So I bought a used jeep jk last year with a 4inch lift and 35's...soon to be 37's. The ball joints a a little loose but not terrible, and it does not have any truss, sleeves or gussets on the front end. How would I know if anything was bent...C's or housing? There is some movement in the camber jacked up vs on the ground. I ask because before I do ball joints and gussets and trusses I would like to know that things aren't already bent if you know what I mean. thanks for the help.

 

Are you sure the camber movement is not in the wheel bearing?

A trip to an alignment shop for a quick check will tell you if something's bent.
Call around. Some shops will check free of charge.



If you don't want to take it to an alignment shop, checking the camber is fairly easy if you can find a level surface to park on.

 

Will the Camber check be accurate if the ball joints or bearings are bad? Maybe the better question is if something is bent and the ball joints/bearings are bad will it isolate it to whether or not something is actually bent?

 

If you bought a used lifted jeep that none of that mentioned work has been done then for piece of mind before wasting your money on a alignment just to find out you have to redo everything and have another alignment done go ahead and install C-gussets and new balljoints with 2 new unit bearings, all of it has to be removed to do the work in the first place better to get it all done at once then have an alignment done.

 

I appreciate that and it is where the question starts....what if the C's or Axle is already bent? I really don't want to buy bearings and ball joints, gussets and trusses in that case, which is the point I am trying to get at in this thread. I have owned and worked on Jeeps for 30 years but have never worried about this till I bought a JK. lol

 

People have different ways of looking at how to do things. You have to decide which one suits you best.

Personally, I'd want to know the status of the axle housing and Cs before I spent money on a lot of parts.

You said the ball joints have a little play in them. Have you measured the vertical play in the lower ball joints, and the side play in the upper ball joints? My lower ball joints have used up about 90% of the allowable wear and my camber still checks OK.

The play you saw in the "camber" could be in one of the ball joints, or in the wheel bearings. You need to have someone rock the tire in the air while you look for the source of the movement. (Make sure you use jack stands.)

 

I have checked the up and down and in and out play. I don't feel anything in the bearings. There is slight up and down play in the ball joints that I can see but don't really see it side to side. I already replaced the drag link and tie rod with Synergy parts. I want to beef up the housing before I make tire changes and am willing to replace parts as necessary. It sounds like the alignment will tell me if parts are bent so I will look into that first.

I certainly don't want to buy a bunch of parts if something is bent so I want to isolate that first if possible.

 

Call around for the price of an alignment check with no adjustments done. You may even find just a check is free.
I found a place locally that will put it on the rack for free as long as they don't have to make any adjustments.