I’ve attached before and after photos of the work Ive done so far in an attempt to have a smoother and safer commute to and from work. The roads in New York are petty notorious for the rough rides they cause. I previously had a lot of trouble with death wobble and bump steer. Death wobble has stopped but I can’t seem to get rid of this constant bump steer and shimmy whenever I hit a rough patch on the road. I’ve replaced my track bar, did a drag link flip and replaced the drop pitman arm with an aftermarket oem one, tie rod has been replaced as well as my steering stabilizer. Also replaced all 8 of my control arms with adjustable ones as well as my upper and lower ball joints in the front. Wondering if there are any torque specs or Length measurements for optimal driving performance for each of these components. BTW My Wrangler has a 4” lift, with 35” tires. I’ve been struggling to fine tune all of these new parts as I’m new to Jeeps and I have a good friend of mine who has been instilling these parts with me. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!!!!

 

Did you get an alignment after replacing everything?

Have someone turn the steering wheel while you look around up front. Look for play in any of the rod ends and the sector shaft.

 

It's hard to tell from the pictures. Can you verify you do not have a drop pitman arm after the updates? I see in the first picture you have a raised TB bracket and the DL is mounted in facotry position, which would lead me to believe there is a drop pitman. In the 2nd picture the DL is flipped, so confirming you removed the drop pitman and went back to factory. Based on the joint position in the pictures, I'm guessing you did revert back, but hard to tell. Curious what your caster is after installing new control arms.

 

I have had multiple alignments done within the past couple months, and for some reason no one seems to be able to get the job done right, hence why I’m searching for optimal alignment specs as well as measurement specs for track bar, control arms etc. so I can handle it myself w my buddy.

 

Yes I have changed out the old drop pitman for a moog oem pitman arm. Caster was completely negative and out of whack prior to adding adjustable control arms. Right now I don’t have a specific angle to give you but it is definitely more positive than it was previously. I’m really aiming for a 4.5-5 caster angle preferably, but I wanted to see if there were any specific optimal measurements for all the steering/suspension components for a 4” lift.

 

Every lifted jeep is going to be different, so it's hard to give you exact measurements and such. What you're shooting for on caster is correct though.....up there around 4.5-5* is where you want to be. Those alignment shops should have provided a printout of current specs as you were rolling out. Usually bumpsteer is going to be a low caster situation, a bad joint, or TB and DL being out of parallel. It sounds like the TB and DL are in alignment with each other, you've thrown the whole shop of parts at it....which makes me thing you're down to nailing the caster (unless you have an undertorqued nut somewhere). Were the previous alignment shops clear that they would or would not adjust those adjustable control arms? Most shops won't include that in their basic alignments without an extra charge. If you know the baseline of what the current caster is though it's easy to adjust them at home for the difference you need.

 

My situation is that I live in the city and there aren’t many alignment shops that know how to deal with lifted vehicles. I was told by the last place I went to that my caster was all out of whack and that the adj control arms would help solve that issue. Going to get exact measurements and try to correct my caster to the optimal angle. Just want to make sure it’s only that that’s the issue because whenever I hit a bump on the highway the Jeep is all over the place and doesn’t seem to absorb the hits the way it should. Makes for a very rough and difficult ride with me just going to work. I greatly appreciate the advice you’ve given and it’s definitely understandable that every lifted Jeep has its own optimal specs.

 

I agree this sounds like pinion angle and caster being unhappy, I mean you've addressed everything else it seems.

When I replaced my front d44 with a Dynatrac a couple of years ago I learned a good bit from their documentation.
Once you get past all the marketing stuff, there's some decent info, I think.
Especially about how pinion angle influences castor angle and then the whole 10 degrees of separation.
http://dynatrac.ru/pdfs/Choosing_the...using_revC.pdf
I think I ended up with 24 inch lower control arms eye to eye.
Hope this helps maybe some.
As mentioned, your Jeep is a bit unique from a suspension perspective...snowflake :P (I'm kidding!)

Can always find the best 4wd shop around and let them dial it in as a last resort.

 

This is what I'm saying though....someone else's exact measurements won't be the same as yours. You have a 4" lift. What is the actual lift height? It's likely not 4". You need to center your axle with the lower arms, adjust the pinion with your upper arms. If you knew exactly what your current caster was from an alignment, say it's 3*, then you could take a reading at home with an angle finder and simply increase caster by 1.5*. I say that cuz using an angle finder at home is not good enough to figure out what your current caster is......but it is at least good enough to adjust if you know your baseline of current. Make sense? If you don't have a printout with current specs, you might even call the last place and ask them what the spec was cuz they should have that receipt and print out on file, I would think.

You could also simply just shorten the upper arms by a couple turns (lowering pinion and raising caster) and go for a drive till it's improved. There is no specific "perfect" caster, more of an "acceptable" range. Too little and steering is impacted, too much and DS won't like you.