Hey Everybody,

Last weekend I went wheeling and remember a time on the trail that I really jammed my drivers side wheel against a rock really hard, it stopped me dead in my tracks and I heard some sort of a crunch. Got back on the road and it's knocked out of alignment and pulling to the right. Anyone know what this might have messed up? I just got it aligned about a month ago and hate to go spend another $60 if I could possibly correct the problem.

Investigating underneath I noticed 2 other probs, here's the first:

LCA's are coming in contact with the shock perches under flex, anybody else had this problem, and if so, did you just grind back the perch a little bit?


Second Issue:

The ball joint on the end of the drag link appears to be separating from from the drag link. Not sure if this could be what happened and is causing the misalignment, or, is this the problem with not getting a drop pitman arm?


Any input = much appreciated, thanks!

-00XJCO

 

your control arm angles look really steep an so does your steering what size lift are you running you might need LCA drop brackets and a drop pitman arm

 

He's running the 3.5" and that's at full flex so the arm would normally show that kind of angle. The arm hitting the shock mount is normal on lifts with alot of downtravel. You can chop some of it off for clearance, add limiting straps, or use drop brackets. Chopping is the easiest and cheapest solution.

As for the tie rod end it's probably just the grease boot coming off. At 4"+ the steering joints ARE at their limits so beware.

I would suggest you get someone to steer while you watch for any broken parts or play in any of the joints. If nothing then check your alignment and also inspect the ball joints by jacking it up and grabbing the tire at 12 and 6, trying as hard as you can to shake it in and out. Listen for a clunk.


Save yourself $60.
http://www.stu-offroad.com/steering/align/align-1.htm

 

Yes Muddeprived is right, I had my swaybar unhooked and I jacked the body of the jeep up as high as it would go without the tires leaving the ground, which is why the angle of the LCA's is so steep.

I think I will chop the perches a bit to fix the clearance problem there. I'm wondering though if I should still get some limiting straps, because, I've gone airborn a couple of times with my swaybar unhooked and I really didn't like the sound lol, is there risk of breaking my front shocks if I jump it without limiting straps?

What's the best remedy to fix the steering angles, drop pitman arm? I've been looking at Rusty's wheel to wheel tie rod converstion and thought that might be a solid upgrade as well.

Thanks for the link to the alignment page!

 

The best is the high steer, whatever brand you might buy. It is one of the prices you need to pay for higher lifts. If you drop the pitman arm, the track bar needs to also be dropped or it will have bump steer.

 

Ok, what exactly is bump steer and what causes it? I've heard the term a lot but haven't experienced it firsthand. When you say high steer, do you mean the over the knuckle steering? I have looked at some of those kits and they all come with track bar relocation brackets for the axle and a new track bar. Why does it need to be relocated too? I'd hate to have to get rid of my Rock Krawler track bar since they made it custom length for me.

 

Bump steer is something we used to have a lot on straight axle rigs with leaf springs. Due to the angle of the drag link, when you hit a bump when the axle comes up it forces the steering arm to the right on the outside knuckle and the vehicle dives to the right, then you have to correct it. It would happen every time you went over an overpass. So starting in the late 60s Ford and later Jeep added a thing called the track bar to the axle. it was exactly the same length and angle as the drag link. It forced the whole axle instead of just the steering knuckle to the right. The more lifted the vehicle the worse the bump steer will be with out the track bar.

As I mentioned the track bar is the same angle and length as the drag link. If you use a dropped pitman arm to reduce the angle of the drag link, you must then change the angle of the track bar the same amount or you will negate the reason it is there in the first place.

 

Why was it made custom? If you want to sell it i'd take it off your hands

 

You won't need to get rid of the track bar.

 

It was made custom BC my amount of lift landed right at the high end of the track bar made for the lower lifts and at the low end of the track bar made for higher lifts. I imagine they probably just shortened a longer one and bored the threads deeper so I would have the full range of adjustment. They did it at no extra charge too!

 

And I still would not have bump steer issues?

 

Oh and for the second part of your comment, I will definitely let you know if I swap it out for something different. It came with a super stout frame-end double sheer bracket too!

 

As long as your track bar and drag link are the same approximate length and angle so they form two sides of a parallelogram, then you are OK.

 

An easy way to check this is to tape string from axle mount to frame mount. Compare the two strings and the angle of them. If both are the same angle and length then you are good to go. It's kinda hard to see the angle of trackbars cuz they have single or dual bends in them.