I recently added 2" spacers to my 3" front lift and put on new fixed LCAs for a 3-4.5 inch lift. The alignment tech told me that the new LCAs were too long to be able to properly align the vehicle. He knows a good bit about lifted vehicles and said I would probably need new UCAs too. If anything I was thinking that these would be too short because they're for up to a 4.5 inch lift, and mine is at 5. Any thoughts?

 

What brand, how long are thet center to center? Ive ran that setup before with stock uppers and bds lowers.

 

As far as I know, they are these right here:

http://fatbobsgarage.com/i-7459013-j...ift-84-01.html

I bought them off eBay and this is the brand the guy was pretty sure that they are. As for length, I'd have to measure them

 

You should always change the uppers and lowers at the same time otherwise the difference in length will throw you way off... not to mention how low the pinion has to be sitting with a long lower and short/stock upper.

If you do have to replace them, I HIGHLY recomend JKS adjustables. You'll pay for them, but they are pretty much worth their weight in gold. Especially if you go with adjustable uppers and lowers, you have almost unlimited options.

You also might want to consider doing a CAD as well to get your arms back to being close to parallel with the ground.

Just my $.02

 

Tons and tons of people run a extended lower with a stock upper, I still have the control arms I used in the exact setup you are talking about. It was fine, and I wheeled I'd mildly. The stock uppers are weak, but they will work. The lowers I used for that setup are roughly16.5" long center to center, with stock uppers. I ran a 2" tereflex spacer and 3" bds spring, worked great, not one vibe. I also used an adj. Trac bar to eliminate the bump steer. Jks arms are a good product, just to expensive for short arms to me.

 

I wonder if maybe he's not that great at alignment, what he said was that the LCAs were too long and tilted the steering knuckles too far back and threw off the camber

 

How does the jeep behave on the road? Any vibes? Track straight down the road? If your camber is adjusted close to correct, the top ball joint should be slightly behind the lower. Looking at it from the side.

 

It's fine other than being out of alignment, but the bottom of the tires stick way out compared to the top

 

Do you have an angle finder you can check the angle with? If you have a smart phone, you can download an app for it. I wanna say last one I did, 8 degrees I think is what I left it at. Its freezing cold or I would go measure it.

 

Bottom of the tires sticks out, how are the upper ball joints?

 

Ball joints are all good. They told me that the stock ucas are too short for the longer lcas, which is making the steering knuckle lean back too far which is throwing off the camber and toe

 

You'll need to measure them, center to center. To get away with using non adjusting arms, you will need something around 16.5" I think. At least thats how long the ones I used with that setup were. They also have a slight bend in the center.

 

Here's a picture of one side, you can see how much the tire is kicked out. The quote from the tech was "your axle is leaned so far back that your toe has turned into camber"

 

On an XJ camber is controlled by the ball joints, unless you get adjustables there is not a way to adjust that. Maybe your joints are worn? C's are bent?
I was going to get a pair of those LCA's, when I was looking at them I messaged him on ebay about the length. He said that they are approx 16-3/8" eye to eye. Which is a little short for 5", but still works, and you can adjust out more using the stock style shims.
If you run CAD brackets, you will need a shorter arm, there is a chart around somewhere that shows approx length needed with CAD and suck.
I ended up with a good deal on used ones from a naxja member, so I did not buy those.

 

He said that the camber issue will be corrected with longer ucas, because the ball joints will be in the correct location then. Right now the knuckles and leaning back at the top because the longer lcas are pushing the bottom of the axle too far forward for the short uppers