Enforcer 3" and Synergy Ball Joints installed - how long to break em in?

joeyprice

joeyprice

Member
I just lifted my JK, its basically an EVO Enforcer 3", but I pieced it together because I already had Currie LCAs. I put the Synergy ball joints in at the same time and have the wondering feeling in the steering that seems to come hand in hand with new ball joints. I'm wondering how long to give them to fully tighten up before I can attribute the steering issues to caster angle.
I really like the EVO coils by the way, I know this forum gets some flack on other boards because people think of it as EVO's pimp, but everything that I put on seems to work very well and looks extremely well made, the recommendations seem more than justified.
 
frenchjk

frenchjk

Caught the Bug
joeyprice said:
I just lifted my JK, its basically an EVO Enforcer 3", but I pieced it together because I already had Currie LCAs. I put the Synergy ball joints in at the same time and have the wondering feeling in the steering that seems to come hand in hand with new ball joints. I'm wondering how long to give them to fully tighten up before I can attribute the steering issues to caster angle.
I really like the EVO coils by the way, I know this forum gets some flack on other boards because people think of it as EVO's pimp, but everything that I put on seems to work very well and looks extremely well made, the recommendations seem more than justified.
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If the angles are correct and your toe in is correct you should not get a wandering effect. if your caster is off your steering might feel light (flighty) or hard, ball joints have nothing to do with angles or they are not on correctly which i doubt.
 
joeyprice

joeyprice

Member
frenchjk said:
If the angles are correct and your toe in is correct you should not get a wandering effect. if your caster is off your steering might feel light (flighty) or hard, ball joints have nothing to do with angles or they are not on correctly which i doubt.
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I know the ball joints have nothing to do with the angles, but I've heard from several people that new ball joints will make the steering feel light/flighty. Unfortunately those same people say it goes away and the joints break in after anywhere from 500 to 2000 miles. That range just seems really wide to me, and am wondering if anybody here had experience with them. At some point I suppose they'll get as loose as they're going to and I'll have the caster checked, it just doesn't seem like adjusting the control arms before the ball joints are fully broken would make much sense. If all else fails I guess I learned an expensive lesson - buy once, cry once.
 
Basscat

Basscat

Member
joeyprice said:
I know the ball joints have nothing to do with the angles, but I've heard from several people that new ball joints will make the steering feel light/flighty. Unfortunately those same people say it goes away and the joints break in after anywhere from 500 to 2000 miles. That range just seems really wide to me, and am wondering if anybody here had experience with them. At some point I suppose they'll get as loose as they're going to and I'll have the caster checked, it just doesn't seem like adjusting the control arms before the ball joints are fully broken would make much sense. If all else fails I guess I learned an expensive lesson - buy once, cry once.
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I know I had that same issue when I bought one of the first Pro Rock 44s. I was told the Pro Steer ball joint would take a bit to wear in and until then things would feel a bit "wandery". I added positive caster and it went away immediately. Probably would have worn in and gone away. I just decided not to wait and added castor.


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joeyprice

joeyprice

Member
Basscat said:
I know I had that same issue when I bought one of the first Pro Rock 44s. I was told the Pro Steer ball joint would take a bit to wear in and until then things would feel a bit "wandery". I added positive caster and it went away immediately. Probably would have worn in and gone away. I just decided not to wait and added castor.


Sent from my iPad using WAYALIFE mobile app
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I was afraid if I added castor before the ball joints settled I might wind up with too much, but I'll dial some in tomorrow.
Thanks
 
Boji

Boji

New member
Did you have another lift on before the enforcer springs? After I put my lift on it started to dog track pretty bad. Are your axles square? if you don't already have one you may want to look into an adjustable trackbar
 
joeyprice

joeyprice

Member
Boji said:
Did you have another lift on before the enforcer springs? After I put my lift on it started to dog track pretty bad. Are your axles square? if you don't already have one you may want to look into an adjustable trackbar
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Nothing was on before. I relocated the track bar with a bracket and flipped the drag link and the axles are centered, so I don't think an adjustable TB would do much
 
AZ Explorer

AZ Explorer

Caught the Bug
My Synergy ball joints were stiff when they first went in. The slight wander I felt was due to the front wheels not as easily returning to center. This went on for a few weeks and while it improved, it was still there. I kind of wondered if the joints weren't that great or if I had some alignment issue. Then I took it on a trail ride with a bunch of full right and left turns along with decent suspension articulation, not rock crawling just unimproved roads with a lot of hills. Somewhere on the run it just kind of got easier. Steering returned to center like stock and steering wheel feel was lighter and more like stock. I think daily driving doesn't allow for much lock to lock turning and it takes forever to loosen new ball joint up. If you have twisty curvy roads or trails you can go on I'd try that as they are hard to break in going mostly in a straight line.
 
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