Alignment?

[XbajajeepX]

What all do they do when you get an alignment? I installed my RE 3.5" lift on sunday and took the jeep to Big O this morning to get the alignment done. After they got it up on the lift and what not they told me that it would be an extra two hours of labor, $250 total. They said that they would have to drop to tie rod and adjust all the ball joints. I dont think they actually wanted to do the work so they sent me somewhere else. I have an appointment with that guy tomorrow. Does this sound right to you guys?

 

[MetViper]

Sounds like lazyness to me. I got my alignment done last week for $63.50.

 

[JLane99XJ]

..extra two hours of labor,... $250 total. ...Does this sound right to you guys?

NO

find a front-end specific shop to take it to..

should NOT cost more than $100,, actually i think with mine the 1st lift i did a 3" and the guy charged me $40..

if you're ball-joints (not the tie-rod ends) are bad then MAYBE your total bill might be near $250..
even if they have to replace all of the tie-rods ends no way should it be 250..

you can actually do the allignment yourself with a tape measure..

its been a while since i've had a stock-steering setup so i can't really recall all that's involved but its fairly simple..

mostly all that is involved with an allignment is setting the toe-in (back to zero) and centering the steering wheel, all that is needed to do that is to loosen the tie-rod connectors and twisting the tie-rod in/out to get the proper measurements, and same for the drag-link to center the steering wheel..

 

[Gojeep]

As above, do it yourself so at least you will get the caster done as well as most shops wont even bother to do that.
See my site on how to. www.go.jeep-xj.info

 

[coupleaxjs]

find a front-end specific shop to take it to..

X2

These guys know a lot more about what they're doing than the local tire shop. The place I take mine only charges 40 or 60 bucks and they do a great job.

 

[scorpio_vette]

my 3" lift with solid control arms cost me like $60. on my TJ with 4" lift and upper/lower adjustable control arms, the alignment cost me around $200 because they had to disconnect the control arms from the axle and turn them in/out to adjust it. by the time everything was said and done, they had to switch from the alignment rack to a regular rack a billion times, cuz their alignment rack wasn't big enough to lift the TJ that high, and they had to disconnect the control arms from the axle 5 or 6 times. i did give the mechanic a $50 cash tip. after all, even with all that trouble, it was one of the best alignments i've ever had.