Alignment Questions After Accident, Repairs & Upgrades

I've got a question about alignment (completely inexperienced) ... but first, a summary of where it's at (follow up from this thread).

To keep things simple & inexpensive (and just get my daily driver back on the road again as quick as possible), I kept with the parts I had already ordered. I get that this is not a performance upgrade and for a little more money I could have gone higher quality/performance and I will replace this in the future, but for now, the suspension has new parts installed:

• Axle Straightening, w/ Sleeves & Reinforcements (through local specialist)
• Mopar® 52059976AF Front Upper Control Arm
• Mopar® 52059979AF Front Lower Control Arm
• Quadratec® Maximum Duty Nitro 8.0 1.5"-2.5" Shock Kit
• Teraflex 1155200 2" Leveling Kit
• Spidertrax WHS010K 1.5" Wheel Spacer Kit
• Teraflex 1753418 Monster HD Forged Front Adjustable Trackbar (upper end installed, but lower end (passenger side) not bolted in place yet)
• Teraflex 1513001 TERA Steering Stabilizer Kit (waiting on it to arrive)
• Body Damage: Still have a bunch of work to do and money to spend on this (hood, fender panels, fender flares, inner fender flares, grill, light housings).
• Wiring: Still have work to do on repairing the damage electrical wiring for the front electrical components. Installed a Painless switch panel, got a replacement winch body under warranty, need to repair the winch and fix all the wiring.

I put the wheels back on last night and was a little terrified. With the adjustable track bar not yet fully connected and the steering wheel centered the passenger side front wheel looks like it has a correct angle, but the driver side front wheel is angled out at approximately 15°-25°.

Here are some pictures of how it looks: Google Drive Photos.

Note: Unfortunately my garage is small and it's difficult to get good pictures of the front end, since there's only a few feet to the workbench that sits against the front wall.

I did some quick research on alignment and couldn't tell if this indicates a normal alignment issue after doing this kind of work or if that indicates a more serious issue. Based on what I've read there are three primary components that adjust the alignment:

• Tie Rod - Aligns the wheels to each other and body of the car.
• Drag Link - Aligns the wheels with the steering wheel.
• Track Bar - Aligns (centers) the axle under the body of the vehicle and controls the horizontal movement tolerance.

Based on that, I think what I should do is:

1. Connect the track bar - take precise measurements of the axle alignment to the body, use some ratchet straps to get it lined up correctly, adjust the trackbar so it fits correctly and keeps the jeep body centered over the front axle, then finish bolting the track bar into place.
2. Align the wheels - securely strap some leveled 2x4's to each wheel, take precise measurements of the distance at the back and front of each wheel, then adjust the tie rod until the wheels are aligned with each other and the body of the jeep (they should be angled in slightly towards the front, between 1/16" and 3/16").
3. Align the wheels to the steering wheel - adjusting the wheel alignment in the previous step will likely push the wheels out of alignment with the steering wheel; adjust the drag link until the steering wheel is properly aligned with the wheels, while they are aligned to the body.
4. Take it ASAP to get a professional alignment - this should get me close enough to drive it safely into a shop to get a professional alignment.

This is all new stuff that I've never done before and have no experience with, so I'm hoping if I've got some bits and pieces incorrect, ya'll can sort me out - or if I've done my research properly, just confirm that I'm on the right path. I'm still nervous about the driver-side wheel being so far out alignment while the steering wheel and passenger wheel line up correctly - worried if that indicates I missed something that is bent or damaged or did something else wrong that needs to be corrected (and isn't a standard alignment issue). Any help/advice/tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

A few things to consider. First of all, I edited out your links to other forums as it's against the rules. Second, it looks like your toe is way out (toe out). You can correct that yourself EASILY with a measuring tape, use this link to do it: https://wayalife.com/showthread.php/3861-Basic-Do-it-Yourself-Jeep-JK-Wrangler-Front-End-Alignment

Thirdly, get the track bar in first, then do the toe set, then do your steering wheel last. I highly doubt anything is bent, especially if a professional axle shop just repaired and straightened your axle. Even IF your tie rod is bent, reset the toe and you can bring your toe angle back to normal with no issues.

WJCO said:

A few things to consider. First of all, I edited out your links to other forums as it's against the rules.

Click to expand...

Apologies. I didn't realize, will not do again.

WJCO said:

Second, it looks like your toe is way out (toe out). You can correct that yourself EASILY with a measuring tape, use this link to do it: https://wayalife.com/showthread.php/3861-Basic-Do-it-Yourself-Jeep-JK-Wrangler-Front-End-Alignment

Click to expand...

Thanks! That has a bunch of info I was looking for. Wish I'd found it sooner, would have saved me a ton of time. Fortunately it seems that most of the things I figured out (from jacking with stuff and reading things elsewhere) were on the right track.

WJCO said:

Thirdly, get the track bar in first, then do the toe set, then do your steering wheel last. I highly doubt anything is bent, especially if a professional axle shop just repaired and straightened your axle. Even IF your tie rod is bent, reset the toe and you can bring your toe angle back to normal with no issues.

Click to expand...

Awesome, thank you. A few notes on that:

- The drag link is brand new (I figured with the small changes in lift, an adjustable one was warranted to correct and issues caused by changes in geometry).
- The tie rod and drag link do not look bent to me, but I don't have a great basis for comparison. First time I've ever really been very up-close-and-personal with them (and I've never done any of this kind of work before).
- The shop didn't see anything except the axle - I removed it myself and brought it to them - so they didn't look at anything else. In addition to the slight bend in the axle housing, the passenger-side upper control arm bracket was noticeably bent - but there was no other obvious damage (at least to me). The professional who worked on it bent the axle back and repaired the passenger-side upper control arm bracket (he said he bent it back to factory specs and reinforced the welds); it looks good to me, but again I'm an amateur without a basis for comparison, so I'm hoping all is good (that bracket is back to factory specs and nothing else was missed).

Only reason I mention those is because I didn't get a professional assessment of the damage; I've done it all myself (except the axle straightening), and as mentioned, I'm an amateur - so it may be possible some damage was missed, though I'm hoping I haven't.