mike5368

Here's the problem I replaced all my ball joints last year. I took it for an alignment after doing my steering last week and was told I need offset ball joints. Im starting to get some wear on the inner left side only on my tire. What are these and do I really need them?

skife

Do you have a print out of what your alignment was at?

Ball joints are what your steering knuckle pivots at, when your camber [verticle position] isn't in spec it needs to be adjustex, the only way to adjust it is changing the position of the ball joint by using a balljoint that is offset and clocking it to gi e you the right amount of camber.

Cost of an offset ballpoint is expensive compared to standard balljoints.

I have no expirence using them.

mike5368

The mechanic said that I'm 1* on the driver side and a half on the passenger side. Does anyone know how good these are? Do they wear more quickly and what would cause this? I would figure since its a straight axel that there would be no need for this. Clearly I must be wrong but I do like to learn as much as possible

XJRed96

inner wear on the edges is likely caused more by the toe-in/out alignment. half a degree difference isn't a big deal. IMO and on another note the jeep spec says they should be within 1* degree of eachother which you are. ideally jeep wants you between -.75*- +.5* which puts you .5* out on the one tire definetly not worth the cost. Jeep also states that it's a fixed angle and shouldn't be adjusted. I would just rotate your tires more often if it's thats concerning.

93gc40

Off set ball joints are used in an XJ to correct camber issues. Our straight axles are only caster and toe adjustable. Camber error are fixed via offset or adjustable ball joints. Since there is no provision built into the XJ, Jeep recommend against adjusting. 99% of the "alignment" shops out there are not very good at doing Jeeps. Especially lifted ones. Post the numbers from the alignment printout.

93gc40

What did the mechanic say is out CASTER, CAMBER or TOE? which are you trying to fix?

mike5368

The tech said my camber is off and there was no adjustment for this. My jeep seems to wander a bit. But my main concern is the tire wear. My tires are new and I'm getting quite a bit of wear to the inside of my tire. I'll post the numbers in a bit. I've had it aligned before with no mention of this but I can see a slight tilt to my tire

93gc40

IMO, the tech is guessing, doesn't know what he's reading or what it means. 1/2 a degree within spec. Most shops I have seen will only do the toe, and they try fixing all caster/camber issues with balljoints.. Problem is if you NEED offset joints you are either running HUGE tires or have a bent axle. Caster is adjusted by shortening or lengthening the control arms. Stock or fixed length arms are moved via shims in the upper mount. A side affect of adjusting the caster will change the camber a hair.

mike5368

I'm running 31s on 3" of lift. Nothing huge. I do have the non adjustable lower control arms from rough country. It came with my lift kit. So do you suggest shimming the uppers? If so how much would I need to go?

93gc40

You only need to mess with the uppers to CENTER the wheel in the well. You would only shim on STOCK and FIXED LOWER arms. Take a look at the alignment write-up in here, might answer most of your questions, and show you how to do your own alignment, with NO special tools. including how to make the shims. http://www.go.jeep-xj.info/index.htm

mike5368

Thank you very much. I will give this a try and see how it goes. Very informative information here

Muaddib420

I had the same issue. Inside tire wear. The alignment guy told me the same thing. Turns out my lower ball joint was worn out and causing it to have a negative camber. Replaced them both on that side with a new set (not offset) and it fixed the problem. My guess is that you don't need an offset ball joint but just some new ones. They're kind of a pain to change though.

mike5368

Like I said I put some new ones in last year but maybe I'll try again. Thanks

foreveryoung001

I've had ball joints go out in less than a year... not on my XJ yet, since I've only had a few months, but on my old '79 Camaro. In fact, I think it was closer to 6 months. Piece of crap Chinese parts, but I was on very limited funds at the time. I ended up spending more money on better quality parts, blah blah blah....costs more than just buying quality parts the first time... yadda yadda yadda.... same horror story as others.

Anyways, seems like it would be worth checking.

93gc40

does your Jeep go OFF-Road or is it a Mall cruiser???? Dirt = Equals Breakage, Rocks prefer to break NEW parts over old parts.