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alignment issues

2qk4u

NAXJA Forum User
Location
florida
Have any of you had problems getting your xj aligned after installing the lift? I just installed a 4.5 RE lift on my jeep and had it aligned and no one can seem to get it right. It still wants to drift to the right. has anyone els had this problem? First off i installed the lift, put my new 32's on it and drove it. it seemed to go pretty straight other than the steering wheel was off about 90 degrees. so i went and got it aligned like you should do. when they aligned it the pushed the lower control arme foward to get caster adjustment and when he did that he didnt have any shims to fill in the gap on the aft part of the lower control arms. i had it aligned on the stock tires so they would scuff up my new wheels. some people said it didnt matter what tires i had on for the alignment. so when i drove it home it did ok. i put the 32's on and it pulled bad to the right. i didnt like how they didnt put any shims in the lower control arms. i decided to take it somewhere else that delt with lifted vehicle. they ended up pushing the lower control arms back the th normal position and messes with the toe and its a little better, but it still wants to drift to the right. im really worried about tire wear issues later down the road. Is anyone having tire wear problems on there xj? any advice is highly appreciated


thanks
 
are those arms adjustable? Sounds like you are having a castor angle problem. Mine did the same thing when I first put my lift on. I went to sears and bought me a 3 dollar magnetic protractor and did my castor angle myself and then had the shop do the toe in so I could get a print out of the angles and measurements. Try measuring your castor angle first. The tires shouldn't have anything to do with your jeep pulling to the left or right unless they are unballanced, mounted wrong, or in some other way messed up. I donno, just my 2c.
 
I think that you should try having it aligned with the 32s on it. The bigger tires will make the jeep sit higher and what I have been taught is that all the alignment angles change when ride height changes. That is why the first step to an alignment is to make sure the tires are inflated to the right pressure because if one is low it'll affect the height of the vehicle.
 
for all of you with lifted xj's , do most of you have some kinda thick shims in the rear of your lower control arms. basically what im trying to say is your control arms shove forward, so you need shims to take up the space. its where the 12mm nuts with studs are on the rear section of the lower control arm. i got fixed control arms with the RE 6130 lift and the only caster adj. is in the rear part on the control arm, with shims. if your not sure could you look please and let me know. just trying to get an idea how important it is to have it shimmed like that

thanks
 
Swap the front tires side to side and see if it follows the tires. It is fairly common to have a tire that causes a pull.

Other than that, do a search on tape measure alignment and do it yourself.
 
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