dana 44 positive camber

[WaXJ_Skier]

Ive got visible positive camber on my dana 44. Anybody have any ideas what could cause that.

 

[Starboard M]

Bent housing? Have you actually put an angle finder onto the WMS? Mine is within 1* on each side, and it looks off.

 

[-96JeepSpeed-]

Bent or Ball joint? Mine looked horrible, then i jacked up the front of the jeep and unit bearing had exploded and the wheel was tiled waayy far, and real wobble. The weird thing is i didnt have death wobble. But this is a D30 In my jeep BTW.

 

[WaXJ_Skier]

Bent housing? Have you actually put an angle finder onto the WMS? Mine is within 1* on each side, and it looks off.

I have not used an angle finder to check I don't think the housing is bent if anything it would be the inner knuckle. I might just get the adjuster things for the spindle and call it good.

 

[RCP Phx]

Check your castor and toe.

 

[WaXJ_Skier]

caster is roughly +3* I need to double check that and visually I don'y have any toe so its probably <1* +/- . One of the things I have not thought about is the spindles, I might try to rotate them 180* to see if it reverses the camber.

 

[WaXJ_Skier]

if it's not the spindle I can buy shims from napa that will correct the camber anywhere from .5 to 1.5* in .25 increments.

 

[Begster]

I have noticeable camber on my D44 as well. I know mine is caused by a bent inner C. When I was building the axle, I had to cut the ball joints shafts because they were frozen into the inner C's, then I heated up the inner C and hammered the piece out. (this was the lower ball joint). This apparently bent the lower ear some, and when I had everything all welded up and finished, I noticed when I put the knuckle on, there was a larger gap between the upper ball joint boot and C on one side vs. the other.

I have an adjustable camber ball joint sleeve from napa sitting in my garage waiting to go in once I find some time. I know there are also shims that accomplish the same thing by sitting behind the spindle, and thus adjusting the spindle.

 

[WaXJ_Skier]

I have noticeable camber on my D44 as well. I know mine is caused by a bent inner C. When I was building the axle, I had to cut the ball joints shafts because they were frozen into the inner C's, then I heated up the inner C and hammered the piece out. (this was the lower ball joint). This apparently bent the lower ear some, and when I had everything all welded up and finished, I noticed when I put the knuckle on, there was a larger gap between the upper ball joint boot and C on one side vs. the other.

I have an adjustable camber ball joint sleeve from napa sitting in my garage waiting to go in once I find some time. I know there are also shims that accomplish the same thing by sitting behind the spindle, and thus adjusting the spindle.

yeah I was thinking of grabbing those spindle adjusting shims. Does yours cause a bad contact with your rotors?

 

[Begster]

I don't have the spindle shims, but I do have the ball joint sleeve that I haven't put in yet. You can see my camber on the drivers tire here

I chose the sleeve because I don't like the spindle shims for a few reasons. One that I hadn't really thought of before was as you mentioned, the caliper and rotor will now be at slight angles. I'm not sure how this will affect it, but I think it will definitely wear the pads abnormally.

I didn't like them because I knew my C was bent, so even though the tire camber would be fixed, the axis the knuckle rotates would not be changed. Therefore, the knuckles would be turning through different angles, rather than through the same angles with 2 straight C's. I'm not sure how this would affect steering, but I do have crappy steering right now, so this could be a contributing factor.

As I was thinking about my other reason, I just realized it didn't make sense. But I also couldn't find anywhere to get the spindle shims.

 

[old_man]

Beware of the illusion of the camber being off if you have toe in. The bottom of the tire is sucked inwards and the top compensates by flexing outward if you have too much toe in and conversely the bottom of the tire is sucked outwards if the tires are toed out.

Raise and lower each front tire to release any lateral pressure before you try to look at it with your eye. Mine looked really bad with the 35's on it, yet when we put it on the alignment rack, it was within spec.

 

[WaXJ_Skier]

Beware of the illusion of the camber being off if you have toe in. The bottom of the tire is sucked inwards and the top compensates by flexing outward if you have too much toe in and conversely the bottom of the tire is sucked outwards if the tires are toed out.

Raise and lower each front tire to release any lateral pressure before you try to look at it with your eye. Mine looked really bad with the 35's on it, yet when we put it on the alignment rack, it was within spec.

I can tell it is off if I drive over pine leaves I only have about 2/3 of the tire in contact with the ground, I originally though it was the toe especially because of my caster, Ive played with it and it doesn't change the camber much.

 

[xj9140]

couldnt one get the inner c red hot and straighten it with a really BFH?