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Front Axle Position and Yoke Angle


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Hello all, I have a few questions for the more experienced MJ owners out there.

 

I've been chasing deathwobble and vibrations for a while now, I've replaced all the u joints and motor/tranny mounts and this has almost completely solved it. I'm pretty sure the remainder will be the wheelbearings/balljoints. For this purpose, my front driveshaft has been in the back of my cab for a few months now. I'm going to take my comanche on longer drives starting august and will also be doing some trailrides. Naturally, I want to reinstall my front driveshaft but I feel like my front pinion is pointing down too much. At the same time, my axle is not centered in the wheel well. It's definitely farther towards the nose of the car than it should be. I snapped some pictures with my flashlight an hour ago, could you guys take a look?

 

 

 

I feel like these pictures don't do it that much justice, perhaps because the wheels are parked against the curb.

 

 

Now, this is the reason the axle is so far forward in my opinion.

 

 

These control arms aren't stock, of course. These came with the car, from the PO. I'm pretty sure this car was lifted at least 4'' at some point, because these LCA's are longer than stock LCA's(I've measured and compared)

 

But what about the chassis control arm brackets, are those stock?

 

I'm not entirely sure what to do here, if I reattach my front driveshaft I'm pretty sure my angle will be wrong and my u-joint will be shot within the next 100 miles. The easiest solution would be to return to stock controls arms, but I really, really don't like the stockers. They're just flimsy. The jeep has a nice firm feeling right now and tracks well, I don't want to ruin that by putting on stock LCA's. The other option is WJ LCA's, but I just don't have the time to make them fit and they're not cheap around here. What I'm basically asking is; By how much is my front yoke off and can I still drive it like this with my front DS attached? Would I not cause an enormous amount of stress on the ujoints for my front driveshaft?

 

Any insight is appreciated, thank you in advance.

 

 

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don't worry about the pinion angle its you caster thats going to be the big problem. If you fix that your pinion will be fine. It looks like it still has a lift on it but If you have stock coils you need to put stock control arms back on. I would measure to see just how much lift is on it. The control arm mounts on the frame are stock.

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I checked the results of the alignment i had done in march, my caster is 9•04' and 9•05'. According to stock specs, it should be 7•30' on both sides. Camber and toe are within spec. I'm going to measure the actual lift tomorrow when I have light, thanks for the help so far.

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Yeah, your LCA's are too long. Mounts look stock, though. If you are at stock height you could possibly get by with a junkyard WJ LCA swap as they are a slight upgrade or you could return to stock. WJ or stock arms would re-center your tire in the wheel well and correct your camber & move the pinion up. The yoke should be pointing up at the front t-case output yoke. If you do determine that you do have some lift yet then adjustable LCA's are the way to go as those on there need to go anyway. They will definitely cause DW and/or vibrations as they have your camber all jacked around. Just replacing the uppers with adjustables and leaving the too long lowers on would still keep your axle pushed too far forward. 

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I measured my lift using the DIY sticky, i have between 1.5 and 2 inches of lift currently. I also noticed my LCA's both have a 2mm thick shim on the chassis side, how much would it reduce caster if I removed those?

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I measured my lift using the DIY sticky, i have between 1.5 and 2 inches of lift currently. I also noticed my LCA's both have a 2mm thick shim on the chassis side, how much would it reduce caster if I removed those?

removing the shims would help but I don't think that will be enough. I have 3" of lift with stock arms and no problems so if I were you I would be looking for a set of stock arms.

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There are a decent amount of xj's here, mostly facelift and obd1 versions. So there are some used parts. But junkyards charge a lot for american car parts. For example, a chrysler 8.25" runs around 400 euro, regardless of condition.

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