So I recently bought a 1997 cherokee. Has I think around a 3" lift with 33s. Got to looking it over and noticed my front tires are leaning in at the top. So I know you can't adjust camber but took it to an alignment shop so they could check it out. Come to find out they said I need offset ball joints. About 2 degrees on one side and 1 degree on the other. Now I looked up offset ball joints and found they are fairly pricey. About 70 a piece.

Now I also found another dana 35 axle for 150.

What would be my best bet? Buy offset ball joints or buy the other axle and swap em. Also if I get the new axle how hard would it be to swap the gears since I have 4.11 gears in the jeep now.

 

Best bet is to go to a different alignment shop......
I highly doubt offset ball joints is needed

 

"New" axle maybe, or new ball joints. Old axle could be bent or the BJ's are just shot.

 

What could be the cause of it though? They are off pretty bad just by looking at them.

 

Cause could be a lift was put on but never tuned in.


Check your pinion angle on the front diff- should be slightly minus driveshaft angle. Make sure you're front axle is straight. Also make sure the axle is centered. All easy misses when a lift is put on and all have considerable affect on the steering/ tracking. Measure your toe-in. Front should be slightly less than back of tires. Once you've done all that- you're aligned.

 

Been doing a lot of research on it. Gonna get my angle finder out tomorrow and check pinion angle. And check toe settings also. Hopefully these are way off and the cause of my camber issues.

After looking over the jeep a Lil today it's likely they didn't align it one bit when "lifting it".... went really cheap on the lift. Will be buying a complete new lift in the near future.

 

I swore I had camber issues as well - did a driveway toe alignment and it solved it - basically I had no camber problems, just an optical illusion with bad toe.

The only way you can have a camber problem is if your inner C's are bent. And the likelihood of both being bent, the same amount, is low.

 

That's what I'm hoping. Gonna check the toe in a Lil bit and hippie that's the fix.

 

So just got doNE checking the toe. Which was way off but still didn't fix my camber issue. I put my angle finder on the 2 bolts to the different cover and it shows about 10 degrees. Which is a Lil too much isn't it? Or where is the right spot to check it with an angle finder?

Also just for the hell of it I put the angle finder on both upper ball joints to see if they measured different. I got 11 degrees on both sides. Which I figured if it was bent it would be the c's. Any suggestions

 

I had the same problem. Ball joints were the cause along with the old hubs that had play. Replaced both and both perfect alignment. I would replace the ball joint with stock and check the hubs for play. I would bet that its all fixed after that.

 

So even though they are all tight with no play?

 

Yes they had no play if you took the wheel and shook it around