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HOW to adjust Adjustable control arms

kubtastic

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Tacoma, WA
Ok. I have adjustable uppers and lowers. My castor angle is terrible (about 0.5 degrees), and the alignment shop guy says - yeah, just do one arm at a time, adjust the arm, and put it back in. Is this possible? Can i move the axle around with the weight of the car on it, and only have 3 arms connected at a time? Also, which end should i do it at? the ball joint ends are easier to get in and out, but are an absolute pain to get straightened to fit in the bolt holes (I'm talking about the RE adjustable lowers). The end that attaches to the drop brackets take a crowbar to move around. PITA. He said they need to be at least an inch longer on the bottom, both sides, to get to about 4 degrees of castor. Should I just pay these guys about $100 to adjust the arms and toe-in?
 
I wouldn't let anyone at an alignment shop mess with adjusting my control arms, but if you feel comfortable letting them do it and you don't have the means to do it yourself, then find out if anyone lives in your area on these forums that can help you out. As for adjusting the RE adj control arms, 3 full turns equal 1/4" (1.5 turns = 1/8"). Since you have adj uppers and lowers, maybe push the lca's out half, and bring the uppers in half, or something to that effect. Do one arm at a time, axle end is easiest to remove and adjust. Grab the small bottle jack that should be under your back seat, or get one from the store (cheap). You can use the bottle jack to place between the frame/unibody and the axle/shock mount to push the axle out, and use another jack to push the pinion up at the same time to make things go easier.


How much lift do you have?
 
Lift? 5.5" as far as the kit says. (RE 6200 5.5" extreme duty, with drop brackets and adjustable arms all around)
I ripped apart my stock stuff so fast I forgot to measure the stock height, so I don't get to do any before/after math on the real height.
 
OK, that helps. I have that kit on both my XJ's, and if I remember correctly, my lowers are set about 16 1/4", and the uppers are at 15 3/8", with my caster sitting about 5*. It's been awhile, but that sounds pretty close.
 
I wanna double check - It's ok to undo 1 of 4 control arms without anything jacked up? (chock rear tires and pull e-brake is the plan).
 
Yes, it is ok. It's just easier with the tires out of the way.
 
Just noticed you were in the Springs. My inlaws live there, and I try to sneak out to hit a trail whenever we come up to visit. We'll have to get together next time we come up (spring maybe?). Here are some pictures of the last time we were there when we ran off to Red Cone: http://www.rocklizardfabrications.com/trail_rides.htm
 
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