Front Right Tire Camber Adjustment

[Dan_Lockwood]

If you pay any attention to your UT400, you have probably noticed that the right front wheel tips in at the top a LOT.  The left fronts seem to be about right from what I've seen.  I look at them all when I'm at different stores just to see if they're all that way, and yes, they all seem to be that way.

There "should" be adjustments on either the ball joints or the inner pivot points, but these are solid, not way to adjust them.

I have the UT400 up on my 2-post lift and the right spindle seems to be around 3-deg tipped in at the top and the left spindle is about straight or maybe half a degree tipped in.  This is at full suspension drop, not ride height.  I took the shocks off and rotated the spindles from bottom travel to full max up travel, way more than the shocks will allow.  The higher the spindle lift, the more tip in there is on both spindles.  This is true because of the unequal upper and lower A-arms.  It's just the nature of of the dual A-arms and them being unequal in length.

I took the inner pivot 8mm bolts out and inserted a lot smaller 1/4" bolts and pushed the lower A-arm inward and the angle on the spindle decreased.  I then took the top inner bolts out and did the same thing, but pulled out instead.  This got the spindle equal to angle of camber on the left side.  I used the offset in the holes to see how much I need to go on the lower alone.  I was also concerned about bottoming out the axle assembly because the spindle centerline will not be a bit closer to the front diff.  But as it all turned out, it was not close to bottoming out.

I cut about 1/4" out of the two 1" A-arm tubes as they were welded to the lower ball joint mount casting.  I tack welded them back together and trial fit it all together.  That seemed to be about right.  I took it all back apart and welded it up solid.  Now it all looks to match the left side quite well.

Also want to use this in our yard and the stock tires are NOT turf friendly, especially with the solid "spool" rear differential.  I found these on Amazon, 25x12-12" and 25x8-12" hard pack race tires as they're called.  They're 6-ply and tubeless.  The initial probably I had was that the size rating was not even close to the actual size.  They said, install and then recheck the diameters and I did.  They did get larger, but the rears are more than 1" smaller in diameter than the side wall stamping.  Instead of 25", they're 23.75" tall.  What I DON'T WANT are shorter tires.  I had already purchased the used wheels at 12" to match the original factory diameter, but in hindsight I would now opt for 14" wheels with 4x110mm bolt pattern and would have been able to find a tire in the 27" diameter range a lot easier and cheaper.  Live and learn they say.

Here are some pictures of before and after.

 

[Rainman]

Wow, that looks good, Dan. You did a great job. I noticed today that my tires squat out on the bottom too. and are toe out. I don't have the skills to take care of the camber as you did, but hopefully I can adjust the toe, so I can have some sanity to this.

I also, for the first time, noticed my steering wheel is way out. Looks like I'm constantly turning right. I need to find information on straightening that out also. Now that I've noticed it, it's driving me crazy 😂

This is the steering wheel when I'm going straight. I never noticed this before and this is the kind of thing I notice first.

[Dan_Lockwood]

Don't worry too much about the steering wheel alignment, for now that is. 

Do your toe in adjustment and while the outer tie rod end jam nuts are loose, you can take the six steering wheel cover off with a 4mm Allen wrench. Loosen the nut holding the steering wheel on and unthread it so it's flush with the end of the steering shaft. Use your knees or have someone lift up hard on the steering wheel while you hammer the nut/shaft to break it loose. I use two hammers. One ball peen hammer on the end of the nut /shaft and use the second one to hit the first one. A couple good whacks and the steering wheel will come loose. Then unthread the nut and pull off the steering wheel and realign the shaft splines and the steering wheel to make it straight again. 

You may have to readjust your tie rods a bit to get true center on the steering wheel. I adjusted my toe IN to about 3/16" on each side. 

Also, you'll have to release the two inner tie rod boot cover outer clamps so the tie rods can turn without winding up the rubber boots. Don't forget to reclamp the boots. 

I said a lot of words, but it's really quite simple. 

Good luck, Dan 

[Rainman]

On 7/26/2023 at 7:15 PM, Dan_Lockwood said:

Don't worry too much about the steering wheel alignment, for now that is. 

Do your toe in adjustment and while the outer tie rod end jam nuts are loose, you can take the six steering wheel cover off with a 4mm Allen wrench. Loosen the nut holding the steering wheel on and unthread it so it's flush with the end of the steering shaft. Use your knees or have someone lift up hard on the steering wheel while you hammer the nut/shaft to break it loose. I use two hammers. One ball peen hammer on the end of the nut /shaft and use the second one to hit the first one. A couple good whacks and the steering wheel will come loose. Then unthread the nut and pull off the steering wheel and realign the shaft splines and the steering wheel to make it straight again. 

You may have to readjust your tie rods a bit to get true center on the steering wheel. I adjusted my toe IN to about 3/16" on each side. 

Also, you'll have to release the two inner tie rod boot cover outer clamps so the tie rods can turn without winding up the rubber boots. Don't forget to reclamp the boots. 

I said a lot of words, but it's really quite simple. 

Good luck, Dan 

Haven't been around and able to read this, but thank you for taking the time to explain what to do. I will look this over and approach the problem as per your recommendations.

[Rainman]

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