They don't. Caster and camber are not adjustable without adding more components. Adjusting the Toe, and centering the steering wheel, are all an alignment shop can do to a stock JK - without adding components.


As you lift a vehicle, the axles 'tilt' (the pinions point up further) which has the effect of lowering the caster, which causes flightier steering. To correct the handling, you add some form of caster correction. Cams are the cheapest form of caster correction. They seem to work ok onroad, but offroad they are known to slip. They are made for the JK, and used on JK's, because they are cheap, NOT because they are the best option.

In your case, I assume you bent a control arm bracket or bent a C or bent a tie rod or drag link, or some combination of them? So the shop chose to add cams to allow them to adjust the caster to bring you back to spec. For the camber, depending on how far out it is, you may be looking at offset balljoints to get you back to spec.

 

On a lifted jeep, you can have adjustable control arms or a drop bracket that uses the stock control arms to correct the suspension geometry from the change in lift height. This is done to correct the angle of caster; angle of the driveshaft to diff and or regain wheelbase. Cam bolts are an inexpensive alternative that make a round hole oblong that allows a fixed length arm adjust fore or aft. Vibration, flex or a hit may shift a cam bolt out of its position.

Since your not lifted, there was no need for the cam bolt. I believe Synergy makes a cam bolt fix kit. Bolts in place, but I'd weld it in to be safe. Or cut off the bracket and weld in a new. If it we're me, I'd try a different JK knowing shop. Not the dealership, unless the mech has a JK and knows what he's doing.

 

Shit, that's about all I can say. Im really going to get to the bottom of this at the dealer tomorrow.
They work on all the Border Patrol JK jeeps so I would imagine they know what they are doing. The service Manager seems to know what hes talking about, I have talked with him about lifts etc on a few occasions before I picked out the one I want, which I still cant afford.

I bought a lifetime warranty on my jeep, cost me a lot, so I have to be careful of what I do to it so I don't void it. I would imagine cutting off the trailing arm bracket and welding in a new one would certainly void it. The cam remover kit seems like a do able option.

The whole reason the shop installed the cam kit was my front axle had moved to the rear 1/8 of an inch from that hard trail I took last month. My trailing arm mounts have some dings in them but I didn't think they moved backward.

If I were to remove the cams, I would still need some way of adjusting the axle forward and back ward to get it in the right spot according to the alignment computer. Is there an adjustable trailing arm that is available after market that is recommended?

 

There is a reason that your axle moved back, that doesn't just happen. I would find the source of the issue( something is bent) and fix or replace that. I feel the cam bolts were just kind of a coverup to an issue that should prob be resolved, especially if you can't keep alignment now. Good luck at the dealer and I hope you solve your issues!

 

You have two sets of Control Arms, upper and lower, connecting your front axle to the frame. You can find Adjustable Control Arms through many aftermarket manufacturers. (teraflex, synergy, rock krawler, rough country, metal cloak, etc, etc, etc) Different mfg's will use different types of joints, so you might want to spend some time researching.

For reference, there is a picture near the top of this thread that points out the various components.
https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/jk-w...obbles-260145/


Rather than just adding adjustable control arms, sounds like you should also go ahead and look into replacing the bent brackets that caused the axle to move. Synergy makes some replacement brackets, not sure who else does but I'm sure there are several options here as well.

 

Went to the dealer this morning and they put it up on the rack and did an alignment check. My local shop has it all lined up. But..
Also, they measured everything they could and nothing was bent, all parts were in measurement.
So here is where the but comes in, the manager says that even though the jeep is lined up, its not quite factory spec. Apparently its aligned but it is not exactly factory spec.
His recommendation was to leave it for now. Off road when I want to, if anything moves come back to them and have it checked.
He said when I want to install my rubicon express 2.5 inch lift, to buy terraflex adjustable trailing arms and cam remover kit and install them at that time unless the cams continue to come loose. He said once they are torqued, they shouldn't come loose under normal off road use.

For now, being unemployed, this is the best I can do without breaking my bank. Making my jeep payments is enough to spend for now.

Thank you guys for all the help so far. IF you have any opinions on what to do further I am open to suggestions.