My Truck is Dogtracking?

ChevyHDGert · August 4, 2005

Let me see if I can explain this right.

By back tires appear to be pointing to the left but the front tires are driving straight and it feels like I am driving straight.

A buddy of mine was behind me and told me that it looked my bed was shifted to the right compared to the rest of the truck as if the frame is bent but it’s not and has never been wrecked.

Also, the gap between the tread of my rear tire and the forward part of the rear wheel well on the passenger side is tighter than the gap between the tire tread and the forward part of the rear wheel well on the driver’s side.

I just recently had the front end aligned after my new tires and I have had 2” rear blocks for the past 2+ years. Now I do have some wimpy u-bolts holding my 2” blocks in place but the leaf springs don’t appear to be shifted.

Does anyone know what the deal is?

BADGERMAN · August 4, 2005

I would check to make sure that the pin on the leaf spring that would sit in a hole on the 2" block has not sheared off.

Also there should be some type of pin on the 2" block that will fit in the hole on the axle pad.

If those pins are broken or not even there, it possible that when the axle is under enough torque, that it could have shifted to cause that sidetracking problem.

Hope this makes sense.

REBOP · August 4, 2005

Let me see if I can explain this right.

By back tires appear to be pointing to the left but the front tires are driving straight and it feels like I am driving straight.

A buddy of mine was behind me and told me that it looked my bed was shifted to the right compared to the rest of the truck as if the frame is bent but it’s not and has never been wrecked.

Also, the gap between the tread of my rear tire and the forward part of the rear wheel well on the passenger side is tighter than the gap between the tire tread and the forward part of the rear wheel well on the driver’s side.

I just recently had the front end aligned after my new tires and I have had 2” rear blocks for the past 2+ years. Now I do have some wimpy u-bolts holding my 2” blocks in place but the leaf springs don’t appear to be shifted.

Does anyone know what the deal is?

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its called "catwalking" you need a 4 wheel alingment.

BlueTahoe · August 4, 2005

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its called "catwalking" you need a 4 wheel alingment.

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I've never seen a solid rear axle truck have any adjustment on the rearend to do a 4 wheel alignment. On all trucks I've worked on you have to hook the alignment rack up to all 4 wheels but you can only adjust the fronts. Been 5-6 years since I've worked on an alignment rack so I may be wrong.

If the back is off it is usually a sheared pin allowing the rear end to move or a seriously bent piece somewhere. I would guess it is a problem with a pin - like stated above - that allowed the axles to slip on the leaf a little.

I would call it dog tracking. Cat-walking sounds too sissy for a big truck

ChevyHDGert · August 4, 2005

The 2" block I got didn't have a hole for a pin.

Silverado4x4 · August 5, 2005

The 2" block I got didn't have a hole for a pin.

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What you gotta be kidding me!,the block must have a female hole at the top and a male pin on the bottom of the block so the leafspring pin can fit in the top of the block and the pin on the bottom of the block can go in the axle bracket,this prevents shifting of the axle,man I would take them off asap and get the correct ones.

lrymal · August 5, 2005

....I would call it dog tracking. Cat-walking sounds too sissy for a big truck

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Actually, and I'm revealing my age here, it is "caddy-walking". Through the decades, it migrated to the kitty kat term. Caddy-walking occured in the 1950s for a couple of years on the big Cadillacs. There was a design defect, just EXACTLY as the photos above show on the pickup. No pins, no reference indentations. Nothing. The restoration books say that at the GM factory, the back suspension was properly aligned and very large u-bolts and nuts were tightened down with extreme torque.

Interesting idea, just tighten the heck out of it so that it won't move.

However, the suspension began to drift out of alignment. The fix was to take the Caddy in for a GM modification, but many drivers didn't do it, or some of the old Caddys were resold. Youi would see these things going down the road and folks called it "Caddy Walking". I can remember as a young boy my dad saying that when we would see one.

curly · August 6, 2005

And all this time I called it "crab walking". It always made since if you look at a crab on the ground .

silverado3500 · August 7, 2005

The 2" block I got didn't have a hole for a pin.

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You need to go by a gm dealer parts counter, and get a pair of 2" blocks from a 99-02 Z71. The gm blocks are 2" and will have the center pin. The pair should run you about $18 You need to get blocks with a center pin ASAP... That setup is extremely dangerous witout a center pin.

on edit: Your U-bolts are probably fine, just swap the blocks out.

Ron J · August 8, 2005

I've seen a dog walk with his rear out of alignment, but never a cat. Your just WRONG. Have a nice day though.

PewterC3 · August 8, 2005

Here are what the GM one's look like. Notice the pin in the center an there is a matching hole in the bottom.

those other pieces are the rear jounce bumper extensions. If you remove them there are predilled holes in the frame so you can mount the jounce bumpers with out the extensions.

cachedawg · September 28, 2006

I had that problem with my truck as well, but I found my front u-bolts were loose causing my front axle to shift ever so slightly. if you don't have 100% success with the blocks and pins in the rear, check the front.

You can always pull a measurement from axle to axle, and see what side is out. There are many ways to do that, I use plumb bob hanging from the same point on each axle to be accurate.

Just a little more info.

wht2500hd... · October 3, 2006

It's called dog tracking.

It can be caused by a bent frame too. Another thing to check are outer bearings.

GetMore · October 8, 2006

I've never seen a solid rear axle truck have any adjustment on the rearend to do a 4 wheel alignment. On all trucks I've worked on you have to hook the alignment rack up to all 4 wheels but you can only adjust the fronts. Been 5-6 years since I've worked on an alignment rack so I may be wrong.

If I remember correctly there is a little adjustment in the front spring perch, so it is possible to align the rears a little bit.

It's not common to see a shop do this, they usually just look at it and say it can't be adjusted, but the shop I work at will go just a little further when doing alignments. Heck, we even shift subframes on vehicles, when the needed adjustments aren't available on the suspension itself.

I don't think I have seen a two-wheel alignment done in the shop- they all get the four-wheel alignment.

5Alive · October 10, 2006

If you pull the U-Bolts, replace them with new ones.

Properly torqued U-Bolts stretch. Once stretched to the book torque value, they have reached a point near their yield strength. To loosen them to install the new blocks and retightnen them again, you will be retightening bolts that have already yielded (stretched), so now you have to stretch them some more to acheive the torque spec. But steel can only be tensioned (stretched) so far before approach the limits of tensile strength. After you've restretched bolts that were already stretched, and then add the load of a pothole at 70 mph with the leverage of you big knarly looking lugged tires, how do you know if you will encounter a sudden tensile failure?

You don't.

So the best practice is to replace the U-Bolts, just like every professionally written service manual, including the factory service manual from GM, instructs to do as a required procedure whenever loosening Ubolts on a leaf suspension system.

Better safe than sorry, right?