2trackin

I had set my toe by doin a driveway alignment. But the jeep was still tracking all over the place. Following road contour, pulling one way then the other. I was sure my. Caster was off. Well I'm sitting at 6* range is 4-8.
They told me they thought it was the crappy mud terrain tires I have. I did plan to replace them soon as the funds became appropriate to use for some.
FYI
Zj v8 tie rod. New track bar and rod ends.
Ball joints good, and everything feels tight. It's actually a little to hairy to get up to 50 or so to see if it still has the death wobble before the trac bar and tie rod upgrade.
Guess ill be waiting for tires.
Feel free to chime in with any other ideas.

TheJerm

Bad steering box?

Vector6

what did you set the toe at?

VTJeep

So did you bring it to an alignment shop to have a machine and hopefully someone who knows what they are doing (hit or mis with shops) align it? What about having your tires balanced and rotated?

2trackin

I set my toe at 1/4" in. But I took it to the shop yesterday so they may have changed it. They read in degree off the machine. I can't recall what he said he set toe at.
The shop does all the alignments for another local shop that does a lot of custom jeeps, lifts and all, they just don't have their own alignment machine. So they have a deal with this place.
I was almost thinking there could be play in the gearbox. Or maybe the bracket holding it?

The tires I have a junk. No name called "super sport a/t" I think they were some old Walmart mud terrains. They aren't even round.
I have a bubble balancer. And got em balanced pretty good. But they really aren't even round. Kind of bounce up and down going down the road. And the dang tread probably isn't straight around the tire either.
I may just get a gear box brace for the hell of it anyhow. Couldn't hurt I'm sure. I also could use a replacement stabilizer. One on there is still working. But maybe an hd one with more resistance couldn't hurt.

jcwclm

Tires can make one hell of a difference.

bill's 93XJ

I replaced the junk a/t's that came with my XJ woth BF Goodrich A/T's and it made a HUGE difference in the way it handled.

jcwclm

But I've also seen brand new tires have such a horrible radial tire pull that you couldn't stand it.....

2trackin

Oh I'm sure they can. Especially on a modified vehicle.
Even though I really needed no adjustment on my alignment. I'm still glad I spent the $50 even if to just verify all was right.
And now we move on the next plausible culprit. Tires.

mikeXJ1020

I just went through HELL and back with a steering pull and instability. I have a 10 page thread on here and its finally worked out. I started to going crazy lol.

Short story long I originally had a 3.5" lift, 33s, and the truck drove great! I changed everything out and I put a different dana 30 in with gears, locker and 1 ton steer. Installed new 6.5" rough country LA lift, and brand new 35s. I put all new TRE's on the steering as well. Ball joints were tight. EVERYTHING was good meaning bushings and wearable parts.

I toe'd my steering in where it read 1/4" toe in and it didn't help, I thought it was too much and adjusted it some more. Nothing would change the way the truck drove so I started to toe my steering in and out blind to see if it would help with the pull and instability, again no change.
I Adjusted control arm lengths. Replaced bushings that werent bad. Added more caster. Moved tires around.

I did so much research and adjustments to my truck I was giving up. I finally brought it to a shop and before I gave it to them I set the toe to 1/4" toe in (just so if they thought the alignment was good they would move on to next cause).
The Fix: They added more toe. They also moved the current front left tire to the back. And they claimed my front diff was slightly bent, which I think was BS but w.e. The alignment is what ended up finally fixing my problem...pretty simple after all that headache.

Anyway.
- First, What are the specs and mods done to your truck?
-How old is your suspension?
-How do ALL of the bushings look?
-Tires can make a huge difference, move them to different spots on the truck and see if it helps.
-Check the wheel base on both sides, and check the Thrust angle (when the axle is shifted to the left or right side of truck.
- If you add more positive caster it well help with steering stability, but worsen pinion angle. Worth a shot though.

-Mike