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Jeep Pulls To The Right

bigfoot21075

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Looking for ideas. I have a 2021 JLUR. It has the Metalcloak 2.5" Game Changer lift and 37" Mastercraft Courser MXT tires. When it had 2,000 miles on it I took it to a shop to get the work done. Since then the Jeep pulls to the right.

I had it aligned when they did the work, I had it realigned and have the print out that shows it is within spec so it does not appear to be out of alignment according to 2 tire shops. I tried rotating the tires front to back in case one was cut funny. That did not make any difference. I have aired them up and down and tried several different pressure points, still pulls.

The Jeep tracked perfectly straight before the lift was installed, it now has 4,000 miles on it. It looks like I will have to take it and pay ANOTHER shop more money to fix it, I just wanted to see if anyone had any ideas on what the issue may be.
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Jeep&dogs

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Looking for ideas. I have a 2021 JLUR. It has the Metalcloak 2.5" Game Changer lift and 37" Mastercraft Courser MXT tires. When it had 2,000 miles on it I took it to a shop to get the work done. Since then the Jeep pulls to the right.

I had it aligned when they did the work, I had it realigned and have the print out that shows it is within spec so it does not appear to be out of alignment according to 2 tire shops. I tried rotating the tires front to back in case one was cut funny. That did not make any difference. I have aired them up and down and tried several different pressure points, still pulls.

The Jeep tracked perfectly straight before the lift was installed, it now has 4,000 miles on it. It looks like I will have to take it and pay ANOTHER shop more money to fix it, I just wanted to see if anyone had any ideas on what the issue may be.
Post a picture of your alignment specs
 

Djhyper66

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A lot of people had problem after they change the steering stabilizer .. did you upgrade that ??
 

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Did you swap the wheels or add a wheel spacer at the same time? When I changed my wheels & tires (17x18.5 0 offset, 315/70R17), the scrub radius was estimated to change 38mm (1.5") and I noticed it. Usually pulls in one direction, sometimes pulls to the other with periods of no pull. Not sure if stock is set up with pos/neg/zero scrub radius, but I added 1.5" of tread pulling each tire to the outside and reduced the counter pull to the inside by 1.5". AEV's JL wheels are 17x8.5 with a 25 mm offset, and with 37s, there is zero change in scrub radius.

Rim & Tire Size Calculator. Custom Offsets - Wheel-Size.com
 

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gato

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What kind of steering stabilizer do you have on it? If it is a pressurized, not-neutral or through-shaft, that may be your culprit.

Other than that...

You went from a Jeep that had 10-fixed-length links with no need for adjustment (8 control arms and 2 track bars), to one where all 10 of those links are variable length, *MUST* be adjusted exactly right, and secured with jam-nuts that must be tighten correctly, then inspected periodically. Anyone of those being incorrect, can cause issues, including pulling. In addition, re-adjusting/correcting those lengths on the Metalcloak lift requires unbolting and removing the links, which eats shop time.

10 links x 10 lengths x 10 jam-nuts = 1,000 opportunities for an error by the shop. Is your shop that good?

A lot of people jump into all adjustable links with jam-nuts without understanding how hard it is to get everything right on them. For a 2.5" lift kit the juice from all adjustable links is not worth the squeeze. You have to work to have them set up right with your shop.
 

somedude922

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I put the AEV lift on mine with fixed mopar LCAs. 37 ko2s with 17x9 wheels. Stock steering stabilizer. Mine has pulled right ever since the lift.
Jeep Wrangler JL Jeep Pulls To The Right C7614B55-02B4-47BC-93D7-984414D635D4
 

Jeep&dogs

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I put the AEV lift on mine with fixed mopar LCAs. 37 ko2s with 17x9 wheels. Stock steering stabilizer. Mine has pulled right ever since the lift.
Jeep Wrangler JL Jeep Pulls To The Right C7614B55-02B4-47BC-93D7-984414D635D4
The Jl is for some reason incredibly sensitive to the rear thrust angle. Just about every one I have seen or worked on that had a pull had the rear thrust off. Your alignment specs are showing the rear axle is toed out on the right and in on the left. The rear is ā€œpushingā€ it to the right. You really need to get the rear thrust on these things as close to zero as possible. The front steer axel is aligned off the rear....is the rear is off the front is off. If you have an adjustable rear track bar I would check to see that the rear is 100% perfectly centered, the rear is a triangular 4 link, if itā€™s off to one side or the other it will pull one side forward and the push the other back. If itā€™s centered you need adjustable rear arms. The driver side probably needs to be 3/16 longer. My Jeep rear thrust was -12.....and it had a pull, I squared the rear end so the thrust is zero and no pull.
 

XJfanatic

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You know most of these threads about pulling are to the right. Wide tires and road crown on a solid axle will do that. Add in radial pull on some of the popular tires and it only gets worse. I would honestly be more concerned if I saw some talk about their rig pulling left. Sorry not trying to be an ass.
 

