Camber is off after getting zone off-road 2 inch leveling kit installed

[XrayMike]

As the title says, I have visible positive camber after my lift. Will an alignment fix this?

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[dgorsett]

Yep, it should

 

[kodiakisland]

Yes, standard practice to have an alignment after any changes made to the suspension.

 

[XrayMike]

Yep, it should

I sure hope so. The visible camber I have right now is silly looking not to mention wearing my tires unnecessarily

 

[Boreal]

I sure hope so. The visible camber I have right now is silly looking not to mention wearing my tires unnecessarily

Alignment should be the first stop after any lift or lower. Or it’s gonna cost you 10x to replace the rubber

 

[bigblueboing]

Highly encourage everyone to learn from this post. Search and google first then decide if you want to post automotive 101 questions. This is basic beginner stuff man.
“if you modify your suspension in any way you should do an alignment “. Every tire guy ever.

 

[dgorsett]

I'm sure OP gets the message now, and we all know it's true, but from an engineering perspective ...Why?. The IFS on a Bronco (and most ifs vehicles) is a parallelogram with UCA, LCA, axle and tierods all pivoting on the same radius from the fixed point of the frame shouldn't they stay in vertical alignment?

 

[XrayMike]

I'm sure OP gets the message now, and we all know it's true, but from an engineering perspective ...Why?. The IFS on a Bronco (and most ifs vehicles) is a parallelogram with UCA, LCA, axle and tierods all pivoting on the same radius from the fixed point of the frame shouldn't they stay in vertical alignment?

Yeah I know I needed an alignment after a lift. That’s not something I’m asking I’m just making sure the weird camber look I have going on will be fixed after the alignment. I have it scheduled for tomorrow so hopefully she’s good as new afterwards

 

[AK SNO RIDER]

I'm sure OP gets the message now, and we all know it's true, but from an engineering perspective ...Why?. The IFS on a Bronco (and most ifs vehicles) is a parallelogram with UCA, LCA, axle and tierods all pivoting on the same radius from the fixed point of the frame shouldn't they stay in vertical alignment?

This. Surprised no one else has mentioned it. The Bronco has a non-adjustable UCA, does it not? It's not the typical 'adjustable strut in place of a UCA' that many cars have, and the ball joint in the UCA can't be moved.

So how is the camber adjustable as so many of you are saying?
You'd need some kind of adjustable UCA, no?
If I'm missing something I'd love to know.

 

[XrayMike]

This. Surprised no one else has mentioned it. The Bronco has a non-adjustable UCA, does it not? It's not the typical 'adjustable strut in place of a UCA' that many cars have, and the ball joint in the UCA can't be moved.

So how is the camber adjustable as so many of you are saying?
You'd need some kind of adjustable UCA, no?
If I'm missing something I'd love to know.

I did some digging and I found this thread. Looks like the camber is adjustable but not in the way you referenced initially. Here’s the link the to the thread

https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/uca-upgrade-and-camber-adjustment.31893/

 

[AK SNO RIDER]

I did some digging and I found this thread. Looks like the camber is adjustable but not in the way you referenced initially. Here’s the link the to the thread

https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/uca-upgrade-and-camber-adjustment.31893/

Interesting and good to know. Have not seen that before. Most of my experience comes from offroad toys with adjustable UCAs.

 

[Pseudoko]

this is a good video to watch and learn. This video mainly talks about UCA's but he does talk about how lifts and UCA's go together. it's not quite as simple as installing the spacers and thinking everything will be perfect without adjustments.

 

[kodiakisland]

Yeah I know I needed an alignment after a lift. That’s not something I’m asking I’m just making sure the weird camber look I have going on will be fixed after the alignment. I have it scheduled for tomorrow so hopefully she’s good as new afterwards

So, results after the alignment?

 

[XrayMike]

So, results after the alignment?

So I guess I’m tripping but the mechanic said the camber was pretty close to what it should have been. He did say the toe was pretty off though. This shop does the alignments by hand so I didn’t get any print out unfortunately. It was hard to find a shop to do an alignment on the bronco because I guess most machines don’t have the specs or whatever. My ford dealer didn’t have their alignment machine working so they recommended me to this place that does by hand alignments

 

[Wheelin72]

The reason you need to do an alignment after changing the ride height is that the camber and toe will change due to the change in ride height. The suspension does not form a perfect parallelogram where the knuckle moves straight up and down. It is more like a trapezoid, and the knuckle moves in a bit of an arc as it travels up and down, which creates a change in camber as the suspension travels. As the suspension compresses, camber gets more negative. How much it goes negative or positive depends on the geometry and angle of the UCA.

The toe also changes as the suspension travels, due to the angle formed by the tie rod. On the Bronco, the tie rod is in front of the center of the wheel, so as the suspension droops (or vehicle is lifted), you will get more toe in.

If you install the lift kit pucks by removing the lower control arm, you will be messing with the camber adjustment cams (eccentrics) which move the pivot point inboard or outboard, which changes the angle of the knuckle (camber). Even if you mark them and put them back exactly where they were before, your camber will have changed due to the height difference.

I expect that when the Bronco is lifted, you will have too much toe in and a bit too much negative camber. The change is likely very small, but an alignment for ~$120 is probably worth it in the long run for tire wear.

This thread has the alignment specs.. print it and take with you to the shop so they know where to set it. https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/alignment-specs

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