So I went to take my son and dog on a walk yesterday and as I'm walking past my Jeep in the driveway I noticed that the front passenger side Wheel and Tire appeared to be very partially cambered inwards at the top. I haven't done an alignment yet since I installed my lift and put 31s on. I don't have the experience but ball joints that I probably should. Does this look right or am I just seeing things.

 

I don't really see anything wrong with the first two pics. It's a bit hard to tell in the last pic because it's not taken centered. The pic is taken from closer to the passenger side the driver's. It looks like negative camber from that last pic, but you're also parked next to a vertical wall, which can create kind of a reference illusion. Can you take a pic like the third one, but out in the open and dead-centered in front?

 

Hopefully this works.. I admit it doesn't look nearly as bad when it's not against the wall

 

I don't see anything "off" there really. Is the steering pulling to one side at all?

 

The XJ had a little negative camber (fixed, non-adjustable) built in to the front axles by design. Yours looks pretty normal.

The camber can be too negative (top of wheel too inward) if someone was jumping or dropping the vehicle in the past and bent the large "C" brackets at the end of the axle tube that the upper and lower ball-joints go into.

An alignment shop can tell you whether your camber is within the original spec.

 

It pulls to the right

 

I see it in the first pic... Great old school eyeballing man. Have you checked the bearings on both sides? The passenger side is suspect to me... Notice the difference in the gap between the inside dust shield and the rotor? Looks like the gap at the top is much wider than it is on the bottom. And it may be changing depending on how it is parked each time. Even the sidewall bulge is different on the outside than the inside. You are right... It doesn't "look right"

 

I took a look at mine for comparison. It looks like your C brackets have been bent a little (causing excessive negative camber). The vehicle was probably jumped at some point.


The dust shield is just thin metal mounted statically and flush with the knuckle, so it won't tell you much about camber. But the fact that they have a larger gap at the top suggests that the they were knocked in at some point, with top taking the brunt. Also suggesting a jump in the past.

 

I was looking at it again today and I thought it was visible because there's clearly an angle where the steering rod attached to the knuckle.

 

Well it's been in my family its entire life so if it had been jumped I would know about it. Do you think an equal cause of damage like that could be speed bumps? I have hit speed bumps and rain divots in the past not realizing they were there so I didn't slow down for them as much as I probably should have.

Either way I know the entire steering knuckle has to be replaced. The lower Bolt hole that mounts the brake caliper has the end of the old bolt broken off on the inside. It's sheared off last time I did the brakes. There is still enough of a nub there to keep bottom of the caliper from moving so I never bothered changing in and out as I was able to deem it safe to operate.

 

Ok, I just walked out to the parking lot and took a good look at mine right after looking at your pics. I also took pics of my own (which I can't post from here). My judgement is that yours are probably not bent. And no, I don't think speed bumps would do it. If the ends of your axle are bent, then they are bent very little. Because mine are definitely not bent, and they look generally the same (I compared angles between various components and distance from springs, etc).


But...


I also compared my outer tire appearance to yours. And while all XJs have a slight negative camber (tops of front tires should be just slightly inward). Mine did not appear to be as negative cambered as yours. But due to angles and distance, it would take very little bending of the axle C brackets to produce .5-1" of negative camber at the top of the tire. So perhaps your axle C brackets are just slightly bent.


People do sometimes put offset ball joints in to manipulate camber. Is it possible that this has happened on your XJ?


Btw, none of what we have discussed would likely require the knuckles to be replaced. You could also fix the bad caliper slide bolt by drilling it out and installing a helocoil.

 

The drag link comes down at an angle from the pitman arm--that is normal.


I'm with Jordan, you can't tell a camber issue from the dust shield. Besides, if you could and the camber was truly negative, I would expect the gap to be more at the bottom than at the top.


If you think there's an issue (I'm not convinced yet), take it to a good front end/alignment shop and have them check it out. I would have to see a straight-on picture like the third picture (fourth pic is taken from too low a perspective) or in person to make any judgement.

 

Some better shots of the front passenger side

 

Cool I just noticed that my coil bracket is off. One more thing to fix

 

Just an observation, but both endlinks look loose as well, and the passenger side bushing looks worn.