Alignment Problem after LCA Repair?

I need a little advice on what I hope is a minor issue with my 96 XJ. After my last trail ride, I was unloading from my trailer and noticed what I thought was a torn bushing on the passenger side lower control arm (Rusty's non-adjustable). Further inspection uncovered a break at the weld where the collar and the tube attach. I sent it to Rusty and he chose to repair it rather than replacing the entire unit. I had no problem with that since the weld on the repair looked better than the original. I installed the LCA, and as was the case when I first installed them, I had to use a hand-winch to align the bolt hole in the LCA bushing and the mount. As is often the case, this was done in the dark. All seemed to be okay and I drove it a few miles. I knew very quickly that if I went any faster or hit a bump in the road, I would have death wobble, just by the way the steering felt. I looked at it again yesterday afternoon in the daylight and was surprised to see that the top of the tires were pulled way in...or the bottom was way out, not sure which. I assume that I need to adjust the tie rod to try and strighten this out, but I honestly don't know if there will be enough adjustment allowed as it looks way off. The LCA didn't seem to be any longer or shorter than before the repair and it didn't take all that much pulling with the come-a-long to align the mounting bolt. Is this normal? What would cause such a drastic change? Any suggestions. I have no time to take it to an alignment shop as I have a ORV work weekend with the Forest Service this weekend and unless there is not enough travel on the adjusting sleeve/tie rod, I should be able to get it close enough myself. Suggestions welcome, I've not had to deal with this before so am at a bit of a loss. Thanks!

My thoughts,

Get a tape measure and check the distance from bolt center to bolt center on the control arm. It should be the same on both sides. If it is, then you have some other damage that you have not uncovered. If the measurement is NOT the same then you still have an issue with Rustys.

If it's off top to bottom, that's a camber issue, which shouldn't be related to the control arm length. I'd make sure the unit bearing and ball joints are still tight.

First, I've found the easiest way to align the bolt hole when changing a control arm is to just roll the tire with your foot while you stick the bolt in........assuming that the rig is sitting on the ground and not up on a jack.

From what you said, the tires look closer together at the top than at the bottom, or they llok like they are leaning inward at the top, this would be a camber adjustment. There is no camber adjustment on a straight axle rig. This can be an optical illusion, or the tubes could be bent, or you could have badly worn ball joints. If it feels like it could have DW at any moment, check the ball joints by lifting the tires off the ground, grab the tire at the top and the bottom and see if it has any play...it shouldn't have any. Also, take a long pry bar or something and lift up on the bottom of the tire, again there shouldn't be any play or movement, if there is then the ball joints are bad.

If the tires are pointing inward more at the front or the back of the tire, then this is the toe adjustment, and you can do that yourself. Pick a point on the tread that's the same on both front tires and measure between those points on the front and on the back of the tires....the distance should be the same. You can adjust it by loosening and turning the collar on the drag link next to the pitman arm.

Goatman said:

You can adjust it by loosening and turning the collar on the drag link next to the pitman arm.

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This would be to center the steering wheel, no?

Toe adjustment should be on the driver's side of the tie rod, near the knuckle.

vetteboy said:

This would be to center the steering wheel, no?

Toe adjustment should be on the driver's side of the tie rod, near the knuckle.

Click to expand...

:doh:

Thanks for the correction. I'm still drinking my first cup of coffee this morning.

Thanks for the input. Ironically, I checked the ball joints and bearings last week as I always do after a trail ride. That's when I noticed the broken LCA weld. I think I would have noticed hitting something hard enough to bend the tube, but anything's possible. I removed and replaced the LCA in the driveway, without lifting the vehicle. I wonder if things got out of position when I used the come-a-long to line the holes back up with it sitting on the ground? I don't know why it would have, but the weight sitting on the suspension could have kept it from lining back up correctly. Still, it is really pulled in at the top. I wonder how much the arm being out of position could really affect that?

rbarton said:

Thanks for the input. Ironically, I checked the ball joints and bearings last week as I always do after a trail ride. That's when I noticed the broken LCA weld. I think I would have noticed hitting something hard enough to bend the tube, but anything's possible. I removed and replaced the LCA in the driveway, without lifting the vehicle. I wonder if things got out of position when I used the come-a-long to line the holes back up with it sitting on the ground? I don't know why it would have, but the weight sitting on the suspension could have kept it from lining back up correctly. Still, it is really pulled in at the top. I wonder how much the arm being out of position could really affect that?

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It can't. The tire/wheel position relative to the axle tube cannot be affected by the control arms. I'm assuming that by "pulled in at the top" you mean that it looks like the top of the two front tires is leaning inward, so from the front the tires look like they're wider at the bottom than at the top. If so, this is camber, and is only controlled by the ball joints or the straightness of the axle it self.

Or the hubs, if they're bad...

I once had an alignment shop call and tell me they couldn't align mine because the "spindles were bent". Turns out the wheel bearing had enough slop that it made the wheel go a little crooked.

Re: Alignment Problem after LCA Repair? Reinstall Trouble.

Thanks for the input. I shipped the repaired arm to Rusty and shipped it back saying it was a little longer than it should have been and had been corrected.

I tried to install them last night, but could not get the axle and the arms to line up. I disconnected the sway bar, but that helped little to none. I tried winching the axle towards the passenger side of the vehicle, but it doesn't seem to want to move. I know I should have not taken both LCAs off at once, but I had little choice.

Any suggestions on getting this thing back into position will be greatly appreciated.

Pulling both arms off with the springs in place cause the axle to rotate down at the front and move to the rear. To remove both arms without first removing springs, track bar, etc, I made a couple of cheapo replacement arms out of 3/16x1 inch square tubing, with a large bolt in one end to allow for adjustment. Works great. Just get one side back to where it belongs, and the other side will follow.
Or, maybe you could try blocks behind the front wheels, then back the Jeep up?
With regard to the tops of the tires slanting in, the control arms wouldn't cause that. It's an unrelated problem. Bent axle, bad ball joints, bad unit bearings, bent inner "c's" are the likely candidates. Bad ball joints could definitely cause "death wobble".
One LCA shorter than the other "may" contribute to pulling to one side, but not likely to cause "death wobble".

Here's how I realigned mine after installing new arms:

vetteboy said:

Here's how I realigned mine after installing new arms:

Click to expand...

Now theres a great way to put those wacky jacks to work!!!!:cheers: