Lower Control Arm Bracket

[Garthbmn7]

Friend of mine came over to have me look at his 98 XJ after an alignment shop said that the rear axle was crooked. After looking at it for a while, I noticed that the front lower control arm brackets have oval holes for the control arm bolt. It appeared that one of the bolts was about 1/4" further forward than the other.

Now I seem to remember there being some kit avaliable for TJ's that allowed you to fix the pinion angle with some oval washers, but have never heard of that on an XJ. He swears it came like that from the factory. To me it looks like it is missing a couple of oval shaped washers that should be in the control arm bracket.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

 

[Garthbmn7]

This is on the lower control arms where they attach in the rear to the "frame"

 

[xjhm]

the hole is slotted... there are two bolts at the back of the mount used to adjust caster...
look on up under the bracket and you'll see them

 

[SimpleXJ]

I'd call the "guy" and ask him exactly what he meant by crooked and how much he thinks its crooked by. I've been to some shops where the guys didn't know what tire markings meant, so I'd double check before you believe him that the rear is crooked. If you look under the LCA bracket, you should see a washer that is causing the offset you describe. If the "guy" tells you its crooked by 1/4", then maybe the washer in the LCA braket is the cause, but my guess is that someone put it there to get it aligned right.

SimpleXJ