1stDeuce
Explorer
If you have a left or right pull, and went to the same shop 3 times for an alignment, and it STILL has the same pull, you are a VERY good customer!
The trouble with alignments is nobody checks the work. We deal with shops all the time that are "toe and go" shops. This means they set toe, but don't touch camber and caster. In your case, you definitely have a camber/caster problem. Hopefully the new alignment shop can fix it by making some adjustments. Be sure to tell them it pulls, and that you'd like it aligned so that it DOESN'T pull. They may have to run it to the negative side of the camber spec to get enough caster change to get it to drive straight, but they can do that.
As for wandering, if your LCA bushings are SHOT, then it could cause some wandering. KJ's steer very quickly in the first place, and are a little "nervous" even when new, so if you've got anything loose, they're all over the road. Have you checked the center balljoint in the rear upper "Y" arm? If that balljoint has a bunch of play in it, the tail will wander around, and that'll cause the jeep to wander too, and the handling to be very twitchy. Excessive toe-in will do the same thing.
Once you have it aligned, post the readings, and let me know how it drives. And make sure they give you BEFORE and AFTER readings. If they're not willing to give you that much, then go somewhere that will. You're paying for it, you should be able to get it!! (Toe and go shops like to change things to read green w/o changing the actual values, so you can check their work against the real specs...)
As for the steering wheel shake, you have tires/wheels either out of round or out of balance. FIRST thing to do is check your front wheels for weights on both sides. If you only have weights on the inside, you're not really balancing them as much as your IFS would like... Take it somewhere and ask them to dynamically balance the front tires at least. Dynamic doesn't just mean spin balance, it means balance using weights on the inside and the outside lips of the wheel! That should get rid of the steering shake, assuming they don't find any excessive out of round or wobble when they're doing the balance. Really good balance machines also do road force variation, which uses a roller against the wheel. That can compensate for a little bit of out-of-round too.
Let us know what plays out.
The trouble with alignments is nobody checks the work. We deal with shops all the time that are "toe and go" shops. This means they set toe, but don't touch camber and caster. In your case, you definitely have a camber/caster problem. Hopefully the new alignment shop can fix it by making some adjustments. Be sure to tell them it pulls, and that you'd like it aligned so that it DOESN'T pull. They may have to run it to the negative side of the camber spec to get enough caster change to get it to drive straight, but they can do that.
As for wandering, if your LCA bushings are SHOT, then it could cause some wandering. KJ's steer very quickly in the first place, and are a little "nervous" even when new, so if you've got anything loose, they're all over the road. Have you checked the center balljoint in the rear upper "Y" arm? If that balljoint has a bunch of play in it, the tail will wander around, and that'll cause the jeep to wander too, and the handling to be very twitchy. Excessive toe-in will do the same thing.
Once you have it aligned, post the readings, and let me know how it drives. And make sure they give you BEFORE and AFTER readings. If they're not willing to give you that much, then go somewhere that will. You're paying for it, you should be able to get it!! (Toe and go shops like to change things to read green w/o changing the actual values, so you can check their work against the real specs...)
As for the steering wheel shake, you have tires/wheels either out of round or out of balance. FIRST thing to do is check your front wheels for weights on both sides. If you only have weights on the inside, you're not really balancing them as much as your IFS would like... Take it somewhere and ask them to dynamically balance the front tires at least. Dynamic doesn't just mean spin balance, it means balance using weights on the inside and the outside lips of the wheel! That should get rid of the steering shake, assuming they don't find any excessive out of round or wobble when they're doing the balance. Really good balance machines also do road force variation, which uses a roller against the wheel. That can compensate for a little bit of out-of-round too.
Let us know what plays out.
Last edited: