Alignment Issues

[WickedBruce]

Just went to get my baby aligned and they are unable to get it back to specs apparently. here are the results

 

[rockymountain]

Hmmm. Kicked out the right and decided he was done.:shrug:

 

[WickedBruce]

lol yea. $70 and 3 hours later. Thats what i'm left with

 

[tjkj2002]

Lazy is what he was and had no idea how to align a lifted KJ.


With JBA's it's super easy,may not get caster back in spec but cross caster will be good.Looks like he was to worried about cross caster then camber which is a tire wearing angle(caster is not).

 

[WickedBruce]

I went to him because he is the lift specialist at the dealership, and has 2 wranglers of his own...so i gave him the benefit of that. He did try for a while. I was just talking to rockymountain about the older thread where you had mentioned to him to tell the tech to just ignore the caster and get the toe and camber correct...so thats my next step

 

[WickedBruce]

Just went back and told them to forget about caster and he said it doesn't matter because the camber is maxed. Looks like imma go somewhere else

 

[Pippobug]

I take it you just installed your lift and you are standing nice and high. It took nearly 20K miles to get mine back into factory spec as the front coils needed to bed in and adding extra weight to the KJ. I also had to change all the lower bushes as they were so solid they couldn't be turned to get the camber correct. You might need to give it some time to settle in at the front and then bring it back. Tray and get you camber as straight as possible.
Fil.

 

[WickedBruce]

I understand that and all, but I don't have 20k miles to wait haha...my wheels are doing the YMCA. But just the Y.

 

[tommudd]

Yes you have to get it aligned right away and then again in a few months and then after about a year at least
When we do them here the lift goes on and alignment done within 10 miles

 

[WickedBruce]

Getting pretty angry now. Took it to another shop that specializes in wheel alignments And they are saying the only way to align in to specs is to take out the conduit nuts on the shock. And they dont wanna touch anything or even test drive it because they are afraid of the shock coming out of the clevis. So im pretty much at a loss here guys

 

[TwoBobsKJ]

Wow, this is getting crazy :freak3:

No way the shocks are coming out of the clevis - would have to have 5 or 6 conduit nuts in there to make it likely.

I gave my local shop the info from members on here and they listened and went to work. An hour later it was lined up (except for caster but they knew that.)

I'm feeling for you WickedBruce. It shouldn't be this hard. :disgust:

Bob

 

[rockymountain]

Take the conduit nuts out, put the clevis back in the same spot. Try again. Heck paint it so it looks like it should be that way. Just try not to draw attention to that.

 

[Cardhu]

I've spent as much money on alignments as i did on springs in the 3 times i've had it on the rack. If i could do it my self i would.
I still don't understand how they can be lost for 4 hours and another tech has some issue but is done what I want in an hour.

 

[rockymountain]

see there are people who know what they are doing and are good at it, and there are others........

 

[WickedBruce]

My last resort is applehill 4x4 about 30 minutes away. That's all they do is lifts.. so I'm hoping

 

[tjkj2002]

I've spent as much money on alignments as i did on springs in the 3 times i've had it on the rack. If i could do it my self i would.
.

I'm lucky that the company I work for has a lifetime alignment package,which my cost was $74.I've made more $$$ then that by doing them myself(at work) and getting paid over the last 5 years since I throw the KJ on the alignment rack every 1500 miles now.Done they way I want also.

 

[WickedBruce]

The main issue seems to be that they can't adjust the front driver side camber anymore because the boktbis as far as it will go, everywhere I take it they tell me to take the arms off and take out the 3 ring lol

 

[WickedBruce]

Bolt is*

Dam phone

 

[tjkj2002]

There are 2 cam bolts per side.If it truely is what theys ay and the camber is maxed on that one side then the cradle needs to be shifter over,which is very easy to do.Most newer Chrysler cars(300's,Chargers,Challengers) and BMW's,VW's,AUDI's are the same way so it can be done so don't let then say it can't be.

 

[Cardhu]

I'm reasonably happy with how they got mine done now, but the first tech last time absolutely f*cked up a cam bolt on back passenger side. tab looks bent and wasn't happy but other tech fixed it, and my fixed it I mean its still bent but aligned right and hasn't moved.

Absolutely the weakest link in lifting a KJ is counting on the alignment shop to do their job.
:beatdeadhorse5:
Told service manager if he doesn't want to waste a half a day of his techs time and tie up the rack don't give it to anybody but the guy that knows what hes doing and put the trainee back on minivans.

When the right tech can done fixing the other guys mess and still align it the way i want it in under an hour, the lift set up isn't the problem.

On another note, i'm happy to pay for 3 alignments @ 120 ish a pop now that they've figure out how to do it. Its the aggravation that the op is also experience that's the problem for me.

Theres only a minimal amount of pleasure to be had putting the tech down when they tell you a sob story about 3 hours of "we tried and failed".


TLDNR: Find somebody you can work with. When you get it right remember the tech and only go to him. Bring exact specs.