Thanks to the new steering design on the Jeep JK Wrangler, very little is needed to have the front end aligned after the installation of a small to moderate suspension lift (2" to maybe 3" of lift). In fact, if you’re just running 33" tires, all that’s really required at this height is for you to re-center your steering wheel to prevent the ESP from thinking you are in a slide and activating unnecessarily.

Having said that, at 3" and up, it is highly recommended that you install an adjustable front track bar so that you can re-center your axle as well as adjustable upper and lower front control arms so that you can dial in your caster. And, if you are running 35"-37" tires, adjusting your toe-in might be something you’ll want to consider as well as it will help to compensate for the bigger diameter and footprint.

So, do you really need to have a professional do an alignment for you? Not necessarily. Certainly, re-centering your steering wheel is very easy to do, requires little more than a 15mm wrench and about 5 minutes of your time. Need I say, if you’ve just installed a 2"-3" lift, please, do yourself a favor, follow the simple instruction below, save your money and do this yourself. And, if you’ve just installed a 3" or taller lift and have adjustable suspension components, this write-up should be able to help you to set all of them as well.

Basic Do-it-Yourself Jeep JK Wrangler Front End Alignment Write-Up

 

Great write up....now I just need a big lift.....

 

Thanks WOL! That's why this board rocks!

 

Very informative, thanks Eddie!

 

Yeah, this was definately needed. Excellent write-up Eddie. Thanks for taking the time.

js.

 

Great stuff...I'm a total newbie when it comes to working on cars but decided when we first got the Jeep that I was gonna learn and try to do most of the maintainence/installs. The info on this site is awsome...thanks Eddie and Cyndi for all the pics and write-ups.

 

Thanks for taking the time to write this up.

Can you explain why you need such a drastic change from 1/8" toe-in to 1/8" toe-out from 35"-37" tires? Or at least it sounds drastic to me. I've never messed with my alignments much though. I have a friend that does it for a living so I usually take my stuff to him.

 

Thanks for the write up!

 

Thanks guys, just trying to provide some useful info to help ya'll out

By all means, please enlighten us as to what all needs to be done to get your front end aligned and how?

Actually, an 1/8" toe-in would only be about 1/16" more than stock. As for the 1/8" toe out, honestly, I don't know for sure. I only know that in my years of Jeepin, a lot of guys running 37's have run this setup with positive results. Sorry, that's the most I can tell you.

 

Thanks. I'd never heard about any toe-out. I thought this was new info since the JK's steering is a little different from earlier Jeeps.

Keep us posted how your tires are wearing in the future.