Front Suspension Replacement

[RiversideMJ]

Hey guys, I'm looking to replace my front suspension parts because I was told by 3 different shops that I could no longer get an alignment on my truck without replacing my front end suspension. Said Tie Rods were adjusted to the max so there was nothing they could do. 

Now I am looking to do the job myself as it doesn't seem to hard after watching a few videos.  Looking on websites I can't find parts that are for an 88 Jeep Comanche or Cherokee, which I have an 88 Comanche. Do you guys know if a 91 front suspension set up would work? Does it matter if it says its only for 4WD? These are some of the kits I am considering.

Thanks in advance

1991-1992 Jeep Comanche Ball Joint - Detroit Axle 80493.13A - Front - PartsGeek.com

 

1991 Jeep Comanche 4 Wheel Drive Front 13 Piece Steering & Suspension Kit TRQ PSA79969

[gogmorgo]

2wd and 4x4 steering are the same. Suspension is the same other than 2wd springs are an inch lower. Everything should be compatible with an XJ from ‘84 to ‘01 as well.

 

 

Replacing everything including ball joints and sway bar links for toe adjustment being maxed out seems, frankly, incorrect. Like there’s got to be something else going on here.
Is your truck completely stock up front? Did they give you an alignment printout? What specific issue were you trying to solve? Is there anything other than the tie rod adjustment being maxed out?
If you want to replace it all for the sake of replacing it all, sure, I guess. None of it is particularly difficult as long as you can get it apart. But if you take stock parts off and replace them with stock parts that are identical dimensions, you’re not going to gain any adjustment range. And I wouldn’t want to spend money to pull good parts off to replace them with something that may not be as good quality when you’re not actually correcting an issue. And the everything-you-need kits are usually cheap junk. 
 

Editing to add that there are length differences between some components between ‘90 and ‘91 so you don’t want to mix and match before and after, but as long as you get everything for the same model year it should fit. This might actually be part of the issue if someone did mix and match. It’s probably better to order parts for the correct year of your truck so you don’t need to remember not to order the wrong parts later, which you’ll probably have to do if you plan on keeping the truck long term. 

[Eagle_SX4]

A quick search on Rock Auto shows the 91 and 88 have different part numbers. Most if not all of the parts you are looking for can be found there. 

 

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/jeep,1988,comanche,4.0l+242cid+l6,1181584,steering

 

 

I recommend using Moog ball joints and tie rod ends. They have worked well for me.

 

If your tie rods are adjusted to max and its still not in spec something is wrong. Worst case your axle is bent, although I doubt it.

[89 MJ]

Something is definitely screwed up in that front end if anything is adjusted to the maximum. 
Id figure out what parts need replacing and replace only those. NOS or Moog would be my recommendations as Moog is (or at least was) made in the USA

[eaglescout526]

What ever you do stay far the hell away from crown ball joints. The price is tempting but you literally get what you paid for. Garbage that lasts maybe a year. 

[Chad R]

My experience working as a mechanic stay far away from Detroit axle chassis parts unless you want the practice of changing front end parts.

[AZJeff]

If you are replacing “front suspension parts”, the stuff you posted (with the exception of the track bar in the first picture) is all steering linkage stuff.  You make no mention of installing new control arms and/or control arm bushings.

 

if you are going to the trouble and expense of steering linkage, ball joints, and track bar, the control arms are a small cost adder at that point, and well worth the added scratch.

 

The advice about avoiding “kits”, and using reputable brands such as Moog, purchased from competent on-line vendors like Rock-Auto, is also worth heeding.   Nothing is more aggravating thank going through the effort of installing parts that turn out to be junk in short order.

 

 

[RiversideMJ]

Truck is completely stock as far as I know and I was not given a printout as all 3 shops had a few minutes looking at the truck and then told me there was nothing to do unless I changed the tie rods.  

What do you guys think could be wrong other than the bent axle suggested? By the way my Comanche is RWD.

 

I do already have new Upper and Lower Controls arms with bushings ready to install. Forgot to mention that whoops.

