Severe alignment problems

[Texwears]

My front 31 X 10.5 tires are showing uneven wear from a alignment problem i have had for some time now. The steering pulls hard right. I have been told that there is no alignment procedure fix for a four wheel drive. I bought my 84 Gwag with the 4 inch leaf spring lift and 31's already installed by the previous owner. I am shipping my Gwag to North Carolina from Puerto Rico this coming May. I hope to find a 4WD shop that can realign the Gwag. There doesn't seem to be anyone here that can do the fix for me. Also, the suspension provides a very rough ride. Is there any thing I can do to give it a softer ride? Is the lift kit the cause for the jolty ride?

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[JeepFreak]

Man if someone is telling you they can't align a 4 wheel drive than they don't need to be in the alignment business. Now I saw that you live in Puerto Rico so maybe things are different over there but here we use alignment computers. I can go to any alignment shop and get mine done even with lots of modifications to the suspension. If I was you I would wait till you move here to have it aligned.

On the rough ride problem you might check to see if the springs use poly bushings. If they came with those go get some rubber ones. Also count your leaves in the springs. If you have 4 thick ones then the rough ride really cant be helped and you will need to go with a 5 pack system to soften the ride.
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JeepFreak

[This message has been edited by JeepFreak (edited April 09, 2001).]

[Dave _S]

In the meantime, you can align your front end using an eyeball approach. There are only two things to adjust on these old rigs. There is a turnbuckle on the draglink which is used to center the steering wheel. The draglink is the diagonal link which connects to the pitman arm on the steering box at one end and connects to the tie rods at the other end.

The only other adjustment is a turnbuckle on the tie rods which adjusts toe-in. In theory, caster can be adjusted using shims but its probably ok, and you can't really eyeball it anyway.

All you need to do is set the wheels straight and then center the steering wheel by adjusting the turnbuckle on the drag link. If your toe-in is way off, you can adjust the turnbuckle on the tie-rods until the wheels are in a vertical plane, i.e. staight up and down. That should get you in the ball park until you get to the mainland and can have a shop look at it.

Dave

[River Beast]

Caster and camber CAN BE ADJUSTED on live axle vehicles like our FSJ's.... there are two methods that can be used separate or toegether depending on how much correction is needed.

There is an adjustment sleeve in the upper balljoint that comes factory with 0 degrees... if problems arise, they have degreed sleeves up to 1.5 degrees that can adjust cmaber/caster angles.

The other method is the spindle shim. These shims fit betwwen the spindle and the knuckle. They, too, come degreed up to 1.5 degrees.

The draglink from the pitman arm will only adjust your steering wheel... the main tierod adjuster is the true toe-in adjustment point.

All three adjustments... caster, camber and toe-in should be set at the same time...if toe-in is off... you cannot get a true caster/camber setting...and vice-versa....

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Todd
"The NEW River Beast" (http://home.earthlink.net/~tjnkk)
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