Alignments? What symptoms indicate what?

[naturalbornmudder]

So in the mystery machine, I am driving on the Richardson and seem to always have to be movign the steering wheel to keep the vehicle tracking straight up the road.
I replaced the steering box and it is adjusted well and has no slop so it would seem that the problem is more in alignment toe in or toe out. Anyone know which would correct excessive correction?

[scottquaint]

Also check tire pressure could be as simple as one tire being really low. But I think toe out cause a car to pull bad to one side.

[99TJ]

The toe in is the only adjustment in a Jeeps steering.

[naturalbornmudder]

actually you can toe in and out using th same adjustment, IIRC

[akhillbille]

Check the trac bar. If loose it will move you around. If you axle isn't centered you will have issues trying to go straight.

[rpiereck]

Loose tie rods and worn bushings will make you do that too.

[99TJ]

Very true Nate, but what I ment was that caster/camber can't be adjusted on a Jeep, so toe in/toe out is the only thing as far as alignment goes that can be adjusted.

[naturalbornmudder]

oh yeah. Funny thing on that. My XJ has no caster aignment, but my TJ(97 but not the 99) and the ZJ(95) had the control arm bolts with the adjustment cams and has marks on them for caster adjustment.
Having said that, the XJ has no caster alignment. The tie rod ends and ball joints are new so I am bettign the POS OEm track bar is probably the culprit.

[Disco69]

The OE trac bar was my issue. Even though the axle was off center only by about an inch, I still had tracking issues and had to correct more than I should on the road. That being said, replaced it with an adjustable one, and wall-ah.

The only thing is, your axle should still be fairly close to center, since you only went up about 2".

[naturalbornmudder]

I know the geometry is off some because the steering wheel alignment is off by 20 degrees from center...

[The Bronze]

Turning radius is also likely biased to one side. Center your axle, verify your trackbar and then have the front end shop take a look. Can't you buy aftermarket offset balljoints for those?

[99TJ]

I'm not sure about XJ's but I know you can get them for TJ's.

[naturalbornmudder]

I would bet that you can...

[akhillbille]

You can buy aftermarket offset ball joints. Napa even sells them. If it were me and I was going to keep the D30 I would replace the tracbar. One that is adjustable, one that gets rid of the TRE on the frame side for one that uses bushings at both ends. Also I would truss the axle and the inner C's. These have a tendency of bending then there becomes a need for offset balljoints.