n00bsandwich

Hello, I recently purchased a 2016 Rubicon (30k miles) that already had some work done. I am new to jeeps and still learning so please bear with me. I am still not sure exactly what has/hasn't been replaced. Here's what I do know. It has a terraflex 3.5" lift kit. I'm not sure what kit specifically was purchased but from my observations it has 9550 shocks and terraflex adjustable upper and lower control arms. It has 37" Tires. The first thing I immediately noticed is that it felt "squirrely" going down the freeway, almost like it didn't want to stay in it's lane. It also pulls to the right. I took it to a 4x4 shop and had them do an alignment. They did the alignment but told me they couldn't fix the pull without offset ball joints. I told them no thanks, and to do the best they can without them. I drive it home and it doesn't feel any better to me. I decide to take a look underneath and I see that the jamb nut for the front drivers side control arm is COMPLETELY loose. Also, on the spec sheet they gave me, I see the caster is still out of spec. Unfortunately, the alignment sheet from my first visit was thrown away.

I call them up and they have me come back in promising to re-do it and adjust the control arms. They also told me they would fix the caster. I bring it in and they get to work on it. I go to pick it up and it turns out they decided to replace my front drivers side ball joint with an offset one. They told me they had to replace it to fix the alignment which sounds like bs to me. They replaced it without asking me first. They also only replaced one and left the other one stock. To make things worse, the caster still seems off to me. Should I take it some where else? How do my alignment specs look? Should I replace the other ball joint? I don't like the idea of having mis-matched ball joints. Any advice is appreciated!

jadmt

you are going to end up having issues. your caster is too high. do you have an aftermarket driveshaft? if you so your pinion angle can not be good for the driveshaft. Of course that is based on having a stock front axle. if you have a new front axle with built in caster correction that changes things. one thing that looks odd is the camber spec I have never seen a sheet for a JK that had the spec range for camber from .04 to -1.1.

also caster is easy to fix with adjustable control arms. make sure they get the proper pinion angle at the same time. it does not make any sense that they did the offset ball joint.

n00bsandwich

The front axles look stock to me, but again Im not an expert. Here is a picture.

jadmt

yes it is stock. I would have them dial the caster back to ~5*. Ask them why they thought they needed the offset front driver ball joint? makes no sense. Do you have a sheet showing the numbers before it was replaced?

n00bsandwich

To be honest, I dont trust them to touch it. They have tried and failed to align it twice and installed a part I dont need without my permission. I will never go there again. Unfortunately the sheet I posted is all I have.

nthinuf

Generally, when we see comments about "squirrely" steering, it is from low Caster, not high Caster. One way to think of this is that when a lift is added, the entire front axle housing rotates, with the pinion (the part on the backside that connects to the driveshaft) angling up further than it was stock. As the pinion rotates up, the Caster number goes down. The higher the lift, the more the pinion angles upward, and the lower the Caster number. --> Low caster causes flighty/squirrely steering. Your Caster is fairly high, which should cause a more firm steering feeling, not flightyness. Though low Caster is likely not the cause of your steering issue, don't ignore your high Caster and move on - put a little thought into what is going on.

You have Adjustable Control arms. Instead of a raised pinion and low caster, the previous owner set the lower arms a little longer than stock, the uppers a bit shorter than stock, and the entire housing rotated the other way. This lowered the pinion, which raised the Caster back up, which 'should' have gotten rid of the flighty steering. Stock Caster is around 4.2*. In your case, the Caster was set quite a bit higher than we generally see. Most folks on here like to be in the 4-5* range after a lift, not up closer to 7* where you are. One of the comments earlier was about the driveshaft. With higher caster numbers, the pinion angles down further and further, which makes the joints at both ends of the driveshaft run at steeper angles. The joint at the tcase end of that stock front driveshaft is notorious for wearing through the boot and spitting out all its grease on lifted JK's (no grease, joint dries out, seizes, fun pics of the damage, etc...) And with aftermarket driveshafts, high caster can also induce driveline vibrations as that joint binds while rotating. So yeah, the moral of this story is that high caster may or may not be an issue, but you might want to consider adjusting those arms to lower it back down a bit. Which this 4x4 shop SHOULD have done for you!! You can see from the before/after numbers that no attempt was made to adjust the caster.

Concerning the negative steering you are getting. Could it be bump steer? (hit a bump or imperfection, and it jumps/swerves rather than just a general wandering?)
Is there a Drop Pitman and a Trackbar Bracket? (take a few pics if you aren't sure what to look for. Passenger side down at the axle where all the bars connect, and driver side up toward the frame where the bars connect.)