Question on alignment

[Bill_P]

OK, so I replaced my stock control alarms with the Mopar extended LCAs on my Willy's XR. My question is do I get an alignment done now that I've replaced them. I've read other threads where people are in both camps. Some say always get an alignment and others say that you only get one if you use an adjustable LCA. After I swapped everything I took it for a test drive and the steering doesn't seem to wander as much And it tracks pretty straight even when accelerating. What all is affected by adding the longer fixed LCA?

Sponsored

 

[Yawnie'sPapa]

OK, so I replaced my stock control alarms with the Mopar extended LCAs on my Willy's XR. My question is do I get an alignment done now that I've replaced them. I've read other threads where people are in both camps. Some say always get an alignment and others say that you only get one if you use an adjustable LCA. After I swapped everything I took it for a test drive and the steering doesn't seem to wander as much And it tracks pretty straight even when accelerating. What all is affected by adding the longer fixed LCA?

Skip the alignment. The lower control arms only change caster.
It won't change toe or steering wheel centering.
The dealership can't truly align a stock Jeep without swapping parts anyway - all they can do is set toe and center the steering wheel.
They can't adjust for a pull - that would mean changing camber/camber split or changing caster/caster split - and unless you tear things apart and swap parts, a dealership can't do that.

I put the longer LCAs on mine as well - in preparation for the Synergy springs I put under the front of my Gladiator handle the weight I put up front.

Unless you had a problem with toe and/or steering wheel centering before, I'd skip the alignment (and to think I worked my way through college doing alignments and brakes - and I'm saying skip the alginment)

IF you see abnormal tire wear - feathering across the face of the front tires, toe is likely to be ok. And it sounds like it handles ok now.

 

[DOOKEY]

Yes.
[/thread]

 

[stumblinhorse]

It is interesting there are 2 camps. If you look under the front end of a Jeep there really isn’t much that is adjustable. That is why it is called a straight axle and is 50 year old technology. That is not a bad thing. Less stuff to break off road.

You installed LCAs that have no adjustment, so what would a shop adjust?

Major surgery is required to a straight axle vehicle if you truly want to get alignment to a specific spec. That is why people say “it drives like a Jeep”.

And furthermore, any alignment on a mostly stock Jeep should cost less than $50. It takes longer to put the Jeep on an alignment rack than it does to adjust toe and the steering wheel. Alignments are generally a waste of money on a fixed axle vehicle. Obviously unless there is a major problem and major surgery of adjustable ball joints and control arms are required to fix a bent frame or other damage.

So to hopefully end the ”2 camps”. Unless you put on adjustable parts that replace fixed parts, all there really is is the steering wheel to adjust. And alignment shops never do a good job with that anyway and you‘ll have to redo it. I wouldn’t worry too much about the “toe” adjustment unless you see strange tire wear.

 

[Roky]

OK, so I replaced my stock control alarms with the Mopar extended LCAs on my Willy's XR. My question is do I get an alignment done now that I've replaced them. I've read other threads where people are in both camps. Some say always get an alignment and others say that you only get one if you use an adjustable LCA. After I swapped everything I took it for a test drive and the steering doesn't seem to wander as much And it tracks pretty straight even when accelerating. What all is affected by adding the longer fixed LCA?

Hi Bill, if you want to see your numbers on paper so you know where your caster ended up or whatever, then spend the hundred bucks, but you don’t need an alignment. I do all my own alignments, and my rig hasn’t been on the rack in 4 years. Even after I installed my long arm kit….. if your rig is tracking straight, and your tires aren’t showing any unusual wear, your golden…..

 

[Bill_P]

Thanks for the replies. I kind of figured an alignment wasn't absolutely needed but I will keep an eye on the tires and the general feel of it. I checked the caster with my angle finder and I'm sitting right at +1 which, if I'm not mistaken, means I should be close to 7 degrees. First time I've ever done this so I just wanted to be sure. Thanks again.

 

[DOOKEY]

Thanks for the replies. I kind of figured an alignment wasn't absolutely needed but I will keep an eye on the tires and the general feel of it. I checked the caster with my angle finder and I'm sitting right at +1 which, if I'm not mistaken, means I should be close to 7 degrees. First time I've ever done this so I just wanted to be sure. Thanks again.

Only 1 way to be sure. And it's cheap. ??

 

[stumblinhorse]

Thanks for the replies. I kind of figured an alignment wasn't absolutely needed but I will keep an eye on the tires and the general feel of it. I checked the caster with my angle finder and I'm sitting right at +1 which, if I'm not mistaken, means I should be close to 7 degrees. First time I've ever done this so I just wanted to be sure. Thanks again.

On a stock XR package Jeep you probably don’t have 7* of caster after the mopar lift LCAs. But you should still be fine, I wouldn’t worry about it.

