I took the Jeep in this morning for an alignment. I was looking at my results sheet and noticed they didn't adjust the camber and caster in the front and it is still out of spec. They said the numbers were nothing to worry about and that the camber and caster are not adjustable without a special part to allow them to be adjusted. I'm running a Zone 3" Offroad lift. Are they BSing me because they don't know what they are doing or is there really a special part I need to get?

 

Did your lift kit come with new front control arms? Geometry correction brackets? If it didn't, where would you expect the adjustment to come from? On a factory Jeep the only real alignment adjustment is to toe and centering of steering. Camber cannot be adjusted on a rigid axle of this type. That leaves caster and we're back to control arms. A 3" lift kit puts a few degrees of tilt on the front axle unless the control arms are changed, or are adjustable which is why many feel a negative change in steering feel. On a factory Jeep adjustment bolts can be substituted to the LCRs to make some caster adjustment and are part of some earlier lift kits.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll need to check my paperwork when I get home but I thought I did get the upper and lower control arms with the kit. The ting that had my questioning this is last time I went to the same shop, everything came out in spec or within 0.01.

 

If this is the lift you have, then it did not come with adjustable arms -

Zone Offroad 3" Suspension System J12/J13



Even if your jeep had adjustable arms, most alignment shops aren't going to adjust those for your as part of the normal alignment. They might charge you more, or they might not even realize they are adjustable and say nothing about it. It is typically not expected that they would do that extra work with a normal alignment.

 

And your caster is really low at 2.5*. You want that to be over 4*.....closer to 4.5* or so.

 

If you are doing light wheeling look for a geometry correction bracket. If you see yourself wheeling, get some arms.

 

We ran the Rancho Geo Correction brackets for quite a while. A run across the Rubicon did one in so I ended up removing them and going to new, longer control arms. For 80% of the lifted Jeeps out there the Rancho Geo Correction brackets are just the ticket. When we ran them I really noticed that I had that stock "Steering feel" back. The Rancho Geo Correction brackets are the beefiest of those out there, they are wended together, not bolted together. They're easy to install too.

 

Correct, caster and camber are not adjustable from the factory.

But, click the link that resharp posted and scroll down a bit. In the 'required' area for that lift, they give a choice of cam bolts for caster correction. And then in the 'optional upgrade' area, they list adjustable control arms. (for those who don't want to use cams). Can't really blame them for the low caster, since they point it out multiple times to everyone looking at that lift...

Might be a good idea to double check that you don't have those $10 cams installed, and the shop either didn't notice them, or couldn't be bothered to adjust them. (big square offset washers on the ends of the lower control arms at the axle)

And as far as camber goes, it isn't all that uncommon to see reports of out-of-spec numbers rolling right off the dealers lot. So, it could be 'normal', or it could be that you bent a C or the housing, or have worn balljoints, or whatever else. Watch the tires for abnormal wear, and decide at some later point if you want to install offsets.