alignment?

[sspoonmann]

ZJ Cherokee 1998 6 inch lift adjustable control arms except front top. pulling to to the right a little. adjusted at Lesshwab. So does the front alignment caster angle really matter? since we tend to angle pinion up more towards transfer case to relieve joint angle. I want to point front axle more to left and only way to do it is lengthen right bar which changes caster without adjustable uppers. what to do? :redneck:

 

[zukkev]

Yes, caster matters...and there are many possibilties that could cause the pull...from what I could gather from your question, no-pointing the axle left will not likely fix your pull...Just how bad is the pull???

 

[sspoonmann]

dosnt wear tires. I just have to pull a little left all the time, slow or fast. stepping on brakes does not change it. got new tires (KM2 love em) hopeing it waas my bald AT's.

 

[boardbysled]

Did you get the spec sheet? Usually they get a spec sheet printed from their fancy computer device thingy (alighnment machine:fawkdancesmiley and give it to you.

And from what I understand, usually caster causes more wandering or darting, not pull. Camber can cause pull, same with toe...

 

[Flat-Bed_3rd_Gen]

What your probably feeling is road crown. You know the center ofthe road is higher than the outside causing you to slightly drift right thinking you hav a pull. You can fix this two ways. One by adjusting the caster on only the right side which is possible on the axle with a big enough breaker bar. The other way is to adjust your drag-link

 

[t1h5ta3]

lol.... unless you realy think you can twist the axle tubes, then no... not realy an easy way...lol

what you need is an ofset ball joint, its the only way to get proper ofset caster to compensate for road crown.
basicly you wind up adding an extra 1-1.5 degrees to one side.

you can try having the castor adjusted higher over all... might help a little

dont adjust drag link, you'll screw up toe....
dont just " lengthen 1 side " you'll just crab walk

 

[Flat-Bed_3rd_Gen]

draglink has nothing to do with toe, it will just turn the steering wheel, if you drive a very crowned road and then set the steering wheel to straight while on the crown you wont have that "drift" feeling... and yes you can slightly tweak one side of the caster i've done it on a jeep before but only as a last resort, the guy didn't want to buy ball-joints.

 

[traildemon]

What size tires are you running. did you adjust the caster before or after schwab had it? have someone help you and pull a tape across the tires front and back of the tires it should be about an 1/8" closer on the front of the tire but that depends on the tire size too. when you run bigger tires than the axles are designed for you have to expect a little bit of pull.

 

[TrikeKid]

draglink has nothing to do with toe, it will just turn the steering wheel, if you drive a very crowned road and then set the steering wheel to straight while on the crown you wont have that "drift" feeling... and yes you can slightly tweak one side of the caster i've done it on a jeep before but only as a last resort, the guy didn't want to buy ball-joints.

Adjusting the drag link to get rid of a pull is not the way to do it. The pull here is caused by road crown, and you have two options. Buy ball-joints to fix it, or (what I would do) realize that you drive a lifted rig, and it doesn't drive like stock anymore, and deal with it.

 

[Flat-Bed_3rd_Gen]

Adjusting the drag link to get rid of a pull is not the way to do it. The pull here is caused by road crown, and you have two options. Buy ball-joints to fix it, or (what I would do) realize that you drive a lifted rig, and it doesn't drive like stock anymore, and deal with it.

adjusting the drag-link is a way of dealing with it, it makes the wheel look straight while your driving so you dont have the mentality of having to straighten it and then thinking you have a pull/drift...

 

[TrikeKid]

adjusting the drag-link is a way of dealing with it, it makes the wheel look straight while your driving so you dont have the mentality of having to straighten it and then thinking you have a pull/drift...

But, unless you're going to sit there and hold it "straight" it's going to self center crooked, and it's still going to pull, your wheel will just be off when it does it.

 

[t1h5ta3]

just to check if its road crown ( assumed ) if you drive thru a smooth/level parking lot does it still do it?

 

[sspoonmann]

thanks for the comments . Ive lived with it for a year. just looking for a fix with the new 33's. i'll try the parking lot thing. thanks

 

[junkyard jim]

draglink has nothing to do with toe, it will just turn the steering wheel, if you drive a very crowned road and then set the steering wheel to straight while on the crown you wont have that "drift" feeling... and yes you can slightly tweak one side of the caster i've done it on a jeep before but only as a last resort, the guy didn't want to buy ball-joints.

If he's running stock steering with that lift, the scissor style front will toe in more when you go up over bumps and toe out when it bottoms. I'd do crossover steer and a solid draglink.