[89 MJ]

If you can, post up a few pictures of your steering and we can see if anything looks bent. One from the front and another from either the top or bottom and the side. 

[Gojira94]

Just asking- if OP has the older design knuckles and a PO of the truck put on a tie rod and TREs for a later truck, could that be the reason he’s short on adjustment range?

[RiversideMJ]

These are some pictures I had taken already. Will get some more when I get home

 

[gogmorgo]

13 hours ago, Gojira94 said:

Just asking- if OP has the older design knuckles and a PO of the truck put on a tie rod and TREs for a later truck, could that be the reason he’s short on adjustment range?

I don’t think so. People swap axles around and don’t need to change steering components. People also put the ZJ V8 tie rods on everything without issues.
What could be possible though is there’s a mix of early and late components. Just looking through the specs on Rockauto, the later tie rod ends are about an inch longer apiece than the early ones, and then the “adjusting sleeve” long part of the tie rod is about 2” shorter than the early ones.

So the length difference in the tie rod ends is cancelled out by the length difference in the tie rod for overall the same length, but only if you match like with like.

1 hour ago, RiversideMJ said:

These are some pictures I had taken already. Will get some more when I get home

This looks like stock components to me.

The drag link looks on the newer side but I’m not used to looking at parts that haven’t seen road salt so for all I know it could still be original. The adjustment in the drag link doesn’t look like it’s maxed out yet but it’s getting close to all the way in, but this only keeps your steering wheel on centre. It would still be good to double check there’s no play in the ball joints at the ends of it. The end at the wheel is important to the toe measurement if it’s got play, the end at the pitman arm isn’t important to the alignment, other than a little slop in your steering (you still don’t want play in it).

 

The tie rod connecting over to the driver’s side wheel does look like it’s got quite a bit of the tie rod end thread revealed, meaning it could be getting close to max too. But I’m more concerned looking at the torn boots on the tie rod ends. If there’s play there they need replaced. The adjustment here is your toe-in/out adjustment, so it’s important to the alignment process, there shouldn’t be play in it. I would measure the adjustment sleeve here to double check it’s the correct length for the tie rods you’re ordering. Some of them on RockAuto have the specs. Sometimes it’s difficult to measure precisely but the difference is roughly 2” here so it would be easy enough to distinguish between the two sizes.

Like I said before for the steering linkage it might be better just to get the original to match the year of your truck for the sake of simplicity, and only replace what you need to. But if you just want to rip it all out and start over I would do the V8 ZJ setup. I often will completely replace a tie rod instead of only doing one end, but see above about road salt… sometimes you can’t just replace one part. 
 

Other things important to the alignment are the actual ball joints in the axle C. If there’s play in the lower ball joint that’s bad, a little (like 20 thou, Moog says up to .060”) in the upper ball joint is normal because it’s a telescoping joint, but replace it if you have to do the lower. Some people will tell you to do both sides if you have to do one side but I don’t think that’s necessary. 
Wheel bearings will also screw up an alignment if they’re bad. 
Control arm bushings can throw off an alignment too if they’re hammered out. You’ll mostly be looking at the rubber bushings to see if they’re perished. The stock control arms are also a little on the flimsy side, and have a lip that likes to catch tire lugs, so if you are replacing them a good upgrade for stock length arms is the WJ lower control arms. They’re sturdier and don’t have the lip, on top of being scooped a bit for extra tire clearance. 
 

 

That all said, I’ve never brought a vehicle in for an alignment just for the sake of doing an alignment. Is there a shake or a wander you’re trying to solve? Or a tire wear concern maybe? 

 

[75sv1]

From post, there are two grades of Moog products. Some say to use the Problem Solvers and not the regular ones. Also, measure the distance from side to side of the front of the tire and the rear of the tire. It looks like the tie rod and the link to the other side are all the way in. 

