Front end work, axle leaned forward, this is no good

Mr3Wiggles

Mr3Wiggles

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Bonney Lake, WA
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Quite the situation here. I'm far from an auto mechanic, a decent "YouTube mechanic", very mechanically inclined but my brain has failed me this time. Done plenty of successful work on the Jeep, harmonic balancer, fuel module, alternator, plugs, wires etc. I'm replacing all front CAs, track bar, drag link, tie rod, sway bars. Did a decent amount of research but made a critical mistake by removing ALL of original aforementioned parts. I have a lot of time on my hands so while waiting for parts I decided to "get started". Oops. Jeep was on ground, what a surprise that was when I removed that last lower CA bolt. Yikes. You can see the slope I'm working on as well which I thought was my only option at the time but have since found a much flatter spot on the property. Too damn late. Oh and my drive is rocks. LOL Everything shifted forward causing the axle to lean forward and the body shifted towards the downhill slope. I was able to get it lined up and have the steering wheel tied off for now. Tried jacking here and there, straps (carefully) but the axle isn't budging even when front end is on jack stands. So I thought of the bright idea to fire it up and inch ever so slightly forward or backward to see if the axle moved. It did not and there was quite a bit of resistance when slowly slipping the clutch, kinda bogged down or whatever. That seems like a huge worry. I was able to get the original lowers back in and the new drag link, tie rod, track bar ain't happening. Anyhow here I am on bended knee. Where do we start? I'll take pictures, video, send you donuts whatever it takes haha! Pride swallowed. Gulp.

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Mr3Wiggles said:
Under the drag link or tie rod?
Click to expand...
Wherever you can get a firm grip with the jack. Nothing there is delicate. It can be the steering knuckle too. All you are trying to do is roll the axle back the other way.
 
So... What is going on is that the springs sit forward of the centerline of the axle. The spring pressure forced the axle to roll forward. If you can lift the body and frame independently of the axle, you'll relieve that spring pressure and be able to roll it back where it needs to be.

Using a jack under the tire rod or spring perch might get it too.

next time remember, one control arm at a time!
 
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It's possible your front driveshaft overextended and is no longer on the splines but still in the boot. You'll bust your transfer case if this happens and you try to hard to get it back without having the splines aligned. If the slip part looks like it might be out of wack don't force the other parts. Might not be what is going on but it could be a painful mistake if it is.
 
Thank y'all for taking the time to respond. I got the axle back to the correct position, or close enough, by jacking under the spring with wheels off the ground. Dropped it back down and it leaned forward again slightly. I'm sure this is because there are no front CAs in right now. Wheels back up, positioned axle and have straps holding it in place. All steering components are tightened up and adjusted as close as possible, steering wheel tied off.

The body needs to come to driver's side about an inch independent of axle in order to get track bar seated, uppers lined up and body needs to come forward 2 inches or so to get uppers in as you can see in the picture. Now what? We can address toe, camber, alignment later. Yikes I'm a bonafide bonehead.

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You can keep jacking on the front spring perch, or the tie rod to pull the upper bracket farther back to get a UCA in. Once you have one upper control arm in place, then do the track bar by using a ratchet strap to pull the frame over. Then once that's done, put the last UCA in.
 
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Mike_H said:
So... What is going on is that the springs sit forward of the centerline of the axle. The spring pressure forced the axle to roll forward. If you can lift the body and frame independently of the axle, you'll relieve that spring pressure and be able to roll it back where it needs to be.

Using a jack under the tire rod or spring perch might get it too.

next time remember, one control arm at a time!
Click to expand...

This is a good thread and with your explanation I could visualize what happened very nicely. The OP's photos also helped a lot.
 
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