I've bought a 99 xj classic and have been replacing this and that before I put it on the road. The liftgate has always bee sticky opening it. I have had bigger fish to fry so I never paid much attention to it. Yesterday, I noticed that the passenger side of the gate was about twice the distance from the body as the driver's side. There is no sign of it being wrecked that I can see. The hinges look identical. Has anyone here ever tried to adjust their liftgate?
I am trying to avoid a trip to the body shop, but expect I may not.

 

Hmmm. Are you talking about when it's closed? Some pics would help.

 

I had my 98 gate off completely and, yes, it needed to be adjusted to get it evenly seated onto the truck. All I can tell you is trial and error are needed to get it just right. I spent about an hour fiddling around with it until it was evenly matched to the sides of the truck. The top hinges are the adjustment point. First I got it even to the sides of the truck but then the bottom required too much force to latch so I had to increase the gap at the top by loosening the hinges and pulling the gate aft while open, and trying to keep it from moving to one side or the other. Eventually it looked and closed pretty good. Then I noticed after a few rain showers that water was entering along the bottom and another adjustment was necessary. To fix that I adjusted the catch on the truck that the gate latched to. I had to move it forward a smidge. It didn't want to move so I used a burr and slightly elongated the bolt holes for it. That did the trick. I did think a new seal was in order but that meant doing the adjustment dance all over again. Nuts to that.

 

there are several adjustment items on a ('96 anyway)

upper hinges, in various planes,

lock peg has 2 nuts undeneath to move fore & aft

on each side are 2 rubber stoppers, which screw in or out..liftgate wont close properly if one is too far out, rattle if too loose