Weird Alignment Issue

livingwithcause

livingwithcause

New member
So recently I felt like my Jeep was getting out of alignment. Tire wear was off and it was pulling every so often. Took it in to a local tire and lube shop. Came back in and they said it was all in spec and good to go. I pull out of the drive from there and it feels a bit funny. But assumed it was just getting use to it being in actual alignment. Thus I drove it for a week. It is yanking me everywhere. Get home to check the alignment and you can see this from just looking from the top:

20150318_083445.jpg
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Way off and looks like some is shifted. So I run a line around both tires (holding a silver sharpie and spinning the wheels. Assuming one would cause like a spiral...it doesn't. So I measure from front of the tire (one the line I made) to the other tire's line. Move to the back and do the same and its only 1/4 of an inch wider on back....... so there is a toe in. I measure about 6 more times and its the same every time. So I measure inside the wheel well to solid points and the passenger side tire that looks off shows almost an 1.5 inch difference in toe than the driver side tire. Thinking I might have a warped wheel I spun and marked again and the line is straight as an arrow on both wheels. I'm lost.

Here is a front view too. Maybe I am measuring wrong. Who knows.
20150318_083508.jpg
 
Did the shop give you a print out of the alignment readings? If so, it should show before and after readings.

From the pics, it looks like you have way to much toe-out which would explain the wandering all over the road and uneven tire wear. Things to check: Worn steering and suspension components. (tie-rod ends, ball joints, control arm bushings, wheel bearings for starters.
 
First off, 1/4" is a lot of toe-in and I would adjust that so you're closer to 1/16" or 1/8" at the very most. Second, the handling issues you're describing sounds like you might have too little positive caster or maybe even no caster/negative caster. I would double check that. As far as your tires go when you look at them from the top, that's hard to say - it does look funny but I would start with what you can address by the numbers before you go off of how something looks.
 
JeepFan said:
Did the shop give you a print out of the alignment readings? If so, it should show before and after readings.

From the pics, it looks like you have way to much toe-out which would explain the wandering all over the road and uneven tire wear. Things to check: Worn steering and suspension components. (tie-rod ends, ball joints, control arm bushings, wheel bearings for starters.
Click to expand...

They had a print out and I was in a rush to get out and didn't grab it. Now I wish I did.


Thanks guys! I'll take a look.
 
Got up under there last night and think I have an issue:
20150317_211050.jpg

Its on the front axle (Dana 30) on the passenger side, also the side I seem to have some problems. Gotta get that fixed first.
 
After getting the bracket positioned back and welded all the crazy swaying and pulling has gone away. Only thing now is the get the track bar adjusted correctly (whoever did the lift initianally didn't adjust it).
 
The alignment shop should have noticed the track bar bracket falling off of the axle and the fact that the axle was way off to the left.
 
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