Wheeled this weekend and noticed my steering wheel no longer straight on road. When I got home noticed my axle is shifted to the driver side by an inch or so. At first I worried I bent my C's but hoping that was a false alarm. Your thoughts?






The track bar doesn't appear bent, but steering link (pictured) has a slight bend to it. Is that normal?



Any other ideas? Is an alignment commonly required after wheeling hard? I plan to take her into the mechanic Monday but hoping for some guidance first.

 

Your Cs do look a little off. A alignment will do you well. Not sure if you have adj track bar and control arms or not but they'll really help ya to dial it in. It's a night day difference going to aftermarket upper and lower arms compared to stock

 

Not that strange for the steering wheel to be off after wheeling. The tie rod ("steering link") bends pretty easy. Unless the tie rod is seriously damaged or pretzeled it is easy to adjust.

Yes, anything and everything else can bend, but setting the toe-in (tie rod length) correct is the first step. You don't need a mechanic. Find the threads here on the forum for front-end adjustments. All you need is a tape measure and a couple wrenches.

 

The tie rod does have a bend to it, but yours seems a little more than usual? Not sure. A good and easy upgrade is the Synergy tie rod. I replaces mine and it seems to track much better, my belief is the stocker flexes in normal driving, not to mention what it's doing off-road!

If you're still on stock arms, and it appears you are, there's nothing besides toe than can be adjusted at an alignment shop. It wouldn't be abad idea to get an alignment "check" done. Look around and see if someone offers that in your area for free.

 

Thanks for the ideas so far.

I run the 2.5" AEV kit which uses the stock track bar + bracket if I remember correctly.

Still on stock control arms + AEV drop bracket. Will eventually replace with Teraflex adjustable LCAs.

Good reminder on alignment and unneccessary to pay for one. I set toe in when I did my lift, and I've centered steering wheel before too. Just don't want to hide a bigger problem if one exists. The axle offset is what can't be fixed by centering steering and toe in. AFAIK it was centered before this weekend. The AEV bracket fixes that with my lift kit.

 

The AEV 2.5 runs the stock front TB with no bracket so the axle won't be centered. The rear has the bracket.

 

maybe that's all it is and I just didn't notice it. I sincerely hope so.

 

I'm going with tweaked drag link or tie rod.
Adjust steering back and drive on. Very common.


2007 Rubicon /2 door/6 speed

 

The AEV 2.5 shifts the front axle about 7/16".

The idea is to set the toe-in and steering wheel center first. With those settings right, you can tell if there is still a problem like pulling left or right. An alignment shop can tell you if the Castor or Camber is off.

Adjustable control arms will let you adjust Castor, but Camber can only be re-set with adjustable ball joints or by replacing bent parts. First things first - you probably tweaked the tie-rod.

 

Just noticed your comment about the AEV Geometry Brackets centering the axle. The brackets do several things, but centering the front axle is not one of them. To re-locate the axle an adjustable track bar is needed.