Alignment

[Rudeboyrob88]

Hey guys, I brought my XJ in for alignment this weekend. It needed it pretty bad since I thought the guys at 4 wheel parts did it when they did my lift. Apparently they lied to me, and I have been driving a newly lifted un-aligned jeep since December. Anyway, Big O did the job, and the guy told me that he couldn't zero the Camber. He said that the manufacturer does not provide proper zero camber specs, or something like that. He said that a lot of Jeeps have the same problem. Just want to know if this is true, and if it is, if there is anything that can be done to correct it.

[nagal]

Please correct me if I am wrong here, but as far as I know you can not set camber on a Dana 30. Now, if he meant caster that is a different story but going out on a limb here, I believe a XJ will run between 5-7 degrees of positive caster.

I am sure this is all in the FSM but I dont have one of those for a XJ

[Dukes69]

There is no camber adjustment on your D30. Your camber can be screwed up by either worn out ball joints or unit bearings. Now if he said caster, thats a different story.

[Rudeboyrob88]

I am sure he said camber. He said that the inside of my front driver tire will wear the fastest, and there was nothing else that he could do to fix it. I am not a tech, or mechanic, but wanted to know if there was something I should look at replacing.

[Dukes69]

ball joints

[Davisrats]

Or a bent axle.

[aston]

ball joints

Seconded.

Jack up the vehicle and place it securely on jackstands. Then have an assistant lift the lower edge of the tire. Try and rock the wheel back and forth so you can feel any free play.

Then stick your head underneath and see what's going on.

Check both sides. For some inexplicable reason one may be shot and the other is fine.

[rick]

Or wheel bearings or unit bearings as you newfangled jeep owners call em. My CJ had about 13 degrees camber when I got it because of wheel bearings...

[blkTJ]

wheel bearings... what a pain.

btw rick, I found the spares... I threw 'em in the tool bag. :confused2 :oops:

[mrblaine]

I am sure he said camber. He said that the inside of my front driver tire will wear the fastest, and there was nothing else that he could do to fix it. I am not a tech, or mechanic, but wanted to know if there was something I should look at replacing.

Find a real alignment guy and get your money back from that stupid wrench monkey.

Even stock with non adjustable control arms, caster and or camber can be adjusted to fix minor issues with adjustable upper balljoints that start at .5 of a degree and continue in half degree increments to 2 degrees in any direction.

You can rotate them forward or backward to solve caster issues, inside or outside to fix a camber issue, or somewhere in between to fix a little of both.

Common fix and even a TSB from DC for some years of the D-30 that had minor issues from the jigs they were built in.

edit- here you go- http://www.specprod.com/MAIN_DIR/LtTruckSUV_04.pdf

Arrow down to part numbers 23510 through 23540. Offset balljoints for Jeep.

btw- these folks are also the ones that make the pricey real version of the HF 3 in 1 tool. I have one and it never even whimpers taking out and installing balljoints.