*Mechanics* Jeep Wrangler (jku)

So long story short my girl owns a Jeep Wrangler unlimited. I bought her a leveling kit 1.5" in front 1" in the back. Easy install

Went to go get it aligned and the guy comes out and says they can't align it because it needs and adjustable camber to fix the camber of the tire. $500 for parts and labor

Correct me if I'm wrong but with most vehicles a leveling kit under 2" you can run all stock parts? One of my buddies that runs a shop said they were trying to squeeze money out of me.

Thought I should ask my fellow taco owners come some of y'all have a lot of knowledge

 

Try another shop for $0 and see what they say.

 

Yeah I was going to do that but shops up here still charge like $40 just for a check

 

Still cheaper than $500..

 

first off.... your girlfriend needs to sell the shitbox known as a jeep and get a tacoma


Second. because its a solid front axle camber and caster are not factory adjustable.

Depending on how things are, you could likely getaway with just setting up proper toe. Which is SUUUPER easy on a solid front axle vehicle. Measure the front and rear of the front tires from the outside edge and make your measurement ~ 1/8th of an inch smaller in the front vs the rear for a lil toe in.

You could always change your pinion / caster angle with some adjustable upper / lower control arms this will also change camber as the whole axle will be rotated.

 

You may want to ask on a Jeep specific site to see if there is something about their geometry that we're missing. @tcBob started www.jeeps.net so it might be a good place to ask.

Of course it could be an alignment "tech" that doesn't know what he's doing. The turn-over rate for those guys is pretty ridiculous especially at larger shops
Another solution is to find a shop that regularly sees lifted jeeps or trucks. They might have a better clue.

 

Don't those things still have straight front axles, albeit on coils now? Not sure how much any camber related issues that's going to have would relate to a Tacoma?. I'd find a decent Jeep forum, or a shop that specializes in 4x4's.

 

If a jeep needs camber the axle is bent or the ball joints are shot. just a spacer only thing that needs to be adjusted is the steering. Yo can adjust caster at the lower control arm axle mounts but with that low of a lift height there is no need. Now get some flat fenders and 35s under it.

 

Yeah I've been trying to get her to trade for 4runner cause the jeep and Tacoma does not have a lot of room for a front facing car seat

But back to the alignment I was thinking of just getting the toes done until I get response from the jeep wavers. Some say it can because the axle is bent but being honest she's a mall crawler and it doesn't hardly leave the road so I doubt that

 

Haha true

 

Yeah I just made an account there to see. But I think the alignment guy just didn't know what he was doing. So I'm probably going to another shop

 

You'll be surprised there's a lot of people that are mechanics that work on many different vehicles so I just thought I ask my friends on here cause the knowledge some people have is good!

 

Yeah that's what I was thinking either the axle is Bent or the dude doesn't really know much about aligning vehicles

 

this and the numbers will be very different from side to side. I've built and owned a fair number of heeps over the years

 

UPDATE

took it to another shop and they said it's my ball joints and said I needed adjustable ball joints to get the camber right so I guess the other shop was wrong

 

What are the camber numbers?

 

how off is the camber / caster.

Likely the lift reduced the caster number which reduced your camber number by virtue of spinning the axle forward. (pinion up)

A simple fix to all of this is an adjustable set of upper radius arms and or and adjustable mount to slide the current radius arms into place to get the axle back to its stock orientation.

 

Wut. Kingpins? Fairly certain those dont have ball joints except for the steering linkages.

 

They have ball joints at the Cs on Dana 30s or 44s Its not until you get into 1 ton axles that there are king pins. Synergy makes a good ball joint for the JK axles.