-2 degree camber and adjustable ball joints

[Chris]

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

Oops, I missed the photos!

You could just get a bare Dana 30 axle housing. I suspect you wouldn't pay more than a few hundred dollars for that, but I don't know if they cost a lot more in Canada than here in the U.S.

 

[Flib]

those photos are not of my jeep, just ones I found on the interweb that show the c.

You need to look closely at mine to see it in the tire but you can see it, the alignment machine confirmed what I and others seen.

Truthfully I don't think it is much of a safety concern (low speed driving of course), just don't want to be going through tires.

Axles are probably cheaper here, more rusted out TJ's to pick from

 

[mrblaine]

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

Depends on how much work it is. LP 30, toss it and get another one. Stock form, even less value to keep if an inner C is bent. That said, in a time crunch, I would install adjustable ball joints to keep a rig going. I would not use anything with the Moog name on it. Specialty Products is who made them for Jeep when they needed them.

 

[mrblaine]

View attachment 43535

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.
View attachment 43536

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.

No, that is not what you measure for camber. The measurement for camber is the face of the knuckle with the tires perfectly straight ahead. You are trying to measure Steering Axis Inclination and that's pretty much irrelevant since it is built into the knuckle and inner C unless it is out of spec.

I suspect what you may have going on is a very bizarre thing that catches a lot of folks by surprise and you can see it in a lot of front end pictures taken straight on. It has to do with steering axis inclination and it's relationship to caster. When we lift a rig, we typically mess up the caster by needing to point the pinion up which also tilts the SAI forward at the top. The toe angle is predicated upon a range of caster so as you tilt the axle forward, you are also changing camber when you set the toe.

Think of it this way, if you pointed the pinion straight up, you wouldn't be able to set toe angle because all your adjustment would only change camber because the SAI is almost horizontal. Point the pinion straight down and same thing happens. So, as the SAI gets altered from stock, we often see camber get introduced because the SAI is no longer within the small range it needs to live in. Also why you see a lot of head on shots of rigs and the SAI being screwed makes the axle look bent.

 

[mrblaine]

Oops, I missed the photos!

You could just get a bare Dana 30 axle housing. I suspect you wouldn't pay more than a few hundred dollars for that, but I don't know if they cost a lot more in Canada than here in the U.S.

I have probably 5 LP complete Dana 30's that I don't have more than 350 each in.

 

[Drizit]

Have a look on car-part.com pop in your postal code and what you need. You may find an axle close enough to you for the right price.

—
There must have been a time
when we could have said no.

 

[Drizit]

By the way, in Ontario the standard price for a 4.10 30/35 combo is usually about $500 so the price you were offered seems high.

—
There must have been a time
when we could have said no.

 

[Flib]

thanks mrblaine and drizit. I know that camber is measured at the face but my logic was that if the c was bent (or the axle housing itself) it would manifest itself at the face, there by throwing off the camber.
I don't think the pinion angle has been changed as it does not have adjustable control arms, unless I am unaware of another way to change the pinion angle.
I have a few options at this point, just need to figure out what I want to do.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[mrblaine]

thanks mrblaine and drizit. I know that camber is measured at the face but my logic was that if the c was bent (or the axle housing itself) it would manifest itself at the face, there by throwing off the camber.
I don't think the pinion angle has been changed as it does not have adjustable control arms, unless I am unaware of another way to change the pinion angle.
I have a few options at this point, just need to figure out what I want to do.

Thanks again everyone!

Do you have any oddball tire wear or any other symptom that the C is faulty?

 

[Drizit]

Doesn't matter what's bent really. (unless you plan to try and bend it back) what matters is the measurement at the face of the hub. I'd be tempted to check that, and also make sure the hub is seated in the knuckle nice and flat. Could be something there holding it out.

—
There must have been a time
when we could have said no.

 

[Flib]

Do you have any oddball tire wear or any other symptom that the C is faulty?

I don't mrblaine, however I have driven the jeep very little since I bought it. The only symptom I have is you can see the lean to the tire and the shop confirmed it (it's out negative 2 degrees).

 

[Flib]

Doesn't matter what's bent really. (unless you plan to try and bend it back) what matters is the measurement at the face of the hub. I'd be tempted to check that, and also make sure the hub is seated in the knuckle nice and flat. Could be something there holding it out.

—
There must have been a time
when we could have said no.

hub went on with no issues and I'm confident it is seated against the knuckle correctly. however I may have another look today just to make sure.

 

[Daryl]

SPC 23540 ball joint kit will work for 2 degrees. I’m with everyone else’s opinion though, it’s just a bandaid until you can afford to replace whatever is bent or worn out.