[RiversideMJ]

10 hours ago, gogmorgo said:

I don’t think so. People swap axles around and don’t need to change steering components. People also put the ZJ V8 tie rods on everything without issues.
What could be possible though is there’s a mix of early and late components. Just looking through the specs on Rockauto, the later tie rod ends are about an inch longer apiece than the early ones, and then the “adjusting sleeve” long part of the tie rod is about 2” shorter than the early ones.

So the length difference in the tie rod ends is cancelled out by the length difference in the tie rod for overall the same length, but only if you match like with like.

This looks like stock components to me.

The drag link looks on the newer side but I’m not used to looking at parts that haven’t seen road salt so for all I know it could still be original. The adjustment in the drag link doesn’t look like it’s maxed out yet but it’s getting close to all the way in, but this only keeps your steering wheel on centre. It would still be good to double check there’s no play in the ball joints at the ends of it. The end at the wheel is important to the toe measurement if it’s got play, the end at the pitman arm isn’t important to the alignment, other than a little slop in your steering (you still don’t want play in it).

 

The tie rod connecting over to the driver’s side wheel does look like it’s got quite a bit of the tie rod end thread revealed, meaning it could be getting close to max too. But I’m more concerned looking at the torn boots on the tie rod ends. If there’s play there they need replaced. The adjustment here is your toe-in/out adjustment, so it’s important to the alignment process, there shouldn’t be play in it. I would measure the adjustment sleeve here to double check it’s the correct length for the tie rods you’re ordering. Some of them on RockAuto have the specs. Sometimes it’s difficult to measure precisely but the difference is roughly 2” here so it would be easy enough to distinguish between the two sizes.

Like I said before for the steering linkage it might be better just to get the original to match the year of your truck for the sake of simplicity, and only replace what you need to. But if you just want to rip it all out and start over I would do the V8 ZJ setup. I often will completely replace a tie rod instead of only doing one end, but see above about road salt… sometimes you can’t just replace one part. 
 

Other things important to the alignment are the actual ball joints in the axle C. If there’s play in the lower ball joint that’s bad, a little (like 20 thou, Moog says up to .060”) in the upper ball joint is normal because it’s a telescoping joint, but replace it if you have to do the lower. Some people will tell you to do both sides if you have to do one side but I don’t think that’s necessary. 
Wheel bearings will also screw up an alignment if they’re bad. 
Control arm bushings can throw off an alignment too if they’re hammered out. You’ll mostly be looking at the rubber bushings to see if they’re perished. The stock control arms are also a little on the flimsy side, and have a lip that likes to catch tire lugs, so if you are replacing them a good upgrade for stock length arms is the WJ lower control arms. They’re sturdier and don’t have the lip, on top of being scooped a bit for extra tire clearance. 
 

 

That all said, I’ve never brought a vehicle in for an alignment just for the sake of doing an alignment. Is there a shake or a wander you’re trying to solve? Or a tire wear concern maybe? 

 

 

 

Only reason I took in for an alignment was because I had gotten new tires on the truck.  All they said was I need the front suspension rebuild (they probably meant the steering linkage since they said tie rods).  The steering also pulls to the right a bit so I wanted to fix that issue especially because when I brake it pulls a bit more but nothing crazy. Just wanted to fix that small issue

IMG_7641.HEIC IMG_7638.HEIC IMG_7637.HEIC

[75sv1]

I looked on Rock Auto.

'88 Long Adjuster 36.5"

'92 Logn Adjuster 34.75"

[gogmorgo]

Minor pull to the right sometimes is just slowly falling off the crown in the road. But it could be something. Make sure your tire pressures are correct, none of the brakes are seized, and that the axle seals aren’t leaking into the brakes.
“Rebuild the front suspension” is a strange thing to tell someone. There’s five things there that would affect alignment, the four control arms and the track bar. Ball joints maybe but you can check those for play yourself. Same with the steering components.
Nothing in the above photos looks particularly bent, so unless you have the wrong parts installed there should be an obvious problem somewhere. Visual inspection on control arm bushings, check for play in the steering linkage. You can measure the length of components too if you want.