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1984 CJ-8 Castor Angle

M

Mwood1129

Member
City
Pooler
State
GA
I have figured out that the castor angle on my Dana 30 is off. Currently it is + 1°. I know it should be around 5°- 8° positive. I have stock tires and stock suspension. The Jeep likes to wonder in the lane @ speeds over 50mph. The steering wheel doesn’t return to center after turns. I’m trying to avoid shims under the springs. Why would the angle be off ? And how else can this be corrected? I’ve only had this Jeep a few years. Not sure if it’s the factory Dana 30 ? Ball joints and tie rod ends are all good .
Thanks
 
Check your toe in-out, I know on newer Jeeps that makes a big difference in their wondering.
 
Mwood1129 said:
Do your know how to tell the year of a Dana 30 ?
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No I do not but some one on here probably does. Not an alignment guy but from what I have seen on the newer Jeeps pages is a very small change to the towed in side the help them with wondering.
 
Mwood1129 said:
Do your know how to tell the year of a Dana 30 ?
Click to expand...
I've never looked it up with a 30, but I'm assuming that it is the same as the larger axles. There is a Bill of Materials (BOM) stamped in the axle tube on the larger Dana axles that says what it was originally build as.

Axle-ID.jpg
 
I might be wrong here, but I would think that as the stock springs have flattened out, it’s affected the castor. Put some shims in and move on.
 
John is spot- on. Very common with leaf sprung vehicles. Put a set of OME springs on and you'll be blown away how much improvement you'll see.
 
John N said:
I might be wrong here, but I would think that as the stock springs have flattened out, it’s affected the castor. Put some shims in and move on.
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All new springs. No change from old to new springs. Not sure if the year yet. But did discover that it’s not the Dana 30 that came from the factory . The shocks connect directly to the Dana 30 and not the spring plates. I’m wondering if the earlier years had less castor angle ? So I’m looking for the correct year model housing .
 
What year is your jeep? Do you have pictures of the front shock mounts/axles? The 81-82 narrow track scramblers used spring plate mounted shocks and short shock mounts welded to the frame. The wide track scramblers 83 on had axle mounted shocks and taller shock mounts that were bolted onto the frame. As mentioned above, check shackle length vs stock. That will affect castor.
 
When were your ball joints, tie rods etc. replaced. My ball joints looked and acted great (breaker bar under tire, observe for movement) It was the last thing I did on my front end and gave the greatest result. No more wander or tracking a truck rut. Upon removal they were incredibly stiff. So if you haven't done them it could be a possibility. It was like pulling teeth for me to bite the bullet to replace them and was literally the last thing I did. My2Cs
 
sdsupilot said:
What year is your jeep? Do you have pictures of the front shock mounts/axles? The 81-82 narrow track scramblers used spring plate mounted shocks and short shock mounts welded to the frame. The wide track scramblers 83 on had axle mounted shocks and taller shock mounts that were bolted onto the frame. As mentioned above, check shackle length vs stock. That will affect castor.
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1984 CJ 8
The shackles measure 3” from center of bolt to bolt . I don’t have any pictures of shock mounts at the moment. But I did measure 51” from back of brake rotor to rotor .
 
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