I've been through an ordeal on this one.

Last may, at 5500 miles my front driver's side U-Joint came apart while offroad and sheared my inner and outer axle shafts, which the dealership reluctantly and rudely replaced under warranty. I still maintain that I was not doing anything abusive.

When I got the Jeep back, the steering wheel seemed slightly off center, so I took it to another, friendlier dealership and paid to get it aligned. Apparently the problem is that the caster is off by 1/2 degree.

I now have 26,000 miles on my JK and this alignment issue is frustrating, to say the least. Alignment shops tell me they'll have to bend stuff, et cetera and that it'll be expensive. The dealership that fixed it has offered to repair it, but they're 3 1/2 hours away from me and I'll have to take an entire day off from work + pay for the gas to get to/from there. I'm also not confident that it'll be done by the end of the day and would rather do something else. I can assume that, even if done for "free," that it'll cost me at least 200$ in my time.

Does anyone have any recommendations on how to go about fixing this? Should I just go ahead and lift it and would a lift kit be able to compensate for caster issues w/ adjustable control arms? Replacement stock control arms are pretty cheap -- is there a way to tell if a stock one is bent?

 

The caster shouldn't have anything to do with your steering wheel being off-center. And 1/2 degree is hardly enough to affect anything, IMO.


You can re-center your steering wheel in your driveway w/ a 15mm wrench. Takes 5 minutes. There's a write-up here somewhere if you're not familiar w/ the procedure.

 

Wow, I simply can't believe all the crap you are being told.

As mentioned, if your steering wheel is off center, you can adjust it with a 15mm wrench and 5min of your time. Click on the link below to see how:

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

Caster being off will not cause your steering wheel to be off-center. Likewise, if you're Jeep is still stock and the only thing that has happend to it is your axle breaking, there would be no reason why your caster would be off at all.

 

Wow.

The alignment tech told me that the caster would make the wheel not want to recenter. It does feel like I'm always having to consciously pull the wheel to one side, but it might just be psychosomatic if the wheel's off-center.

 

Well, now that is a different story. If you have a drift to one side, it could be that your alignement is off, your tires are not evenly inflated or you could even have a case of a sticky brake caliper. Either way, with a solid front axle, there is only so much caster you can add to one side and you can only really do this with adjustable control arms or cam bolts - the later of which I would not recommend. How big of a tire are you running now and have you done any hard wheeling? could be that you have a bent 'C' on your axle which is pretty common on JK's with bigger tires.

 

Sounds like there is some confusion on what was understood from your first post. Caster CAN affect your steering wheel wanting to come back to center after you've gone through a turn/curve. What was mentioned above is that the simple nature of your steering wheel not being straight while going down the road in a straight line can be fixed in 5 minutes.

1/2 a degree (as long as it is equal on both sides) wouldn't make a huge difference. However, if one side is further off than the other, things like you mentioned can start happening (pulling to one side, etc.).

If you get to a point where they are telling you they need to bend shit to get your caster correct, you'd be better off going and purchasing adjustable control arms.

I too would agree w/WOL and wonder if something is really bent under there when you were off roading... can you tell us a little more about what you were doing when you were offroading and what exactly happened?

 

You might check to see if you broke your steering stabilzer, like I did... My Jeep doesen't like pavement and tries to make a break for it

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvn13MKSc6E

My old roommate edited and posted this video. This wasn't the day the axle broke, but it happened in the last location that was in the video. The soil and weather conditions were pretty much the same.

The night before it broke, I had the doors off and remember clearly hearing a ticking coming from the left front U-Joint. Although it sounded just like a U-Joint, I disregarded it as a rock in the tire or something -- after all, it was a new vehicle. The next day I learned that it was, in fact, coming from the axle when it self-destructed. I believe that one wheel lifted off the ground during my ascent and the traction control locked the brake down hard enough to cause the failing U-Joint to come apart. The Jeep was 100% stock.

The alignment tech told me that the caster was 1/2 degree off on the driver's side, which I'll take to mean that it was not off by the same amount on the passenger's side.

I've been planning on adding a 2-2.5" budget boost and 33 inch tires, but wanted to fix this first as I've been told tires larger than 32" will not be warranty-friendly. I'm not opposed to getting the correct adjustable control arms.

Here's what it looked like after-the-fact (I drove it out of where the axle came apart in 2WD):

 

I would center the steering wheel and check tire pressures first, because these things are easy, fast, and free. If the problem persists after you have checked and adjusted these things, move on to alignment issues which may or may not be covered under warranty. I agree with some of the previous posts that 1/2 degree of caster should not be that big of a deal. Good luck

 

I am learning a TON reading this thread. Unfortunately Im no mechanic and cant give you an answer, my only advice is that the guys on this forum know their stuff when it comes to specifically how the JK works, and you can save yourself ALOT of money by taking some of these tips. Try all these alternatives first before you start letting some shop bend and "fix" it for you. It might be a 5 minute simple fix you can do in the driveway.

I love this forum, I learn more and more every day!