Am I just getting ripped off?

Recently I installed the RE 5.5" Xd lift and everything is great! It rides great and their are no vibes. So I took it to get aligned at a shop that was reccomended to me that has a good rep, dropped it off and about an hour later the guys calls me and says that it cant be aligned because I dont have a dropped pitman arm. I told him that I heard I didnt need one and he said well I cant align it w/o one because something with the draglink that it cant go any further or something. He said get a drop pitman arm and we'll put it on for $60 and then align it. Then I searched the forum and people were saying that the draglink and Trackbar (i have a tb drop bracket and adj Tb) should be parallel. So i looked and my draglink is about an inch too high. So should I get one that drops about an 1" or just go somewhere else to get it aligned?

Thanks.

you dont NEED one...

True, you don't need one. But many shops won't even try to align a lifted XJ without one. If you don't want to align it yourself, then you had better get the dropped pitman arm.

:conceited shop. I have the same lift and don't have a drop pitman. You don't need it. If the shop says they can't align it, they're doing something wrong. Try another shop before you get screwed. Hope this helps.

Freakn I ran into the problem where shops won't do mine because I have the quick disco. sway bar. I took it to about five places, then finally found a alignment specialty shop that was willing to do it. The other shops said that it was too loose or things could move arround too much because of the quick disco....something like that. But yeah what a PITA that was!....anyays I'm sure you could find a 4X$ shop that can do it with out the drop pitman arm

IF you are dead set on getting a pitman arm, call your local dealer and order one for a ZJ. (Any ZJ will do). It will cost you alot less than a "drop" pitman arm from a 4x4 shop. It's good for about 1/2" drop. Not to mention for the $60 they're going to charge you to put it on you can buy a nice pitman arm puller, do it yourself, and charge your buddies $25 every time you have to pull theirs.

MIke

Thanks for the input guys! Just wondering though, ones who have the same lift or around, how far is your draglink from the trackbar? Also the guy said that if I dont get one and get it alinged my tires will wear out quickly and also that my tierod ends are going to be under alot of stress. The thing that makes me think that they are really trying to help me is that he actually went under the truck with me and my dad there and was explaining everything to me. If I got one though that had about 3/4" pr 1" drop it wouldnt hurt anything right? It would line my draglink almost exactly parallel to my tb.

I agree, I ran my XJ, with the exact same lift.

I was able to do it myself with no issues and it was dead on after doing it 3 or 4 times. I would re-do it after every wheeling trip. If I can do it in my driveway then some fawk-tard should be able to do it in a real shop with one of those laser guided bench tools they seem to love to use now.

Hmmmm..... I've had my XJ up at 6" of lift for the last 3 years. Just for grins, I had the alignment checked. The small mom&pop shop didn't even blink, just put it on the rack, no squawking. Of course, I did tell them I just wanted it checked, and the numbers, and that I was very specifically NOT asking them to adjust anything. FWIW, it came out at 5 degrees caster, 0 camber and just a hair under neutral toe-in.

Well,I do my own alignment,I don't have a dropped pittman arm,and my lift is about the same.

Great info guys! So it looks like I shouldn't get one and just find a shop that will do it.

like everybody is saying, you don't NEED a drop pitman arm.
But, like the tech at the shop said it DOES help with stress points
and it also allows for more adjustment ant more available threads inside the
sleeve. It will line up the geometry and reduce bumpsteer but even without
it your bumpsteer won't be all that bad if you got decent rubber holding things straight.
Bottom line.. Do what you want. If you buy one you're out more $$ but you are stretching out the life of your steering links.

EDIT: like you, I didn't want to fork over the $$ but needed to after I got over 10" lift. But then the steering was completely rebuilt anyway.