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critique my alignment numbers.

O

outlander

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Columbus,Ohio
Went to have the jeep aligned and need thoughts and opinions on what I should do.Thrust angle -0.2*.I knew the castor was off and is a non issue.The toe was way off(to be expected because I have done some steering work)The left camber is -1.2* and the right is -1.0* these are new ball joints.

My question is:is that enough to cause bad tire wear?Obviously 0* camber would be ideal but what is acceptable?Does this justify new adjustable ball joints?
Is it possible that their laser was confused because the toe was way out?Weird how both sides are off by the same amount.Also weird that the left rear had 0.30* of toe...wtf?

I'm kinda freaked because I have brand new tires......

BTW if you need an alignment dont go to NTB they said they dont have a procedure to adjust a trac bar...lol not to mention the tech tried to tell me that jeeps are harder to align than cars.
 
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5.5 RE

I am capable of doing it myself.....I've got a busy schedule right now.I'm not worried about toe I can easily adjust that.....the reason I took it to a shop was to see where the camber is at(my biggest concern)

So are adjustable ball joints warranted to get 0* of camber?What is the tolerance if any?
Will 1* of negative camber eat tires badly?
 
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Camber should be close enough to zero, unless your axle is bent. It is considered to be non-adjustable. You know about toe in. And caster needs to be adjusted with adjustable control arms when you lift. I don't think camber will hurt you much. Most cars with independent front suspensions (almost all) run a good amount (at least a degree, I am confident) to help cornering. If you drive a vehicle hard, the outside of the front tires wears first. Negative camber helps compensate for this. So if you actually have negative camber at the front, this is probably good.


:read:More research tells us that 1/2 degree is actually what most street rodders shoot for, even with an independent front end. And let's think about this. If it's out one degree, it would be out of square .017" per inch. With a 15" wheel, it would be out .255" or about 1/4" from the top of the wheel to the bottom. You could verify that with a big carpenter's square on some flat pavement. I really don't think that would hurt anyway. It should help cornering in a front heavy vehicle.
 
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So your position is live with it?So with regular tire rotation tire wear shouldn't be too extreme?
Guess I'll make tire rotation part of my religion.....
 
i wouldnt worry about that little ammount of camber. toe should be your biggest worry its the biggest tire eater! just make sure you rotate those tires every 4 - 5 thousand miles.
-Chad
 
reviving this thread:
Took my jeep in for another alignment from a reputable shop today and got some bad news that drivers side camber is worse than the other shop measured:
negative 2* and passenger is negative 1.5* I suspected this because when looking at the tires from the font the negative camber is visible.......

I know I can get adjustable ball joints but should I just find another axle?
IDK if its the tubes,knuckles or both that are bent.

I have a little bit of time invested in this axle such as welded on LCA skids,re-inforced UCA mount and alloy usa tube seals so would like to keep it.

Should I get another axle and move on or get adjustable joints?
 
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You said you've got a 5.5" lift, when it was installed was anything done to the axle, I.E. rotate knuckles for proper caster, rotate coil buckets or anything? Also with the 5.5 do you have a short or long arm setup? If it's short arm it's possible that the axle is tilted just enough that the toe adjustment is angling down just a hair making it think the camber is off.
 
89 xj with a 99 non disco housing using the 89 knuckles.

It has a Short arm lift and the caster is out of spec for sure.......more input on that would be appreciated.Never thought about that dimension.....

How does one tell if its the axle or the knuckles that are bent?
 
Hell with it....I'm just going to rotate the tires regularly.
This thing has been on three alignment racks now this shop wants to charge me $80 more to center the trac bar via the adjustable trac bar.
 
For your '89 knuckles, there are eccentric bushing available for the lower ball joints. In my experience with an '87 and two '89s, the factory had poor control of camber in the manufacturing process.
 
outlander said:
Hell with it....I'm just going to rotate the tires regularly.
This thing has been on three alignment racks now this shop wants to charge me $80 more to center the trac bar via the adjustable trac bar.
Click to expand...

Disconnect the trackbar at the adjusting end. Bounce your front bumper up and down a few times. The Jeep is self-centering. Then adjust the trac bar to meet the hole.
 
It almost sounds like with the short arm lift and the axle rotated the way it is that it's more affected by the toe adjustment than a bent axle or knuckle. Another option that is available is adjustable lower ball joints that give you some slight camber adjustment.
 
Andy Steiner said:
Disconnect the trackbar at the adjusting end. Bounce your front bumper up and down a few times. The Jeep is self-centering. Then adjust the trac bar to meet the hole.
Click to expand...

x2, sometimes you have to do it more than once to get it exactly where you are comfortable with it, but that is all there is to it.
 
dave92cherokee said:
It almost sounds like with the short arm lift and the axle rotated the way it is that it's more affected by the toe adjustment than a bent axle or knuckle. Another option that is available is adjustable lower ball joints that give you some slight camber adjustment.
Click to expand...

Think so?


The thing that gets me is this axle came out of a fairly pristine 99 xj.If the axle was bent the donor xj would've had some signs that it was abused,jumped ect.

Hell there wasn't even any mud or anything under it like it was a highway queen all its life all the body lines were straight(I remember thinking to myself why this xj was in the JY in such good shape).....maybe the asshats at the yard dropped it off the forklift when they were putting it in the yard,IDK.

I'm not convinced the axle is bent I would be more prone to blame the 89 knuckles if anything just havent figured out how to determine if they are bent???

Not too sure what my next step should be.Opinions???
 
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My 98 was a little off from the factory. I can't remember the numbers now, but I left it alone for 50k miles with no problems. Then I installed adjustable upper bj's, aligned within spec, and have been driving the crap out of it for 175K miles. Currently running 5" lift with 35's and no issues.
The adjustable ball joints weren't cheap, but have held up just fine and the Jeep drives great down the road. I'd do the same thing if needed again.
 
Xtra camber won't hurt. Race cars build this in to corner better. Keep your air pressure a little on the high side to reduce inside corner wear. You could also have the tires remounted on the rims (later) if they show much wear on the inside. I don't think you will see a difference between one with zero camber..
 
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