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bigfoot21075

bigfoot21075

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Post a picture of your alignment specs

WILL DO!!


Need to make sure controls arms left to right are set very close to same length

I will take a look at those


Did you swap the wheels or add a wheel spacer at the same time? When I changed my wheels & tires (17x18.5 0 offset, 315/70R17), the scrub radius was estimated to change 38mm (1.5") and I noticed it. Usually pulls in one direction, sometimes pulls to the other with periods of no pull. Not sure if stock is set up with pos/neg/zero scrub radius, but I added 1.5" of tread pulling each tire to the outside and reduced the counter pull to the inside by 1.5". AEV's JL wheels are 17x8.5 with a 25 mm offset, and with 37s, there is zero change in scrub radius.

Rim & Tire Size Calculator. Custom Offsets - Wheel-Size.com

I did change the wheels when I did the tires, yes the offset is different by a good bit.


What kind of steering stabilizer do you have on it? If it is a pressurized, not-neutral or through-shaft, that may be your culprit.

Other than that...

You went from a Jeep that had 10-fixed-length links with no need for adjustment (8 control arms and 2 track bars), to one where all 10 of those links are variable length, *MUST* be adjusted exactly right, and secured with jam-nuts that must be tighten correctly, then inspected periodically. Anyone of those being incorrect, can cause issues, including pulling. In addition, re-adjusting/correcting those lengths on the Metalcloak lift requires unbolting and removing the links, which eats shop time.

10 links x 10 lengths x 10 jam-nuts = 1,000 opportunities for an error by the shop. Is your shop that good?

A lot of people jump into all adjustable links with jam-nuts without understanding how hard it is to get everything right on them. For a 2.5" lift kit the juice from all adjustable links is not worth the squeeze. You have to work to have them set up right with your shop.
I think you hit the answer, I need to take it to a Jeep shop. I took it to a general truck outfitter because they were recommended by MyTop for the top installation and they were great for the top. They are just not Jeep experts. Wish I would have known. Luckily we have an expert 30 min away called Joe's Jeep Jungle. I will take it there.

THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

gato

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I think you hit the answer, I need to take it to a Jeep shop. I took it to a general truck outfitter because they were recommended by MyTop for the top installation and they were great for the top. They are just not Jeep experts. Wish I would have known. Luckily we have an expert 30 min away called Joe's Jeep Jungle. I will take it there.

THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good luck. So long as they take the time measuring setting all the lengths correctly and you don't have a pressurized/non-neutral steering stabilizer, everything should align nicely and provide a straight ride.
 

BDinTX

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The Jl is for some reason incredibly sensitive to the rear thrust angle. Just about every one I have seen or worked on that had a pull had the rear thrust off. Your alignment specs are showing the rear axle is toed out on the right and in on the left. The rear is ā€œpushingā€ it to the right. You really need to get the rear thrust on these things as close to zero as possible. The front steer axel is aligned off the rear....is the rear is off the front is off. If you have an adjustable rear track bar I would check to see that the rear is 100% perfectly centered, the rear is a triangular 4 link, if itā€™s off to one side or the other it will pull one side forward and the push the other back. If itā€™s centered you need adjustable rear arms. The driver side probably needs to be 3/16 longer. My Jeep rear thrust was -12.....and it had a pull, I squared the rear end so the thrust is zero and no pull.
This makes a LOT of sense, thank you for pointing it out. I checked my alignment sheet and it appears Iā€™m in the same boat. Right pull is slight enough I wasnā€™t sure if it was just road crown but I think I need to push my rear trackbar out a half turn...
Jeep Wrangler JL Jeep Pulls To The Right 7F5DD802-2678-4E6A-8C42-F74587E6C3F3
 

Jeep&dogs

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This makes a LOT of sense, thank you for pointing it out. I checked my alignment sheet and it appears Iā€™m in the same boat. Right pull is slight enough I wasnā€™t sure if it was just road crown but I think I need to push my rear trackbar out a half turn...
Jeep Wrangler JL Jeep Pulls To The Right 7F5DD802-2678-4E6A-8C42-F74587E6C3F3

Best way to get it as close as possible is to put the rear on jack stands and pull both rear tires. Use a short level and put it against the rotor and measure from the level to the frame.
 

BDinTX

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Best way to get it as close as possible is to put the rear on jack stands and pull both rear tires. Use a short level and put it against the rotor and measure from the level to the frame.
Wow, hadn't thought about that. I was considering a slight adjustment, test drive, repeat as necessary. I just called the shop that did the alignment though and asked "Is this something they would have adjusted if they'd realized there was an adjustable track bar?" He said they should have so I'll let them use their laser wizardry Thursday.
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