muffinman

Can't believe I have to ask this. I put my angle finder on my front diff cover bolts,ala the Go-Jeep site. I get a reading of 90. What side of the 90 is positive castor? Indicator towards the front of the jeep or towards the back? I have 0 castor? It wanders on the highway above 60-65 mph, Help. I can't read a angle finder

Demonoid369

If I'm not mistaken, you want the top of the axle going back towards the body and the bottom going out towards the front so looking at the axle from the driver side, turn it clockwise?

93gc40

Clockwise, when looking from the right side.. So the pinion rotates up toward the transfer case..

I would also recommend a close inspection of the ball joints. Do you have excess play in the steering box. Is your stablizer shot? You running longarms or short arms?

muffinman

95 Cherokee. 4 1/2 inch lift , short arms. Steering box is good as are ball joints. Pinion angle does not look so good. Driving around the mountains on the two lanes at 55 I did not notice the wandering. Here in the big city at 70-75 I can feel it.

5-90

"Positive" caster is, as I recall, caster that has a "positive" - read "self-correcting" - effect. Caster is used to give the wheels a tendency to return to the "neutral" (or "straight ahead") position.

I believe most alignment specs are going to be 0.5-3.0* of positive caster, which indicates that the upper ball joint/kingpin will trail slightly behind the lower.

Putting the upper ball joint/kingpin ahead of the lower ("negative caster") will cause a magnifying effect on changing wheel position - meaning you need to fight it to get it back to straight ahead.

Zero caster means that the wheel tries to neither correct nor worsen when left alone.

Typical proper road alignment specs call for:
- Zero to slight positive caster (angle thru ball joints/kingpins WRT vertical)
- Zero to slight "toe in" (very slight acute angle through normal plane of tyres, relative to vehicle centreline.)
- Generally zero camber (vertical angle between normal plane of tyre against plant perpendicular to ground plane.)

Caster may be "quick-checked" when driving by simply releasing the steering wheel on a straight track - the vehicle should continue straight (exception would be a high crown in the road, which would make you track slightly to the right. This is not necessarily an alignment issue - check to make sure the crown in the road isn't excessive. "Crown" refers to a slight slope in the pavement as you proceed away from the centreline, this is done to promote drainage.)

Toe may be checked by feeling the tyres for "feathering" or "cupping" - feathering would be indicated by the tops of the tread blocks being displaced relative to the body (you'd feel a "sharp side" and a "round side,") and cupping is obvious (caused by tyre "scrub" due to excess toe.) If the tyres are feathered inward, you have excessive toe-in. If the tyres are feathered outward, you have excessive toe-out (the direction of feathering is which side you find the "sharp" on - it points to the error.)

Excess camber is indicated by measuring the depth of tread across the tyre face - the low reading points to the error (if the outside of the thread is significantly shallower, you have excess camber outward. The reverse for camber inward.)

Toe is adjustable within the steering linkage. Caster requires either offset ball joints or adjustment of axle mounting. Camber requires fabrication for solid axles (independent suspension usually allows adjustability.)

freegdr

Seen this .....http://go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoAlignment.htm