dana 30 camber

not sure if this needs to be in the intermediate or the early so i will start here. i did a dana 30 swap in my '71 with a '74 dana 30 with '78 knuckles out for the disc brakes. it seems like the driver wheel is like the leaning tower of piza. can this be corrected or is the axle shot? i just don't want to eat up my tires. i have not gotten to the alignment shop yet after the swap.

 

Axle is bent Camber is therefore off...........wheel not on correctly? Take your wheel off and put a straight edge with an angle finder on the drive hub, compare it with the other side........should be able to see the problem more clearly..........

 

Any of your 1972 or later TSMs have the suspension specs for a CJ open 30 in the steering section. Camber for all Jeeps in 1975 is 1.5 degrees nominal + up to 0.5 degree.

 

man this really sucks if the axle is bent. just dumped a lot of money into this darn thing. good thing i have a few more axles but really bites i will have to pay again to have gears all set up.

 

Is toe set correctly? If not that can give the illusion of a camber issue. If so check what it is. There are shims called Cosmo shims that go between the spindle and knuckle to correct camber issues on these. There are also cams that replace the upper ball joint adjuster but I don't like them as they make it tough to set ball joint preload.

 

i will take the wheel off and do what you are suggesting tarry

 

nick. i have not brought it down to the alignment shop to have all that done yet since i put the axle in. i got it somewhat close with the eyeball but that is all i've done. i see rock auto sells those cosmo shims and they are only 13 bucks so that is cheap enough. maybe my local napa can get some.

 

aren't the holes on the spindle set up so it can only go on one way? if not i wonder if there are some marks on there to say which way it goes?

 

i should have gotten the better ball joints as i wonder if that has something to do with it.

 

You can set toe with a tape measure and get it close enough to drive on if you're diligent.
Unless the spindles are bent it won't matter what rotational position you install them. I install them with the notch up but that's simply for convenience of servicing. Camber is set by the knuckle and the "C" on the axle housing unless the housing is bent. No need to take it to an alignment shop unless you want to get down to the gnat's behind.
I wouldn't spend the money until I had a better handle on what is going on. A tape measure, cheap angle finder, and maybe a straight edge should get you an idea of what us going on.
Make sure there is no play in wheel bearings, ball joints, tie rod ends, etc. first.

 

ball joints, tie rods, axle joints, bearings and seals are new. how long of a straight edge should i use?

 

From the picture it appears the axle housing could be bent but it would have had to be bent down? I cannot figure how this could be? Up yes from hard drop (jumping) but down will have to be explained to me unless jeep was in a wreck. Anybody?

 

Jack it up , and support it with the jack stands under the springs @ ride height, so that full weight is on the suspension.............take the wheels off on both sides...........use the straight edge , it can be 12" to 24" or better yet if you have a magnetic angle finder clamp it to the face of each hub on a vertical plane , hubs need to be pointing directly forward in a straight line as if your driving straight ahead................check both sides and start looking at all the individual components side to side to see really where the difference in Camber exists........You have to play detective here..............if its that far off it will show up............and as Nick mentioned if the toe in is off a bunch there could be an optical illusion that we are seeing........

 

well today i worked on the jeep. jacked up the front and put it on stands. while it was in the air i spun the tires to see if there was any runout and there was not. the only thing i did notice was that the brakes were dragging on half the rotor but it did it on both wheels. i went down to the hardware store and got an angle finder to see what we are dealing with. on the driver side i put it on the wheel mounting surface and it read 89 to 88*. the passenger side was 90*. going to put the tires back on and try and get the toe dialed in. after that is done it looks like maybe taking the brakes and hubs off and turn the spindles 180* and see if it goes the other way?

 

The Dana 30 in the front of my flatty has that same look. Never investigated any further because it's mostly a trail rig. Fwiw worth mine came out of a very low mileage stock 72 commando that pulled boats in and out of the water its entire life. Pretty certain mine isn't bent and it's optical due to toe.

 

My '70 is the same. The D30 is out of a '78 CJ7.

rocmoc n AZ/Mexico

 

ok fellas i might have some garage time today to do some measuring. a question i have is now that the wheels are off the jeep couldn't i just measure from rotor to rotor to get the toe? or should i bolt the wheels back on and go from rim bead to rim bead?

 

You can measure from rotor to rotor. One of the issues is if you give yourself let's say 1/8" toe in at the rotor, when you put the wheels on it will be dramatically more due to the diameter/angle of the wheel. I'd measure from bead to bead on the wheel.

 

after looking at it yesterday i wouldn't be able to do the rotor to rotor measurement without taking the calipers off. i also wondered about what you said nick. i just thought since i had the wheels off i could do that but the way of bead to bead seems more acurate