Front End Alignment

[slimer]

A shop told me I needed upper ball joints and wouldn't take my money for an alignment. I am planning on replacing the Dana 30 with a Dana 44 so I don't want to replace the ball joints on the Dana 30 . So, I went ahead and did a front end alignment myself. The result is that it pulls to the left. Does this mean I don't have enough tow in? The manual says about 1/8" to 1/4" but that's for stock tires. I'm running 33's so I figure it would be a little more. I think I set it around 3/8".

 

[projectcrawler]

Is it pulling left, or is steering wheel off center to left? Unless toe is pretty severly out, it should not cause a pull, and by then you would have some scrubbing. Did it pull left before you did the alignment, or were you trying to fix a pull? Camber is the main contributor to a pull as far as alignment is concerned. Caster. which is not adj. without shimming springs or turning knuckles on your jeep, will change return to center and light wandering. If it pulled before, try swapping tires left to right, or rotate and check again. Also, before all, check tire pressure. Also, upper ball joints with play, could cause a camber issue, which would cause a pull. Any more then .5 degrees of side to side difference in camber will usually cause a pull.

 

[Alignmentguy]

Does this mean I don't have enough tow in? The manual says about 1/8" to 1/4" but that's for stock tires. I'm running 33's so I figure it would be a little more. I think I set it around 3/8".

Reset your toe to no more than 1/8" in. 3/8 will ruin your front tires. Doesn't matter how big they are. I do up to class 8 trucks and never go over an 1/8" in for example.

As the other poster mentioned, swap the tires and see if that fixed the pull. And yes make sure the steering wheel is straight. If it still pulls, check for a power steering pull by jacking up the front end off the ground and starting the engine, look to see if the steering wheel kicks left or right. If it does move even slightly in either direction it will cause the vehicle to pull in the direction that the wheel moves. If that's the case then replace the steering gear.

My guess though most likely it's a tire... good luck.

 

[dave pam]

I have an 02 wrangler and I did the alignment my self using the Service CD I bought and it ran perfect until I hit 45 and above, I am 41 and NEVER "white knuckled" the steering wheel in my life but then again I was driving n a snow storm and was all over the highway I went to a shop on the way home and to guy told me to have the steering box replaced and come back. I went to Auto Zone and for $135.00 I put a new (life time warrentee) steering box and along with the alignement it's 100% now.

Hope this helps,

Dave