Need help with wandering

[billyballer]

Your alignment specs don't look too bad to me. You might want to bring the toe in a smidge. General rule of thumb is more toe in will improve straight line tracking, more toe out will improve turn-in at the cost of straight line tracking.

I recommend checking your front axle u-joints. A stiff or seized u-joint will definitely produce some funky wandering issues. Stiff ball joints could do the same thing. Start with the u-joints and when you have the axles out see how the ball joints feel.
Just my $.02 from personal experience.

Good luck!

http://www.jeep-cj.com/forums/f19/stiff-ball-joints-steering-issues-22615/

 

[olskulcj]

Your alignment specs don't look too bad to me. You might want to bring the toe in a smidge. General rule of thumb is more toe in will improve straight line tracking, more toe out will improve turn-in at the cost of straight line tracking.

I recommend checking your front axle u-joints. A stiff or seized u-joint will definitely produce some funky wandering issues. Stiff ball joints could do the same thing. Start with the u-joints and when you have the axles out see how the ball joints feel.
Just my $.02 from personal experience.

Good luck!

http://www.jeep-cj.com/forums/f19/stiff-ball-joints-steering-issues-22615/

Thanks BB. After realignment I'll start to look at ball and U joints.

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[hole]

I'd suggest ruling out the ball joints first. When I first got my 8 it was a handful at highway speeds, and found it was bad ball joints. When I lifted it was the second time it got squirrely, learned about proper degree shims for that one

 

[mriplaybass]

I'd suggest ruling out the ball joints first. When I first got my 8 it was a handful at highway speeds, and found it was bad ball joints. When I lifted it was the second time it got squirrely, learned about proper degree shims for that one

Plus, any reputable alignment shop will not do an alignment until all parts affecting steering are in good condition. Anyone doing an alignment without replacing worn out parts and charging you for it is full of

 

[olskulcj]

Noob question. My ball joints are new, as are all of my steering components, is it possible for them to still be stiff or is that typically something that occurs with old/warn parts?

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[mriplaybass]

If you have upper ball joints that look like this:


The threaded sleeve with the castle nut notches in the top is for adjusting the tension of the ball joint. If this sleeve is improperly adjusted and then the top nut torqued down, there will be too much tension and the ball joint will bind and be very difficult to turn. You should be able to see this sleeve by removing the top nut.

 

[olskulcj]

Thanks. How do I know how much tension is too much?

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[mriplaybass]

When I did our 79 CJ7 last year, it was a trial and error thing. There is a special tool to reach inside of the steering knuckle hole and turn the adjustment sleeve. The ball joint must be pressed out in order to turn the sleeve, or it won't move while still in the bore.

Ball joint adjustment socket
It's not a difficult procedure and kind of self explains itself once you have things apart. Keep adjusting the sleeve and reassembling until the ball joint turns freely, but there is no slop in the joint itself.
If you are going to take it to an alignment shop to have it aligned anyway, they should do this adjustment as part of the alignment as long as the ball joints are in good shape, and unless you are planning on working on other vehicles, you are probably better off putting the $27 toward the alignment shop, than the tool.

 

[olskulcj]

Got it. Thanks for the valuable info.

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[Posi]

Using the ball joint adjustment tool above tighten the ball joint stud seat to 50 ft lbs.