axle alingment issues

[Crusty Old Shellback]

So I've had my K5 built for a while and have been enjoying it climbing around a bunch of rocks and stuff. But I've been having issues with the tires rubbing on the body.

Well the other day while looking at the K5, I noticed that the left rear tire was sticking out past the body some but the right rear tire was tucked up inside of the body. I checked my body and it was aligned evenly with the rear bumper.

Tonight I finally sat down and took a good hard look at everything and did some measurements. I measured from the frame to the center of the tire. I had the body off and the truck was on my home build stand which supports it at the frame, front and rear. So the tires were not touching anything and the shocks were full extended. I measured that the left rear tire was a 1/8" out more from the frame than the right rear tire. I tried checking several different thing that may affect it but couldn't narrow it down to anything in particular. I did remove the lower links and made sure they were the same size. I saw that they were just slightly different in length. So to fix them, I had to remove the ball from the end socket, turn the end 1/2 revolution, or 180 degrees, and then reinsert the ball end. So now they are the exact same length.

But that didn't fix the issue. My axle is still 1/8" off center. I guess my next step will be to tear it down and check the upper links for equal length.

Since the rear was off, I figured I should check the front as well. Well good thing as the front was 1/4" offset to the left as well. I'm going to do the same up front and check the links to make sure they are all the same length. The only other thing I can think of on the front would be to shorten the panhard bar to move the axle over 1/4"

So has anyone else noticed this offset? Did I do something wrong in my assembly? I followed the directions verboten as well as printed out the provided info on the length of the different link arms here in this forum.

I'm open to any ideas. I want to fix this issue first and then see if I still want to narrow the axles.

[sdmf]

Originally Posted by Crusty Old Shellback

So I've had my K5 built for a while and have been enjoying it climbing around a bunch of rocks and stuff. But I've been having issues with the tires rubbing on the body.

Well the other day while looking at the K5, I noticed that the left rear tire was sticking out past the body some but the right rear tire was tucked up inside of the body. I checked my body and it was aligned evenly with the rear bumper.

Tonight I finally sat down and took a good hard look at everything and did some measurements. I measured from the frame to the center of the tire. I had the body off and the truck was on my home build stand which supports it at the frame, front and rear. So the tires were not touching anything and the shocks were full extended. I measured that the left rear tire was a 1/8" out more from the frame than the right rear tire. I tried checking several different thing that may affect it but couldn't narrow it down to anything in particular. I did remove the lower links and made sure they were the same size. I saw that they were just slightly different in length. So to fix them, I had to remove the ball from the end socket, turn the end 1/2 revolution, or 180 degrees, and then reinsert the ball end. So now they are the exact same length.

But that didn't fix the issue. My axle is still 1/8" off center. I guess my next step will be to tear it down and check the upper links for equal length.

Since the rear was off, I figured I should check the front as well. Well good thing as the front was 1/4" offset to the left as well. I'm going to do the same up front and check the links to make sure they are all the same length. The only other thing I can think of on the front would be to shorten the panhard bar to move the axle over 1/4"

So has anyone else noticed this offset? Did I do something wrong in my assembly? I followed the directions verboten as well as printed out the provided info on the length of the different link arms here in this forum.

I'm open to any ideas. I want to fix this issue first and then see if I still want to narrow the axles.

I heard there was a little bit of confusion in the manual. A guy at the lhs said that because of the adjustable chassis, there were spacers you had to use when building the links. I am assuming you figured that out though. Is your panhard setup properly? I'm not into panhard so someone else should chime in on that. For the four link rear though, you should have 2 uppers, and 2 lowers the same length, and in the front the lower 2.
I am not familiar with this kit though, just interested in it.

[M1tch]

There are 61mm and 66mm long links in the kit. Could be easy to mix them up. I doubt you are the first person to do that. The different lengths, plus the spacers make up the adjustable wheelbase.

[Crusty Old Shellback]

I'll recheck my links but I paid close attention when building them as I had read about the issues on here before I started building my K5. But it never hurts to recheck.

The only issue that I have found so far is that I had put the pivot balls in the ends before I assembled the links. So to get them set right, I could only turn them in so far. I didn't think at the time to measure the length of them to compare. So that extra half turn makes a difference in the length that will affect it some.

Maybe I/we need to add that info to the "what you need to know before you build" thread.

[jkwrangler08]

trying to visualize this i would think it would have to be the link lengths or the mounting of the links. I'll have to check mine when I get home but I don't think that the links can be mounted incorrectly as I don't remember having any choices. I would insure that the 2 lowers and 2 uppers are the same length.

[Crusty Old Shellback]

yea, only one way to mount the links, other than maybe the top link on the front. But I think it can only go to one side. Plus I looked at a bunch of pictures on here to figure out where it went before I mounted it. The diagrams were not all that clear.

As for the length, that was my thought. If one side is longer than the other, it may push the axle askew. So when I get some time, my plan is to disassemble all of the links and measure them to make sure that each pair is of equal length.

[txbart]

Perhaps you put the links & shocks on the axle wrong, like ( S L S L ) or ( L S L S ). Are they ( S L L S )?

[Crusty Old Shellback]

yes they are correct at S L L S. Last night I actually tried to put L S S L but it just will not fit/work.

[sdmf]

So are you still out of alignment? If so do you think maybe you torqued one side of the chassis more than the other? Otherwise I can't see it being anything other than links.

[Crusty Old Shellback]

OK, I got if fixed last night.

I'm not sure what was exactly wrong with rear. I removed all of the rear links and checked them all to make sure the pairs were of equal length. Not much difference in them. The only ones I adjusted were the lower links. I also check the shock length and adjusted them to equal length and made sure my preload was the same. When I put it all back together, I was only off by 1/32" and I can live with that. Now both tires just barley rub on the body when at full compression.

On the front, dumb old me. The axle will move side to side because of the pan hard link depending on where the K5 is sitting in it's travel. At normal ride height, the axle is pretty much centered. But it will move a full 1/4" each way when at full droop and full compression. Yep a full 1/2" movement from full droop to full compression. When I was checking it the first time around, I had the K5 on my stand which supports it by the frame rails, so the suspension was at full droop.