I had the AEV drop brackets installed and i do feel positive results. No more nose dive while breaking and the cornering has improved. I have a couple adverse effects as well that I'm looking for advice on. First I didn't have an alignment done after the install because they did one side at a time. My steering wheel looks like I should be turning a bit to the left when I'm going straight. Weird and not sure if that's an easy fix. Second issue is the ride at higher speed 55+ is much rougher than before. Its almost like my tires feel out of balance, but it was a drastic change from before. I'm just trying to get your input before I go have my tires balanced or have an alignment. If its an easy fix I would love to not through money down the toilet. Thanks for your input in advance. I would appreciate input from people with experience with these brackets only.

 

What do you have on your jeep already?

Brackets should have changed alignment or balance??

 

you can re-center your steering yourself in five minutes using simple hand tools. Just look in the write ups section. If you still have a problem, rotate tires front to back. These steps will cost you $0

 

I agree that centering your steering wheel is super easy. And while our JK's don;t have much in the way of alingmnet options other than toe and steering wheel (unless you go all adjuatble control arms and ball joints), I found it was very helpful to still have a pro alignment done just so I knew what all my specs were. I couldn't figure out how to properly use an angle finder to get an accurate reading so figuring out caster was useless for me until the alingment.

Reason why I say an alignment is helpful is so you can understand more about your current geometry and address it without spending hours re-torquing everything, replacing components and doing a tire rotation. While your issue sounds like a tire balance problem, it's always possible that the correction brackets gave you too much caster which is causing driveline vibes. That can lead to blown driveshaft or transfer case.

Again, its probably your tires but I'm the kind of guy that needs to know what my specs are and what they should be so it's easy to eliminate factors before spending time and too much money. I paid for a lifetime alignment from a local shop and they adjust everything for me on my Jeep (track bars, arms, tie rod) based on the specs I give them. Most of the time its just fixing the toe but it's easy for them to do rather than me!


Here is the link to the do it yourself method.

http://project-jk.com/jeep-jk-write-...-end-alignment

 

Brackets only change the steering castor. With or without the brackets castor is not adjustable so there is nothing for an alignment shop to change.

Brackets won't change the toe-in either. If the toe is off after the brackets, it was off before the brackets.

Camber is not adjustable so it can't change with the brackets. Again, nothing for an alignment shop to do.

Steering wheel center might change a bit with the brackets.

Toe-in and wheel center are very easy to adjust. No special measurement tools needed, just a tape measure and a handful of combination wrenches. Its good to know how to do this yourself because after a day on the trail these settings sometimes need correcting before the long trip home on pavement.

If there are steering problems after installing brackets, it could be that some of the control arm bolts were tightened before the wheels were on the ground. An alignment won't help this, but an hour with the tools will.

 

Good information to know on these Brackets as hope to install soon. Does anyone think any weight on the front would affect these any as to what hole you would use, either the 2.5 or3.5 Like a Exped. one bumper and a winch?

Thanks

 

So after reading all that....All i'm getting is that they lower the rear bolt on point of the front control arms, thus lowering the angle of the conrol arm itself. So....what are these brakets actaully doing? I have lower Rock Krawler arms for their 2.5 inch Max Travle Kit. ARE these brackets of any real use?

 

Set them for whatever size lift you have. Don;t use the 3.5 if you only have a 2.5" lift. The entire purpose of these brackets is to bring your geometry back in line to stock so they are set based on whatever height lift you have installed. If you have a 2.5: but set it to 3.5", you will throwing off your caster even the opposite way from where it is now.



In my opinion, these are more of a band aid to fix caster unless you have no intentions of any hard core wheeling. The do serve a purpose in bringing the control arms back to their proper angle which also changes the caster but they hang lower than arms do and are not adjustable for fine tuning.



And finally, I stand by my original suggestion. Get a proper alingment so you at least know what your specs are. Yes, you can;t change much with the components you have but when things start shaking or falling apart, having those specs will have a ton of time on trial and error to see what's causing it.

 

Yes, for sure. The brackets need to be set up for the actual lift height.

The brackets are one way to set castor. The cost some ground clearance, but they also lower the control arm mounts, keeping the control arms more level. The brackets are a good deal for on-highway and cross-country. For rock crawling, adjustable control arms make more sense.

If adjustable control arms are used, then measuring castor is a very good thing. If the front end has possibly been messed up by banging on rocks or curbs, then it should be measured by an alignment shop. If brackets are added to a known good front end, the alignment shop can't offer much except to lighten your wallet.

Only a rotating part (wheel/tire, axle shaft, drive shaft) can start things shaking. No alignment settings or non-rotating part can cause or cure shaking. Enough rotational shaking can cause things to loosen up or fall apart, though, and anything that is loose or worn will make the shaking feel worse.

I think most shaking starts with the tires, but axle shafts and drive shafts can also put a head on your beer.

 

I believe Freewill has the correct answer. His explanation is dead on.