I recently had my '03 TJ 4 wheel aligned after an incident a few weeks ago in the mountains of Utah (a car broke loose going around the curve at Boulder Summit - he was going southbound, we were going northbound. His tail end came swinging around and I was able to maneuver such that his rear bumper just swiped across our driver rear tire. A slight dimple ahead of the tire, busted fender flare, blown/ripped tire, a ding on the wheel, a very minor dimple under the gas cap, and a bent rear license plate holder. His car also grabbed the gas cap tether and ripped the gas cap out. We ended up spinning into the soutbound lanes of traffic, pointing southbound (luckily we didn't get hit by oncoming traffic, and were just barely missed by an oncoming car). We fared pretty wheel compared to him - he rolled and ended up in a bar ditch/embankment on our side of the road).
So, I took Oreo to get a 4 wheel alignment last week.
The tech didn't print out the initial readings (even though I asked him to). But his first sign of issues was the thrust angle was way off. Visual inspection revealed an elongated bushing hole in the driver side lower track bar. The tech recommended to replace the lower on both sides, which was good because we found the right side was twist torqued as well.
He also found the lower bushing on the front sway bar was shot, which was obvious that it was not a result of the incident above, so it was replaced as well. And finally, we saw a <1/16" gap at the lower ball joint castle nut which was weird (but as I write this, makes sense as to the cause - the incident described above).
$600+ dollars later (should have done it myself!), with 2 new rear lower track bars, a new front sway bar and a tightened castle nut - here are my numbers as he left it -
Left Right
Front camber -0.2 -1.3
Cross Camber 1.1
Castor 5.9 5.0
Cross Castor 0.9
Toe 0.18 0.11
Total Toe 0.29
Camber 0.0 -1.2
Cross Camber 1.2
Toe -0.57 0.49
Total Toe -0.08
Thrust Angle -0.53
We both agreed I had a right side camber issue and there was no way to adjust it.
TJ has 111k miles on it, has not had any previous chassis work that I can tell, is not nor does it appear to have ever been lifted, does not appear to have ever been a rock crawler (chassis is clean).
I'm not a suspension person (but i know there are many of you out there), I'm and engine and electronics guy. I know how to replace parts, and if properly instructed I know how to make repairs.
I am now suspect of other components on both the front and rear ends, with particular focus on whether either the C-knuckle or end of axle on the right side is bent.
Would appreciate anyone's educated input on this. Jeep does drive better after the work was done compared to what it did after the incident, and seems to be a little better than it was before the incident.
So, I took Oreo to get a 4 wheel alignment last week.
The tech didn't print out the initial readings (even though I asked him to). But his first sign of issues was the thrust angle was way off. Visual inspection revealed an elongated bushing hole in the driver side lower track bar. The tech recommended to replace the lower on both sides, which was good because we found the right side was twist torqued as well.
He also found the lower bushing on the front sway bar was shot, which was obvious that it was not a result of the incident above, so it was replaced as well. And finally, we saw a <1/16" gap at the lower ball joint castle nut which was weird (but as I write this, makes sense as to the cause - the incident described above).
$600+ dollars later (should have done it myself!), with 2 new rear lower track bars, a new front sway bar and a tightened castle nut - here are my numbers as he left it -
Left Right
Front camber -0.2 -1.3
Cross Camber 1.1
Castor 5.9 5.0
Cross Castor 0.9
Toe 0.18 0.11
Total Toe 0.29
Camber 0.0 -1.2
Cross Camber 1.2
Toe -0.57 0.49
Total Toe -0.08
Thrust Angle -0.53
We both agreed I had a right side camber issue and there was no way to adjust it.
TJ has 111k miles on it, has not had any previous chassis work that I can tell, is not nor does it appear to have ever been lifted, does not appear to have ever been a rock crawler (chassis is clean).
I'm not a suspension person (but i know there are many of you out there), I'm and engine and electronics guy. I know how to replace parts, and if properly instructed I know how to make repairs.
I am now suspect of other components on both the front and rear ends, with particular focus on whether either the C-knuckle or end of axle on the right side is bent.
Would appreciate anyone's educated input on this. Jeep does drive better after the work was done compared to what it did after the incident, and seems to be a little better than it was before the incident.
