Pitman are Misalignment problem

[Jesseyourcalipers]

1999 gmc Sierra 1500 4x4

Replaced the pitman arm and my stupid diy’er a- ss messed up the alignment. I placed the steering wheel straight, locked it and thought eh it’ll be fine. Replaced it. Torqued the big nut to the steering shaft to spec and put the smaller nut on pitman arm ball joint tight and went to unlock the steering wheel to turn the steering to have access to the ball joint nut with the torque. Loosened it to put a tiny thread locker and torqued it. I’m guessing that’s what I messed up.

Can an alignment shop fix this with a usual alignment or the pitman and steering going to have to be adjusted?

Feels like the wheels are turning from under me, play. And going straight if I wiggle the steering a little the tires screech.

 

[atikovi]

Can't you adjust the tie rods to set the proper toe with a tape measure? I don't think caster or camber is affected.

 

[eljefino]

Get yourself a laser level, put it on tire bulges at 4 and 8 oclock. Shoot it at your rear tires. You're way out. You want the laser to just barely miss your rear tires, by 1/4 to 1/2 inch.

 

[mk378]

Only having the pitman arm on wrong wouldn't cause this. I guess this is the aftermath of some off-road incident and something else is also bent or broken.

 

[Jesseyourcalipers]

Only having the pitman arm on wrong wouldn't cause this. I guess this is the aftermath of some off-road incident and something else is also bent or broken.

My alignment was dialed perfect when I lifted it up to do the pitman arm. As soon as I dropped it back down this happened. Tie rods ball joints wheel bearings and everything else is only about a year old. My brother gave me the pitman arm when he junked his truck and some other stuff. Replaced it because mine had a tiny bit of play

 

[paulo57509]

What brand pitman arm did you install?

The splined hole has four indexed splines at 90-degrees apart, yes? It's pretty hard to install the arm clocked incorrectly. In general, the weight of the vehicle needs to be on the wheels before tightening suspension/steering components.

On your road test, is the steering wheel still (relatively) centered? Are the number of steering wheel turns from centered to the left and right stops equal?

 

[mk378]

Is it the right part? Hold your old one up next to it and compare.

> going straight if I wiggle the steering a little the tires screech.

That usually means there is severe toe-out, which could happen if the new arm is a different length than the old one.