is not centered, the pinion U-joint is not parallel with the trans/c
xfer case. Would this difference cause the dog tracking and vibration?

The problem I am going to run into is finding a body shop with a frame machine big enough to fir the truck on. And the other major issue is finding a 4 wheel alignment shop that specializes in lifted trucks. In my area no one wants to touch something like this. I am willing to travel to PA, CT or upstate NY to fix this problem.

I had a set of custom traction blocks made for my truck. I am wondering if the guy put the centering pin in the right location. The truck has a 2"-3" lift on it.

Comments and/or ideas. Also any shops that would do this kind of work?

Truck is a 1997 F250HD (old body style) 8' bed/ Super Cab. The TTB was remove and a solid axle Dana 60 was installed.

Thanks

Billy T.
gnxtc2@aol.com

 
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#3 ·
I believe dog tracking must originate from an angle at the rear. I would loosen your axle U bolts and check your pins and blocks. Any shop that can align a full size pickup should be able to achieve an alignment on a lifted one. The target specs are the same regardless of lift, the only thing that might give them hell would be if you put a bunch of rotation into an axle that they couldn't correct with spindle shims or ball joint socket adjustment.
 
#4 ·
Not to be a smart a$$ but the D60 is wider then the rear by quite a bit so it may look like it's doggin it but you have to look from both sides driver and passenger side too....

On sig truck when I went to the SD springs the rear felt funny like soft axle wrap (sorta spongy like) was happening and I thought it was from the new spring packs....finally looked real close and notice one of the U bolts looked loose and what actually happened was the threads stripped replaced all U bolts (they where new at install time too) with brand new large diameter ones not spongy now.....Put a wrench on em to check it out

jrc
 
#5 ·
:whs: Jack your frame up and drop your axle and check out you alignment pins first.
 
#6 ·
i know that my 97 F350 dog tracks and it has an add a leaf in the front. does my track bar need lowered or anything i can do to fix it? my steering wheel is off center because of it.

thanks
 
#8 ·
so who makes an adjustable track bar for my 97 F350?
 
#10 ·
#11 ·
is that a person on here? or a company. i didnt find a screen name
 
#12 ·
i found the sky manufacturing track bar
 
#13 ·
***************UPDATE****************

Found the rear axle was 3/16" out (fore/aft). 3/16" over the length of the wheelbase is alot.

Billy T.
gnxtc2@aol.com
 
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