negative camber - could it be the bearings?

[raviolli]

hey all

i noticed some pretty excesive negative camber after a 3" lift, but wasnt too worried because i had new tires and wheels on the way and was going to get an alignment done at the time of mounting/balancing. when i had it in the shop, getting aligned, the guy brought me in to see the measurements and everything was looking good. a lil bit off, but the guy was saying if i wanted him to put in a shim, he could, but it was so close that a single shim would throw it overboard. and its close enough to where it will not unevenly wear my tires. everything felt great driving it home, despite some slop in the steering wheel, but after i parked it, i noticed the same negative camber as before

in this picture, the wheels are turned a lil bit to the right (to the left, when looking head on) so this isnt the best pic, but you get the idea. i havent had the front end in the air to check for play, but i was wondering if bad wheel bearings could cause this :dunno:

...sorry for the novel

[ComancheKid45]

Check all 4 Balljoints, if it was a Unit (hub) bearing I'm pretty sure you would hear some bad noises and really feel it ;)

[Jeep Driver]

Looks to me that changing the pitch of the axle would correct that.

 

No it doesn't look right to me.

 

I might also add that the camber was not correct on my 2wd either until I swapped to 4wd with all new suspension (stock) and is now correct. Also my tight steering radius didn't feel right before but does now.

[Jeep Driver]

BTW if that were ball joints or bearing having that much effect........man you'd know it.

[Eagle]

Camber is not adjustable, so I don't know what the alignment guy was going to "shim."

 

Either you need ball joints or you have a bent axle.

[Pete M]

what control arms are you running?

[dasbulliwagen]

Camber is not adjustable with shims, as eagle said, but CASTER is. You would not notice by looking if your caster angle was off. Good caster will however help with death wobble issues. If you have good caster, it will make it harder for DW to start. You may want to find out what your alignment guy was trying to shim. The shims for caster go in behind the rear of the lower control arms rear mounting bolts. If camber is way off, and the ball joints are good, there are adjustable ball joints available to fix minor camber issues, but if it is too far off, you probably have a bent axle. Wheel bearings would have to be to the point of ready to explode and fall apart to get camber bad enough to notice by looking at it. Good luck, and let us know what you figure out.

[HOrnbrod]

:agree: Adjustable ball joints will only correct up to 1-1/2* of camber IIRC. It appears you have a lot more offset than that. Me thinks your axle is bent. Been doing any jumping lately?

[raviolli]

lmao no jumps yet...i actually don't even get to drive this rig to be honest. it was given to me almost a year ago and since then ive been piecing it together getting it ready for the road/trails. what the PO has done with it, is beyond me. it was my ex girlfriends dad. all i know is he used it to pull her out when she got her s10 stuck (which was all the time lol)

its dark out and I'm getting ready for a christmas party for work but i went out and looked...the lower ball joints look fairly decent. probably somewhat new. the uppers arent so new. I'm not about to get my hands all grimey tonight, i should be dressing up at the moment but the uppers are definitely a possible blame.

as for control arms, my uppers are stock, my lowers came in the 3" Rough Country kit for an XJ (shown below)

thanks for the input so far :wrench:

oh and i do plan on a 4x4 conversion, hopefully sooner than later, but i will need to drive this before then

[bighause]

I bent my axle in the sand dunes and that's what it looks like.

 

Might as well swap in a 4wd front axle while you have it apart for the lift.