rear axle problems

[lonewolf81]

hey yall, i have whats probably a stupid question but will ask anyways, i just put my new rims and tires on my yj and have noticed that my axle seems to be crooked meaning my left rear tire sits closer to the front than my right rear . question is does anyone know of a easy way that i can fix this myself or is this something that i have to pay for someone to fix. any help would be great.:?

 

[Bounty__Hunter]

Check for a bent leaf spring or broken spring centering bolt, either would cause one end of the axle to shift. Fix it soon before tire wear accelerates.

 

[lonewolf81]

thanks looked at it again today cant seem to find anything out of place , i did notice that it seems the driver side shackle is not lined up with the pass. side, tried to move both of them to see if one of them would fix the prob. but didnt seem to do anything

 

[Bounty__Hunter]

Sounds like a bent spring on the drivers side, in front of the axle. A bend in this area would pull the axle and shackle forward slightly from being even with the pass. side.

I'm moving this to YJ tech, you really only need one post in one forum.

 

[lonewolf81]

ok so assuming its a bent spring , is there a way i can bend it back or is it something else that i have to buy now ?

 

[Bounty__Hunter]

They're tough to bend back, and used springs are easy to come by. Replace in pairs, don't replace just one side or it'll lean.

 

[TwistedCU]

Is it lifted? Could one of the leaf springs be mounted backwards?

 

[lonewolf81]

no its not lifted , i was going to put the PA 2in bl on but think im gonna return it to jc whit. and get some lift shackles instead .. far as the springs i cant tell from looking at them if there is anything wrong with them . it doesnt seem to affect the drivability at all but im sure would wear the tires down weard after awhile plus it just looks akward so i deffinately need to fix it , just dont have alot of cash to go puttin in it .

 

[lonewolf81]

well i took her to a cpl of shops today , one being a body shop that does frame straightening they said they dont think its the frame but could be the body got shifted on the mounts, it has about a 1/4 in difference from one side of the rear to the other ,if u look at the rear of the jeep u can see the pass side body mount stickin out from the tub but not the driver side., the body shop told me to try taking the u bolts off and see if i could slide the axle back a 1/4 in or so and see if that would do it . they also said that other than abnormal tire wear that it shouldnt cause any other problems if left uncorrected does this sound right ?

 

[rutunu]

My problem was that I forgot to put the Trac Bar Extension on. I decided to keep them on for now and when I did, the top Centering bolt would not go in right, so after looking at it for an hour I realized that I did not put the Extension on prior to tightening everything up which lead to the Rear Drivers side being forward a little. After placing the extension on it fixed the problem.

Hope this helps.

well i took her to a cpl of shops today , one being a body shop that does frame straightening they said they dont think its the frame but could be the body got shifted on the mounts, it has about a 1/4 in difference from one side of the rear to the other ,if u look at the rear of the jeep u can see the pass side body mount stickin out from the tub but not the driver side., the body shop told me to try taking the u bolts off and see if i could slide the axle back a 1/4 in or so and see if that would do it . they also said that other than abnormal tire wear that it shouldnt cause any other problems if left uncorrected does this sound right ?

 

[lonewolf81]

will that cause it to do that with no lift on though, everything is stock except i just put on some 31's with 15x8 wheels with 3.75 bs. id thought about removing the track bar all together cause ive read that it can be done and still be able to drive on the street but i didnt know if it would help or hurt the axle problem and everyone ive talked to doesnt really know that much about jeeps aparently.

 

[rutunu]

No, I thought yuou had a lift, my fault, sorry bud

will that cause it to do that with no lift on though, everything is stock except i just put on some 31's with 15x8 wheels with 3.75 bs. id thought about removing the track bar all together cause ive read that it can be done and still be able to drive on the street but i didnt know if it would help or hurt the axle problem and everyone ive talked to doesnt really know that much about jeeps aparently.