Jeep pulls to the right, help!

Your thrust angle is a bit high. Like Rex mentioned, check to make sure your axles are square to each other. I pulled my alignment sheet to compare, and my thrust angle is 0.09*. Also, why is your toe off on the left compared to the right? Lastly, your caster is about where it should be, but 6* would be better is you have adjustable arms.
 
bobthetj03 said:
Your thrust angle is a bit high. Like Rex mentioned, check to make sure your axles are square to each other. I pulled my alignment sheet to compare, and my thrust angle is 0.09*. Also, why is your toe off on the left compared to the right? Lastly, your caster is about where it should be, but 6* would be better is you have adjustable arms.
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Could you explain your method of setting your truss angle to get it that close. I hang plumb bobs from each axle tube. I find a common measuring point on each side and then measure from the front of the skid plate. Not the rear of the skid.

The. I hook a ratchet strap pulling one side one way and the other side the other way till they are dead on. Probably can stand an 1/8 of tolerance. Keeping the lower spring pads as close to the center of the bumpstop determines which way I move the axle. Time consuming is an understatement.

Def makes the jeep drive better once you get the rear squared to the frame (truss angle) then square the front axle to the rear.

I would like to hear other ways of doing this. Because it takes me forever!!!




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Just my take on the situation - if all is in spec as far as alignment and steering go, it seems that the front axle might not be parallel to the rear, causing the right pull. But that's just my guess, and don't know how the alignment could be right with that possibility.
 
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I'm going to install a cam bolt on the right side and try to get the right side caster about .2 more negative than the left side. Hopefully this will move the pull to the left side and actually make it centered when accounting for road crown.

And that people is my OCD.
 
So, I'm looking at that toe difference and thinking that is your problem. You have the right amount of total toe, but one wheel is toed significantly more than the other. When you measure total, you are taking a relative measurement (ie both wheels to each other, but not to anything stationary. You can end up with a infinite number of combinations where your total will measure properly, but the wheels will be different compared to chassis center.

I'd go through my Toe alignment one more time, but instead of setting it to 1/8 inch, I'd set each tire to 1/16" inch from a common point on the frame.
 
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I thought that was weird too having the left toe'd out so much more than the right. He'd have to remove the outer tie rod from the spindle, screw the tie rod in a turn or 3, then bolt it back up to the spindle to get the left to match the right. Not as easy as just turning the adjusting sleeve.
 
bobthetj03 said:
I thought that was weird too having the left toe'd out so much more than the right. He'd have to remove the outer tie rod from the spindle, screw the tie rod in a turn or 3, then bolt it back up to the spindle to get the left to match the right. Not as easy as just turning the adjusting sleeve.
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If I'm theorizing this correctly, the right side basically has all the "total toe-in" ... that would make the drag link tie-rod adjusted too short. So the drag link tie-rod needs to be lengthened to get the right side Toe to move out, but by doing that the left side would be moved in, then the outer tie-rod would be adjusted out (longer). So I guess it would be best to set the right side at 1/16" toe-in with the drag link tie-rod and the left side at 1/16" toe-in with the outer tie-rod.

Am I thinking corretly on this??????

tjsteering(1).jpg
 
Honestly, I don't even think you'll be able to measure that small amount of difference with a tape measure. When you rotate the adjusting sleeve on the tie road assy. you are equally lengthening or shortening the assy., so your left/right wheels will be also equally moving toe in or toe out. All the drag link adjusting sleeve will do is allow you to center the steering wheel after the tie rod adjustments have been made(adjusting the drag link length only moves the pitman arm, not the other end). It would be tough to measure that small amount that your left wheel is toe'd out a bit on a tape measure. Also, there is a margin for error on alignment racks due to setup and the human element, so unless your OCD is not going to let you sleep at night, I would worry much about it. I doubt that is the cause of your pull. I'd pay more attention to your caster and try to get another degree of positive caster without making your pinion angle mad. More caster will give you less wandering and better return to center at the steering wheel.

Alignment gurus, correct me if I'm off base here.
 
StG58 said:
I'm retiring when I die. I've got a TJ and a JKU to make fully off road worthy. And I thought kids were expensive and time consuming.
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With my pension, my 401K and some other investments, I will actually be getting a pretty good pay raise the day I retire, so more money for the Jeep .... Sorry kids :)
 
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bobthetj03 said:
...When you rotate the adjusting sleeve on the tie road assy. you are equally lengthening or shortening the assy., so your left/right wheels will be also equally moving toe in or toe out. All the drag link adjusting sleeve will do is allow you to center the steering wheel after the tie rod adjustments have been made(adjusting the drag link length only moves the pitman arm, not the other end)...
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I'm a research junky and needed to figure out how to correct my caster and toe-in to hopefully correct my "Pulls Right" condition. If you notice I have too much toe-in and a more negative caster on the right side. These can contribute to a right pull.

So here's how I will correct both:

Caster first. I'll install a cam bolt on the axle side lower control arm for the right side. With it on the laser alignment rig, I'll rotate the cam bolt to create more positive caster on the right side. The goal is to have the right side 1/8 to 1/4 degree more positive (forward) than the left side. More positive will compensate for road crown.

Now toe-in. I will lock the steering wheel in the center position and adjust the drag link to obtain .1 degree of right front toe-in (it is now .2 at center). I will then adjust the tie-rod to .1 degree of left side toe-in. That should even out the toe.

About the camber. Cross-Camber and Cross-Caster are used to compensate for road crown. The general rule is to set right side camber 1/4 degree more negative and right side caster 1/4 degree more positive than the left side. You'll see by my alignment printout that my right side camber is currently 1.1 degrees more negative than the left side. If correcting the caster and toe-in don't fully fix the right pull condition I will then consider installing offset ball joints on the right side.

I hope my theories are correct. Wish me luck :)


Alignment.jpg
 
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