-2 degree camber and adjustable ball joints

Flib

Flib

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Apr 15, 2018
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472
Location
Nova Scotia
Well, this sucks. I replaced the ball joints and noticed the camber was off on the passenger side front wheel. Took it to the alignment shop and sure enough it is out negative 2 degrees. The drivers is out to but not near as bad.

My question is: Is there an adjustable ball joint available that would correct this, perhaps in conjunction with a spacer(I forget what they are called but you guys know what I mean) behind the hub??

I've already found a dana 30 with 4.10 gears for 600 bucks, if need be I will buy it and re-gear the rear to 4.10's which I wanted to do anyway (just not this soon, money is tight these days) if I cannot correct the camber.

I want to hear from anyone that has had to correct the camber on a Dana 30 :)
 
Sorry I haven't had that issue, I'd bet Blaine will have some kind of a recommendation for an adjustable ball joint brand.
 
How does that even happen on a TJ anyways, where one would need to adjust the camber? Does it have anything to do with the axle being slightly warped? I always just figured that the camber was something that didn't need to be adjusted on a TJ.
 
Something bent or misinstalled.

My prediction is that Mr. Blaine says he doesn't use the adjustable ball joints, but rather fixes the actual problem.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
 
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I suspect the axle housing is tweaked or the "ears" the ball joints go in are tweaked. hhhmm, wonder if it could be the spindle itself??

I agree the adjustable ball joints are a temp fix but looking at a lot of quid for a new axle and to re-gear the rear end. I am only now able to start working on the jeep (2 months out from back surgery) and I want to keep shaking it down see what else it needs and don't want to get into a big job right away if I can help it. Doing the ball joints was enough of a pita!

I'll wait for mrblaine, I'm not sure if the ball joints in the links above would adjust it enough on there own, the top and bottom have different amounts of adjustment. The guy at the alignment shop said that .25 of negative camber is ok.
 
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Have you diagnosed where the problem is coming in at? Which balljoints did you use to replace with?
 
I did use the Moog ones (non adjustable) as I can get them locally and the old ones where bad bad bad. I knew the camber was off and I was hoping the new ball joints would fix it.

I don't have an angle finder and the only way I can figure to do it is measure the angle of the ears at the end of the axle. Even if I did have an angle finder we are talking 2 degrees here and not sure I could measure accurately to that tolerance.

Is there another way I can diagnose where the issue is. I did manage to find an empty Dana 30 housing very close to me.
 
This cheaper angle finder is good to 0.1%: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T6YZ0K6/?tag=wranglerorg-20

What method did you use to seat them?

I would compare the angle of the flat of your diff housing, stick a flat L channel or I beam across the lower inside of the inner-C and check the angle, and stick a socket over the outside of the balljoints to check the angle of those.
 
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1010_4wd_09+steering_systems+caster_measurement.jpg
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toximus said:
This cheaper angle finder is good to 0.1%: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T6YZ0K6/?tag=wranglerorg-20

What method did you use to seat them?

I would compare the angle of the flat of your diff housing, stick a flat L channel or I beam across the lower inside of the inner-C and check the angle, and stick a socket over the outside of the balljoints to check the angle of those.
Click to expand...

I used a proper ball joint press, even had the master kit that has the angled cup to accommodate for the less than flat pressing surface of the Dana 30's, no concerns that the ball joints are not in properly, as I mentioned this camber issue existed with the old ball joints.

Not following on the whole L channel I beam thing, I'm no engineer but to me it would seem I would have to remove the ball joints and use a straight piece through the c and find the angle of the ball joint seats, but again I have nothing to compare it to. When you look at the c and the knuckle there is an angle to it, it is not a matter of seeing if it is off from 90 degrees as it is by default. If I knew it was 10 degrees off 90 and mine was 12 then I would know where the 2 degrees is coming from.
 
I see now, but it that not measuring on the wrong plane?? Camber would need to be measured parallel to the axle housing would it not?
 
Somebody else will have to chime in the best way to measure camber and how to find the source of the issue.
 
Dana-30-Rebuild-201.jpg


this is what I would need to measure for camber.


how ever if I knew what the angle of the yellow line is and knew what an axle with zero camber measured it might give me something to go by.
Dana-30-Rebuild-201.jpg


but the more I think about this the more I think I'll end up replacing the axle, if I can find another knuckle I would try it for sure as it is easy enough to do.
 
So I guess this means that either the alignment shop measured your camber wrong, or your axle is slightly bent.

If it is indeed bent, I think putting adjustable ball joints in would just be a band-aid. At that point I'd rather have a new axle. I don't know how it is up there in Canada, but here in the U.S. you could get a low pinion Dana 30 axle housing for really cheap.
 
You can "see" the camber Chris, distinct lean to the tire so i think they measured it correctly, I was hoping the toe was causing an optical illusion but nope :)

I think you are right about replacing the axle, I think my question is now do I spend 600 bucks on an axle with 4.10 gears and re-gear the rear or go with the empty axle and swap everything over.

I have a baby that is going to be born in the next 3 weeks so I cannot go on a spending spree but do want the jeep drive-able :)
 
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