Wheel alignment after lift and new tires

[crawdaddy]

It's been about a month since I added my 35s and my terraflex 2.5" lift.

I never had a wheel alignment. It rides great and straight. Let go of the wheel and it stays straight. Better than my camry.
I also never had the sensors removed from the old tires and installed to the new tires. No warning lights and I am running around 32psi.

Should I get the alignment and move over the sensors? If it aint broke, don't fix it, right?

[wayoflife]

there is no need to get an alignment. in fact, without adjustable components, there is nothing really an alignment shop can do other than recenter your steering wheel and take your money.

[JK JAGS]

there is no need to get an alignment. in fact, without adjustable components, there is nothing really an alignment shop can do other than recenter your steering wheel and take your money.

So jeeps dont need alignments? I didn't know that. WOL, you are like the Mr Miagi of jeep world.

So when "would" a jeep need alignment. Any mods that make would make alignments necessary?

[golfer97]

What he means is that without adjustable control arms, track bars and ball joints, not much an alignment shop can do. Most places will just set the toe (adjusting tie rod). That can be done at home following the Project JK guide.

If you have all adjustable components, you can dial in everything so it can be helpful to have two things

1. A professional alignment where they use those laser things to measure everything

and, more importanly..

2. A shop that KNOWS HOW TO ADJUST IT!!

I've found most big nake tire places will set toe and that's it. Ask them to adjust a control arm and its basically a blank stare most of the time.

[wayoflife]

So jeeps dont need alignments? I didn't know that. WOL, you are like the Mr Miagi of jeep world.

So when "would" a jeep need alignment. Any mods that make would make alignments necessary?

unlike the previous model wrangler, the TJ, which, after lifting would cause things like the toe to be off and would require adjustment, the steering design on the JK does not change with a small lift. sure, things like your axle will no longer be centered and yes, your caster would be a tiny tiny bit off but, there is nothing that you can to do address them without adjustable components and really, 2.5" of lift is too little to change anything enough to make a real difference. as mentioned, the most a shop can do is recenter your steering wheel and take your money.

when you would want an alignment is after you get to 3" of lift or more and, at that time, you really should have the adjustable components to do that - i.e. adjustable track bars, adjustable lower control arms (uppers too if you can afford it). this would allow you to recenter your axles and set your caster. toe will still not have changed and no adjustment to it should be made.

having said all that, you can do all this in your driveway yourself with basic tools and for the most part, without having to lift your jeep off the ground. all you have to do is follow my write-up here:

Project-JK.com - Jeep JK Wrangler Resource » Basic Do-it-Yourself Jeep JK Wrangler Front End Alignment

[JK JAGS]

You can do all this in your driveway yourself with basic tools and for the most part, without having to lift your jeep off the ground. all you have to do is follow my write-up here:

Project-JK.com - Jeep JK Wrangler Resource » Basic Do-it-Yourself Jeep JK Wrangler Front End Alignment

Awesome. Thanks WOL.