 

[Wabujitsu]

It is interesting there are 2 camps. If you look under the front end of a Jeep there really isn’t much that is adjustable. That is why it is called a straight axle and is 50 year old technology. That is not a bad thing. Less stuff to break off road.

You installed LCAs that have no adjustment, so what would a shop adjust?

Major surgery is required to a straight axle vehicle if you truly want to get alignment to a specific spec. That is why people say “it drives like a Jeep”.

And furthermore, any alignment on a mostly stock Jeep should cost less than $50. It takes longer to put the Jeep on an alignment rack than it does to adjust toe and the steering wheel. Alignments are generally a waste of money on a fixed axle vehicle. Obviously unless there is a major problem and major surgery of adjustable ball joints and control arms are required to fix a bent frame or other damage.

So to hopefully end the ”2 camps”. Unless you put on adjustable parts that replace fixed parts, all there really is is the steering wheel to adjust. And alignment shops never do a good job with that anyway and you‘ll have to redo it. I wouldn’t worry too much about the “toe” adjustment unless you see strange tire wear.

Not *exactly* true.

I noticed some uneven tire wear last week on my JLUR. I took it to a local shop last Thursday, where for $110 they aligned it, including caster and camber along with toe.

There are shims and brackets that allow Jeep JL and JT caster and camber to be adjusted. I wasn’t charged for the parts; their flat fee for alignment is $110. It no longer requires replacement of fixed parts with adjustable parts.

 

[stumblinhorse]

Not *exactly* true.

I noticed the outside edge of both front tires was wearing more than the rest of the tire, including the inside edge. I took it to a local shop last Thursday, where for $110 they aligned it, including caster and camber along with toe.

There are shims and brackets that allow Jeep JL and JT caster and camber to be adjusted. I wasn’t charged for the parts; their flat fee for alignment is $110. It no longer requires replacement of fixed parts with adjustable parts.

Hmm, I think you got swindled. Would like to see what they did to adjust camber and caster with “shims” on a JL. Best they could have done for that money is to destroy your LCA holes by reaming them out to add cams. If they did that then you need to disclose that to any buyer because I would lose my st!t if I got home and saw that on a Jeep that I bought. That would give you incurable death wobble within 10k miles..

 

[srt20]

Not *exactly* true.

I noticed some uneven tire wear last week on my JLUR. I took it to a local shop last Thursday, where for $110 they aligned it, including caster and camber along with toe.

There are shims and brackets that allow Jeep JL and JT caster and camber to be adjusted. I wasn’t charged for the parts; their flat fee for alignment is $110. It no longer requires replacement of fixed parts with adjustable parts.

There is no shims. And they would have to use a relocation bracket which would have to be pretty beefy and therefore wouldn’t be free.

 

[Zandcwhite]

Only 1 way to be sure. And it's cheap. ??

Free protractor app on your phone, doesn't get any cheaper and you'll be sure what your caster is.

 

[stumblinhorse]

There is no shims. And they would have to use a relocation bracket which would have to be pretty beefy and therefore wouldn’t be free.

Before the precision of today’s manufacturing, no 2 straight axle vehicles would come off the assembly line with the same alignment spec. So they had slotted holes in the axle for the control arms. And they could be adjusted by sliding the axle forward or backward. Then tighten down the bolt. They had eccentric washers on the bolts to try to hold the arms in place. Some places still do that kind of BS to jeeps. Some one on the 392 forum let the dealer fix the low camber on a 392 that way…. As you can guess it doesn’t hold up and the slot hogs out bigger and boom death wobble and soiled under garments ensue….

It is silly with all the ways it can be fixed, like you mentioned, the easiest way is relo brackets, that this kind of nonsense still happens.

 

[Wabujitsu]

There is no shims. And they would have to use a relocation bracket which would have to be pretty beefy and therefore wouldn’t be free.

Hmm, I think you got swindled. Would like to see what they did to adjust camber and caster with “shims” on a JL. Best they could have done for that money is to destroy your LCA holes by reaming them out to add cams. If they did that then you need to disclose that to any buyer because I would lose my st!t if I got home and saw that on a Jeep that I bought. That would give you incurable death wobble within 10k miles..

Thanks guys. Clearly alignments are not my field of expertise ? I will dig into this some more. I REALLY appreciate the correction and the heads-up!

 

[Signal512]

Hey folks,

Resurrecting an old thread here hoping someone can help me with an alignment question. I had my 2020 JLU Wrangler Rubicon in the repair shop for some suspension damage to the rear.

After repairs were made, they sent it to a shop to align it and now the vehicle trammels quite a bit. Certainly more than it did before. And tires squeal when turning at low speed.

It seems to track straight enough though...

But the trammel is way bad now...

Any thoughts on what might need to be looked at?

Thank you!

Sponsored