blueseasons

My recently acquired 2000 WJ is the newest vehicle have ever owned! In our older vehicles I usually got the front end aligned when I purchased new tires then forgot about it after a while. In the "old days" one could even take a vehicle into a shop and drive across some machine that would advise if the front end was seriously out of whack. Or not. Often I was told a realignment wasn't needed or only a slight adjustment was.
This Jeep came with new tires. I didn't ask if it had been aligned when they were installed. My question is: How critical is alignment on this vehicle in particular? I have only put 1000 miles on it since we have owned it. I am thinking that before I take it to a shop that maybe newer vehicles don't require this type of continued maintenance.

Bustedback

If you want piece of mind then by all means have it aligned, but there is not much to adjust on your Jeep. Not a bad idea to have the steering and suspension inspected.

blueseasons

Thanks for responding. Is the suspension and steering particular issues with these vehicles? I know that taking them them off road will affect these two areas. What I know about the previous owners is it has not been used off road, and mainly as a commute vehicle.

dave1123

Okay, just so you'll know, there are 3 things to adjust in an alignment; caster, camber, and toe-in. Camber is built into the axle and can't be changed except by off-set ball joints and in most cases is not a problem. Caster is adjusted by cams on the lower control arms and usually doesn't change unless a control arm or bushing is damaged. Toe-in is set and controlled by the tie rod and drag link, again usually doesn't change unless the joints get worn or the rods bent.

The rear axle doesn't have adjustment cams on the control arms, but they can be installed if the axle needs to be adjusted for "tracking", usually not ever needed unless the body was damaged in an accident.

Where guys get into trouble with all this is by doing a "lift" improperly.

blueseasons

Wow! Thanks. I am not likely to deal with it then.

dave1123

Just keep an eye on it for abnormal wear on the various parts and you should be good to go. The big things are ball joints and wheel hub bearings. The lower ball joints are the worst because there is no way to grease them. The drive axles don't give enough clearance to put fittings in them.

blueseasons

A lot of information. Your good. I hate zertless front end parts and u-joints. Its got 139,000 miles on it and I am going to change the u-joints on the drive shaft out just to get ones on it that I can grease every oil change. From what I can tell there are only two zerts on the front end. Is that correct? That's all I could find.

dave1123

NO, NO, NO!! There are 6. One on each end of the tie rod, One on each end of the drag link (connects the steering box to the right front wheel), and one on each upper ball joint.

Good luck with your drive shaft u-joints. You can get joints with fittings, but unless you come up with a new style grease gun end, there isn't enough clearance to get the gun snapped onto the fittings. I've greased them before, but just by using the bare 1/8" pipe over it with about 100 lbs of pressure by hand and trying to not let it kick back. If you hear the caps crackle with air coming out, you've succeeded. That was with a pneumatic grease gun. A hand pump gun is just about hopeless.

blueseasons

6? I will go back and take another look. I looked everywhere they usually are and I didn't see any. I only saw one on each upper ball joint.

I have a 88 full size Chevy PU 4x4. I changed out the 4 U-Joints on it. And I know what your talking about. Its a tight fit to get the normal head of the grease gun in there to reach the zert. I went to a flexible hose type attachment to my hand grease gun. They also have this needle type thing that replaces the normal head that comes with the gun. You put it on the end of the hose, attach the other side of the hose to the gun. The end of the hose is narrower than the standard head and the thing the head attaches to on the gun. That allows me to get the tip of the needle into that tight space. The tip depresses the little ball in the zert and I can get grease in the joint. This set up allows me to get to the top zert on the pitman arm and idler arm as well. Its not easy. Big pain.
Sometimes I can't get the grease in. The ball gets stuck. I have to take the joints out of the yoke to get to the zert, hold the cups together while putting the grease in the zert and then reassemble.
I was guessing it would work on the Jeep as well. Maybe not. I am not a big off road person at this point. We just moved back to California from Hawaii. We used to drive on the beach there. There aren't places to drive on the beach where we are now. But maintenance was key to not having something go out when you were out in the middle of some beach. Vehicles are dead weight in the sand when they can't move themselves. Under the best of circumstances most other vehicles would not be able to tow that dead weight if something happens. I am just not into surprises. Old school in a way. I like like being able to grease these movable parts at regular intervals to prevent failures. I know the U-joints typically give a little notice before they go but Its not fun being out on a freeway when your miles from home and hearing one of those start clicking or squeaking.
I am thinking at 139000 miles its time to change those out.

dave1123

Oh, WOW! Sand is super abrasive and gets into EVERYTHING. When I was younger and before the EPA and Parks Commission got involved, we used to blast thru the dunes on Cape Cod. Dirt bikes are a blast with big tires and lots of power. Now, if you go out on the dunes, you better belong to the Beach Patrol. Salt water ain't good for jeeps neither.

blueseasons

Its technically illegal to drive on the beach on Kauai. So we don't blast around. Its most slow driving to fish and camp, so we don't attract the authorities or risk hitting a kid or angering others. You see the occasional young wingnut kid blowing it, but it's not acceptable. Everything rusts on Kauai. There is no escaping the corrosion from salt. The salt is everywhere. In the air with high humidity. Predominant wind direction is on shore so it is carried virtually everywhere. Vehicles don't last as long or look as good in those conditions.

I looked under my Jeep again. I don't see zerts on anything but the upper ball joints. Everything else you mentioned has those castle nuts/cotter pin arrangements on the tops and flat bottoms.

dave1123

Okay, then they must have installed sealed fittings. I HATE sealed fittings, you never know how good they are until they fail!