theksmith 5,778 Posted July 17 (edited) Gadget has pulled to the right for a long time, thus I can't attribute it to any particular mod. I've had other bigger handling issues till recently and so I hadn't been too worried about it - but now I'd like to solve it. What I mean is if I let go of the steering wheel while driving down a street or the freeway, she immediately starts drifting to the right. The steering wheel turns to the right as it happens. It's a much more aggressive movement than I would expect from just the crown of the road and none of our other vehicles have this issue on the exact same stretches of road. Alignment: My camber isn't horrible (and is fairly close to equal). Caster is about as far as I can go (without creating major driveline vibes even at lower speeds when the hubs are locked). I have cross caster at -0.6* which I was expecting would offset the road's natural crown. Thrust is ever so slightly negative too. I reduced the toe just a tiny bit after getting the following readout, which made no detectible difference. Brake/bearing drag: I free-spun each tire and don't feel any more drag at a particular wheel. I also checked the temperature at the center of each wheel/hub after a bit of freeway driving and they are all within a few degrees of each other. Therefore, I don't think I have anything dragging causing the pull. Sway bar tension: I noticed the front and rear sway bars had a little bit of tension on them from the adjustable links not being set just right. I adjusted a link on each bar till they both sit perfectly neutral with the Jeep parked level. This fix made no detectable difference in handling either. Tire rotation: Also makes no difference. What am I missing? Thanks in advance for any suggestions! Edited July 17 by theksmith Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ob1jeeper 849 Posted July 19 I'm going to throw out a possible for your consideration. Kingpin inclination angle... IE, the kingpin is no longer pointing to the center of the tire contact patch, thereby causing the vehicle to be more sensitive to road camber... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theksmith 5,778 Posted July 22 (edited) On 7/18/2026 at 8:29 PM, ob1jeeper said: I'm going to throw out a possible for your consideration. Kingpin inclination angle... IE, the kingpin is no longer pointing to the center of the tire contact patch, thereby causing the vehicle to be more sensitive to road camber... i don't really understand how KPI is different than wheel camber on a common ball-joint based solid axle like the JK D44? is it a combination of camber and wheel offset? i did notice that on the few places where the road actually slopes to the left, Gadget will run straight rather than start pulling left - so it seems like the pull is always towards the right. Edited July 22 by theksmith Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ob1jeeper 849 Posted July 22 (edited) 11 hours ago, theksmith said: i don't really understand how KPI is different than wheel camber on a common ball-joint based solid axle like the JK D44? is it a combination of camber and wheel offset? i did notice that on the few places where the road actually slopes to the left, Gadget will run straight rather than start pulling left - so it seems like the pull is always towards the right. I failed to add in my comment above, that the KPI angle (KPIA) is typically set in production vehicles (independent suspensions AND "live" (or solid) axles, such that the scrub radius is as close to zero as practical. When larger tires are installed in our solid frt axle in attempts to improve off-road capability, the result is, higher scrub radius due to the deeper offsets, Since the kingpin angle hasn't changed, the scrub radius is increased making the vehicle more sensitive to road crown, and just as importantly, creates a higher probability for axle tramp, commonly know as the feared "Death Wobble". KPIA can be adjusted to a minor degree, on the typical "live" frt axles such as is in your JK, using offset balljoint cams. You may be able to adjust the KPA enough to balance out the road crown using some offset cams, and trying to offset the KPIA, side-to-side sufficiently enough to get a more stable "less drift/pulling to one side" vehicle while retaining your larger tires & wheels. With that said, as the tires grow larger and scrub radius grows along with it, it becomes more difficult to obtain sufficiently low enough scrub radius, with out modification to what is commonly referred to as the axles "C" brackets that have the ball joints in them, as well as modifying the knuckle to obtain a better KPIA, and lower scrub radius. To that end, most of the "custom axle builders" take that into account, and by pairing custom "C" brackets and knuckles, to set the KPIA's to obtain a lower scrub radius and more closely match the intended tire/wheel combinations. I will see if I can find some better information with some schematics that might explain this better than I am doing at the moment... Edited July 22 by ob1jeeper Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
