XJ Mods VSB 14

[alexbrown64]

Don’t know exactly what the shop did. They did a great job on the diff rebuilds and regears, but the left pull threw them. It does have an adjustable track bar.
I messaged GoJeep Marcus and he said don’t redo the ball joints yet, but get all the angles straightened up. Will get a straight edge tony and check to make sure track bar is aligning wheels equally both sides. Will check toe in and adjust to zero if needed. I will reset all my control arms to how I originally had it. Then I will lengthen left side as per GoJeep to combat Australian road camber.

Not much I can do with camber as the boys set that up. Tony, do those camber figures I posted up make sense as in the correct numbers to make the Jeep pull back to the right. I need to study up on offsets..

I might adjust caster to decrease pinion angle and lighten up the steering. That tunes out any vibes, but also seems to reduce left pull. Down side is steering wanders a whisker, but a compromise can be found.

If I can tune out most of the left drift, I will add a return to centre steering damper.

One other thing, I want to measure the mounting points on both the track bar and drag link. They should be parallel. Then I can determine if I need a drop ZJ pitman arm.

The Jeep project is back in full swing...steering puzzle and obd1 engine tune...

[alexbrown64]

Not sure if they did a proper wheel alignment Mark. They didn’t bill for it and didn’t give me a print out. Good comments there Oldon . I will check the arse end and test drive with parallel axles. Don’t forget the old cure for left pull was pushing the axle forward on the left side about 10mm more than right. The axles won’t be parallel then. I’ll also look at those camber figures.

Tony, I did do the axle shift check a long time ago when I did the track bar relocation mod. When I got the new adjustable track bar, I carefully swapped it out but didn’t recheck. I will recheck.

You guys have given me some food for thought.

I will re-go over everything...

Cheers,

[alexbrown64]

I’ve got the Eric Zappe Jeep builders guide.
He says negative camber tilts top of wheel in..
Positive camber tilts top of wheel out.

My mod was...

Replace LH upper ball joint with +0.5 offset.
Replace RH upper ball joint with -1.5 offset.

Looking at my Jeep head on, wouldn’t the wheels look like this:

OlllllllO
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With Australian roads cambering down on the left, wouldn’t that set up want the Jeep to lean into the camber even more, or have I got it all arse about face??

Any help with that one?

Cheers,

[alexbrown64]

Ok, I’ve kind of figured out the steering.

You Tube

So, does anyone know if +positive offset ball joints add positive offset, or combat against a positive offset condition.

Cheers,

[awg]

If I was you Alex, I think I would be inclined to purchase a Camber and Caster Gauge, as the 2 measurements are inter-dependant.

(changing one changes the other)

I think my XJ wishes to drift ever so slightly to the left, and this is due to road camber (in Australia)..it definitely does not pull to the left

To my understanding, most vehicles benefit by a slight toe-in and negative camber (wheel is further in at the top)..it makes them corner better

I am not sure why you fitted offset balljoints, that is not a topic I have studied, other than I know XJ have no facility for Camber adjustment

On my older vehicles, camber and caster is set with shims, which is a brute of a job, and well beyond trusting the alignment shop at +$100 per hour to fiddle with

here is the way I test them after setting..find a dead flat surface, and it must be wet..perform a braking skid test..the vehicle must pull up dead straight.

It is not easy to do this, as it seems like pure hoonery, and locals dislike seeing someone doing it

[alexbrown64]

Got a message from the shop and they said they were working on castor with the offset ball joints.
Perhaps, like u said Tony, they thought the castor correction would affect camber and help pinion angle and left pull.
It didn’t work.
I’ve asked if it’s worth me using the control arms to set pinion angle to 1* to eliminate any vibes, then they set castor/camber using upper and lower adjustable ball joints.
I also ordered a ToughDog Return to Centre steering damper.

I’m a bit over it all at the moment.

Cheers,

[LuluBelle]

"I also ordered a ToughDog Return to Centre steering damper" They are quite good Alex I have been using one for years
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