Hello out there, im needing a question answered please.
has anybody ever had bent upper A arms...and trouble getting upper ball joints to line up without crazy angle?

I bought this 4dr 97 jimmy from a teenager and i think he did some jumping "airborne" off roading. It seems both upper arms could be bent causing it to be shorter throw for proper ball joint alignment. Passenger side tire leans in at the top, unable to align and boot is broken w/out travel thus far.

Thanx 4 any and all advice, or commen5s. Even a length dimension from 1 of u guys to confirm my suspicions..
boudreaux

 

It kinda sounds like the torsion bars might be cranked up too high. The upper control arm doesn't really have that much load on it, so it seems unlikely that it would be bent.

 

Is there a secret to installing torsion bars to spec in unknown pile of parts.

What is zero factory setting of torsion bars. I marked them b4 removal, reinstalling lining u what was there..

If kid adjusted 1 side or both wrongly, I've put it back same wrongly..

 

Are u saying if i increase torsion bar it will help right the angle of ball joint entering uper control arm..

 

If the front end is sitting too high, it will screw up the camber and the upper ball joint angle. Unfortunately, I don't have a factory measurement because my torsion bars are long gone, but I've seen it posted here once before ( by Christine, maybe?).

 

Put it back together like i found it... thinking somebody molested torsion bar adjustment or jumped sumpin

 

It may have been adjusted wrong before you started. But the fact that it has no weight on it will also affect the ride height, and therefore the camber. I wouldn't worry about it until it's all put back together.

 

I'm gonna say that the keys might have been over tightened when you got it (Pic is a pic of his mid project, it's the old blue dodge we used to see). I would loosen them all the way, check the position of the front end, then tighten them to bring the front back up to "level".

It's going to be hard to have specific measurements, as it's custom work. But we might be able to help get the front ligned up better...

 

Drivers side adjusted to norm. Passenger side upper ball joint just wont drop in , coming in at terrible angle.

Wishing, in hind sight, i had discovered the problem at this stage

You are correct DonL. Its the old dodge on a 97 4x4 jimmy

 

The driver's side looks pretty good. Do you have a picture of the problem you're having on the passenger side for comparison?