Front Axle/Wheel Alignment (1 Viewer)

[motormayhem]

Whats the best way to check the radius arms / front axle for alignment? Had the 80 out in Baja last weekend and she took a few hard hits to the front end. The main one what had me a bit worried was when the passenger tire dropped into a ~36in washout at about 10mph. It was a hard hit, but the tire made it though. It was a bit hard to tell since the steering hasn't been re-aligned since the lift, but the steering seemed off. By the end of the trip however, it seemed to be about back or within a few degrees of its normal spot.

I measured from the radius arm bolts at the chassis to the radius arm brackets on the axle and they were within 1/16in left/right. Same for the measurement from the radius arm bolt at the frame to the first radius arm bolt on the axle. The tie rod and drag link both appear to be straight with a straight edge. I also checked the steering box shaft and best I can tell it looks ok at the splines. That leads me to believe all is well up front.

The one item that had me a bit concerned is the radius arms themselves appear to have a slight bow in the left/right direction. However it's the same on both arms which makes me think its not a bent arm as I'd be surprised if they bent symmetrically. Thoughts?

In general how hard is it to bend the radius arms/axle/steering shaft on these? I'm used to D44 / chevy leaf sprung vehicles so bending links up front isn't really a thing.

Passenger:

Passenger:

Driver:

 

[baldilocks]

The radius arms look fine. The pitman arm needs to removed in order to properly inspect the sector shaft for twist. You might remove arms and track bar and inspect the bushings. Ensure all suspension hardware, front and rear, is torqued. 10 mph isn’t so fast and it sounds like your issue has worked itself out.

 

[motormayhem]

So I looked a bit more at the wheels this morning. With the steering wheel straight, the drivers side tire is more or less straight, however, the passenger side tire is turned a bit to the passenger side. This would explain the need to correct more drivers on the wheel. Seeing as the the driver's side is straight when the wheel is straight and the radius arm length measures the same either side what is off? The drivers side tire being correct leads me to believe the steering box and links are good as well as the steering arm casting on the passenger side knuckle. However, could the knuckle and steering arm joint on the bottom of the passenger knuckle have slipped or are they pinned together? I would have to think I didn't bend something on the knuckle itself as it should be strong enough to take a few hits, but what can I check? I'd like to find the problem before I get it aligned and mask the issue.

 

[BILT4ME]

Get an alignment. It's possible that it yanked or stretched the tie rod or wrecked a tie rod end.

 

[motormayhem]

Got it aligned and its pretty decent, but a little pull to the right they cant get out. Numbers are below. I'm a little surprised on the camber, is that in spec? Would me taking out ~3/4deg of castor have changed the camber that much, particularly left/right?

Year Ago (before I re-machined my castor plates to drop the castor a bit)
Left Front:

• Camber+1/8
• Castor +3.5

Right Front:

• Camber +1/8
• Castor +3.75

Toe 0

Post Alignment
Left Front:

• Camber -1/8
• Castor +3.0

Right Front:

• Camber +1/4
• Castor +3.0

Toe 0

 

[Railwelder93]

Have them toe it in a little next time and that will probably help.

 

[motormayhem]

Do those camber numbers make sense? I’m surprised they changed / are different left right now unless they just measured wrong.

 

[Bambusiero]

Any before/after change in camber has to be one 2 possibilities:
1) Measurement repeatability.
2) Something loose and actually shifting around.
Right?

Either way, you cannot trust the other numbers either.
FYI. Caster is an indirect measurement - measure camber at 2 different steering angles.
It changes, giving 2 camber numbers. Some math gives caster.
So - if the basic direct camber isn't repeatable...garbage in - garbage out.

Edit: Read your post again. Since it's one year and an accident later - maybe your big drop bent the axle and actually did change camber? But it went more positive (top of wheel outward) - the opposite of what's expected from a heavy drop. I dunno.

 

[Bambusiero]

Could the radius arms bend /bow up and down or front to back, instead of sideways? So one is now shorter?
You could remove both. Lay them of the floor, one on top of the other to compare?

 

[motormayhem]

I measured frame radius arm bolt to the radius arm bracket on the frame and it was 1/16in shorter on the passenger side. That should account for the radius arm being bent any direction or damaged bushings. A difference of 1/16in seems pretty reasonable.

Best I can see it doesn’t look like the balls or anything are bent appreciably, measured the distance between axle tube and ball on the bottom of both and it was the same left/right. Visually I don’t see anything, but it’s pretty hard to tell if their was something minor.

I did see the upper track bar bushing is pretty torn up so maybe that explains some part of the steering kicking off if that collapsed, but I’d think that would be more steering slop than a fixed offset.

For the camber it seems the FSM calls out +1deg +/-0.75 deg and difference <0.75deg left right. So I’m within left/right spec but low overall. Not sure why that would be? I agree I can’t see how dropping the wheel in a ditch on the right side would make the camber go positive. If it bent the tube I’d have thought the top of the wheel would tweak in which would be negative camber.

Anyway best I can tell everything looks fine / not bent so we will see how she does snow wheeling for our New Years trip.

 

[KiwiDingo]

Looks better than what happened to mine! lol

 

[motormayhem]

Looks better than what happened to mine! lol

That does appear to be a bit tweaked. How’d you manage that?

 

[KiwiDingo]

That does appear to be a bit tweaked. How’d you manage that?

Unfortunately it wasn't due to me having fun out on the tracks. Some drunk driver crashed into it parked outside my house. Still waiting to get it all repaired and back on the road