My last set of tires had early wear from alignment issues and bad ball joints.

I got new ball joints a while back and have adjusted toe in a couple of times when upgrading steering lingkage. This really helped with getting the wear to even out on those tires.

Fast forward, I put some new shoes on right before Moab and I don't have very many miles on them but don't want to risk burning through these tires too.

So, who knows of a really great alignment shop that knows there crap on these old rigs ? I'm willing to take it anywhere in Denver proper as I want to get it done right regardless of location.

I have been through quite a number of alignment shops in town. There was one down off sante Fe and oxford area that used to do all if high country's alignments. So they are pretty familiar with solid axles. However they weren't the cheapest or fastest. Not sure they are still there but maybe call high country?

I have since been using firestone as they offer lifetime alignment. I just get the toe set then the print out on what my camber/caster is. You can correct those two cheaper and faster than they can.

I use the lifetime as I will take it in after almost every wheeling trip :)

Got the alignment done today. Technician spent some time reviewing results with me and he seemed very knowledgable.

Any opinions or recommendations based on the attached numbers ?

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It'd be easy to add a shim behind the spindle to add .5 degree of camber on the right side. Your caster numbers are great for a manual steering rig, but will center and track a little better with more, maybe 6-7 degrees. Neither will be a life altering difference. I'd wait till you bust an axle or need to service the wheel bearings, then would add the camber on the one side.

i have about the same difference 1.1 degree, will probably add a shim sooner or later but not too worried about it.. over all your numbers look ok.. caster could be better but wont hurt you.

One interesting thing the tech mentioned is that the tapered ball joint adjusters were preferred as the camber shims can make it tough to get the snap ring back on the end of the axle shaft.

It seemed to drive a little better on the short ride home but I'm more focused on improving tire wear.

One thing that struck me is how much the toe had seemingly changed.

We did it garage monkey style a couple times and had it great.

Something must have changed due to wheelin in Moab ?

This is only my opinion, so take it with a grain of salt.

Your camber is out of spec on the right side. Hopefully the tech discussed this with you and offered solutions to get it in spec and you turned it down.

The bummer is that you now have 0.5° of cross camber, which is a little on the high side. 0.25-0.35° is more ideal for combating road crown. If the truck doesn't pull, then you are okay.


The biggest problem with these old trucks is that everyone aligns them to the factory specs, which were designed for bias-ply tires. If you want to use more modern specs for radial tires, you should be running nearly neutral camber and toe. I would shoot for 0.15° to -0.15° of camber with the driver's side slightly more positive to combat road crown. Then give it about 0.0° to 0.25° of toe out. This will maximize your tire life. Too much negative camber on the front could lead to a tendency to oversteer in corners near max handling. The nice thing about factory specs, is that it almost guarantees understeer in corners. I would also set caster about 5.0° ±1.0°


For comparison, these are the specs for a 2007-2008 Jeep Wangler (JK)

Caster 4.2° ±0.5°
Camber -0.25 ±0.37°
Cross Camber 0.0° ±0.5°
Toe 0.2° ±0.03°

Toe is slightly positive (toe in) for handling, but can be set slightly negative (toe out) for maximize tire life.

The company I work for sells the ball joint sleeves for camber/caster correction. Unfortunately we no longer sell the spindle shims. You can still find them on Amazon under COSMO shims. ENGELs still sells a nice spindle shim. Usually you can get parts from either company on Amazon or from NAPA or O'reilly's

Rox,

You're readings are fine. I run about 1 degree of camber and about 4 degrees of caster and don't have any tire wear issues. If you wanted to, you could bring the camber down to about 0.5 degrees but I don't know that it is worth it. They originally had the 1 -2 degrees of positive camber to help with highway speed stability since they had to keep the caster down (no power steering on most of them) so you could turn the wheels at low speeds. If you had bad ball joints, that would effect the tire wear before. I would drive it a while before and keep an eye on the tires to check for uneven wear. I would recommend that you leave the toe about an 1/8" (.25 degrees) toe in. If you toe it out, you will probably end up with too much toe out on turns which will cause the front end to not track correctly when you turn tight. If you have a problem with highway speed stability, you could increase the caster but you should have plenty at 3.5 degrees. If you have any questions, you can always call me. I used to teach alignment classes and have been working with steering and suspensions for the last 25 years. Good luck!