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Camber & Castor Off After Leveling Kit $200 to Fix?

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Old 03-09-2012, 08:51 AM
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Did the rear spaces pop into place when you put them on it took me a couple of tries before mine popped in maybe that could be cause it to drive different. Just a thought
Old 03-09-2012, 11:16 AM
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Originally Posted by Cherryred
Hi all hoping someone can point me in the right direction,

I Have a 2012 JKU Sport with 3000 miles. I added the leveling kit and brand new rubicon take off tires & wheels. Put the kit on, centered my wheel a tiny bit, drove great except for one thing. Since then I have had a definite track to the right, I switched my tires around, had them balanced nothing changed. I finally took it in for alignment today figuring an alignment was much cheaper than tires again. They told me that to fix the camber & castor they would have to take the knockoffs out and that this is something the dealership should do under warranty. Yeah well, the dealership says my warranty on suspension parts has been voided because of the leveling kit. Whatever it is what it is with the dealership, risk I took. My question is what are the knockoffs and is this a realistic quote from the tire
Ok the knock outs are a stamped peice of metal that is designed to be pulled out so you can have cam bolts installed to correct for castor. DO NOT DO IT ! Cam bolts have a tendance to slip over time and you will need to get aligment to fit it. If your castor is that far out do an adjustable control arms. The only way to adjust camber is by using special ball joints that's it. The other thing to check is the toe measuments, it should be approx 1/8 " toe in, but you can addjust it to fix for slight pulling. If you are looking for a shop to do the repaired, find one that does modified jeeps as they will understanding of how to adjust the toe for a lifted jeep and make it better. Check around your area for a local club, and see who they recommend. They will be going to the one that gives good service/ tells no lies/ is part of the wheeling community, and will have the most amount to lose by being a jerk.
What tire pressure are you runnin in the tires? If you change the tire pressure in the front ones so that the driver side is lower it can make it pull to the left a bit. I find with my rubi that it seems to wander and follow the road a lot more then most vechicles, as well it will pull to he left or right depending on the crown on the road, or what lane I'm in.
Balancing tires won't help with pullin, but you can try and rotate them around till you are happy with the amount of pull you have. If you can't live with the pull, try goin to a less aggressive tire, ( all season) then a MT.
Old 03-09-2012, 01:04 PM
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Thank you everyone, this forum is my only link to jeep people and everyone has been great. My tire pressure is at 30psi and I'm going to mess with that tonight. Someone mentioned going to a less agressive tire and at first I did think I was just feeling the crown more with the new tires. The pull is pretty good and definetly more than the crappy Ohio roads can be blamed for. I had a friend drive it who has always drove modified trucks and he is actually the one who suggested the alignment. I found the directions on here for checking my toe and I'm going to do that as soon as I log off. Someone from the area mentioned Throughbred Jeep in Wellington, Oh. Have any Ohio people worked with/know of them?

I went back to that shop today and asked for more details. They gave me a print out with the following numbers. Sorry not sure how to make the degree symbol on my iPad but I'm sure you probably knew the measurements would be in degrees.

Front Left. Front Right

Actual. Before. Specified. Actual. Before. Specified.

-0.6. -0.6. -0.6 0.1 camber -0.5. -0.5. -0.6 0.1
3.0. 3.0. 3.7 4.7. Caster. 2.9. 2.9. 3.9 4.9
.09. -0.12. 0.07 0.13 Toe. .07. .22. 0.07 0.13
12.6. 12.6. SAI. 12.5. 12.5
12.0. 12.0. Included Angle. 12.5. 12.5
Old 03-09-2012, 01:42 PM
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Toe in: 61" back 60 7/8 Front so that looks good
Old 03-10-2012, 01:10 AM
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All alignment guys are not the same. My experience after more than 30 years in the business is maybe 1 in 10 really knows what the hell they are doing. Also if an alignment rack or machine is not maintained regularly the alignments done on it can be unreliable. Your ''pull'' could be caused by the previous vehicles' wear patterns on your used tires. Put 1000-1500 miles on your tires see if your slight pull doesn't disappear. Most ''slight'' pulls are tire pressure related or road crown related. If your toe adjustments are correct or the axle housing is not bent the adjustable cam bolts are not needed. The previous advice given about checking with other 4WD owners for shop recommendations is very sound.
Old 03-10-2012, 06:11 AM
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Rotated my tires again, set my psi and am going to give it time. The takeoffs only had 200 miles on them so maybe just rotating again will help? The reason I was concerned was because of tire wear. Tires are expensive and I easily put 30,000 in a year and I was programmed to be religious about my car maintenance.

I can't thank everyone enough for their advice and not treating me like an airhead. I have to admit I was almost afraid to ask because I didn't want the "go buy a car, you can't handle a jeep" comments I've read. In the 14 years I've been driving this was the first time I've ever had to take my car into a shop. I was spoiled by having a mechanic father : ).
Old 03-10-2012, 07:50 AM
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It might be just tire pressure or road crown related like one of the previous poster's mentioned. I have a 4.5" lift...no cam bolts and no adustable control arms either. My Jeep drives straight on the roads/highway if you can believe that. Initially my Jeep drove a little "flighty", but that was due to there being way to much air pressure in my tires. I dropped the pressure down to 30 from 45.

Last edited by Runewolf1973; 03-10-2012 at 07:53 AM.
Old 03-10-2012, 08:14 AM
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Could it be the springs were seated incorrectly during the leveling kit install?

I don't have any direct experience with thoroughbred, but there is also 4 wheel parts in Parma that seem like pretty good guys too. Nothing that I can think of down near Ashland though. I want to say there's a shop in Akron, but I can't think of it.

I just have the Sport S but I get some pulling before and after my leveling kit just because of the bigger tires, and how they follow the crown in the road. But if you're constantly pulling only right, then it does sound like something's wrong...
Old 03-12-2012, 12:01 AM
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Originally Posted by TINMAN080
All alignment guys are not the same. My experience after more than 30 years in the business is maybe 1 in 10 really knows what the hell they are doing. Also if an alignment rack or machine is not maintained regularly the alignments done on it can be unreliable. Your ''pull'' could be caused by the previous vehicles' wear patterns on your used tires. Put 1000-1500 miles on your tires see if your slight pull doesn't disappear. Most ''slight'' pulls are tire pressure related or road crown related. If your toe adjustments are correct or the axle housing is not bent the adjustable cam bolts are not needed. The previous advice given about checking with other 4WD owners for shop recommendations is very sound.
Agree with the top. Took 3 times to get mine right. I was pissed
Old 03-12-2012, 12:03 AM
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How about a pic then we might get some insight of the issues.



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