Ever since I unlifted my tj with stock height springs and shocks the alignment has been out of wack and pinion angle was off. I've read a lot of posts here on at home alignments with the description of what tools were needed and such. My goal was adjust pinion angle , toe in and center the steering wheel. I figured the pinon of the front axle should be pointed at the front output of the transfer case. After Jerry discussed the flats on the front of the Dana 30 was a safe machined location to check pinion angle I used that as my reference point. After adjusting the pinion angle my gauge was showing 7 degree which I believe would give me about about 5 degree of caster. Locked them down and drove around for a few days to verify the settings stayed. I had picked up a 6 foot piece of one inch aluminum tubing cut it in half and marked the center and 15 inches out from center on both sides of the two pieces. I put the front axle on jack stands and removed the front tires then clamped the center mark on the aluminum bars to the center marks of the front rotors. For a minute I wondered is using two different brand tape measures was going to be a issue then though that was the stupidest thing I had ever thought of in a long time so I continued and clamped end of a tape measures to the front and rear of the aluminum tube at the 15" mark. The toe was out almost 3/4 of an inch and had to adjust the toe in to 1/8 inch at the front of the bars. The hardest part for me was centering the steering wheel it took a lot of tweaking between the flattish roads in town and the high crown rural roads where I live. It goes straight down the road, steering wheel is centered and no longer has vibration when I engage the front differential. I give y'all a hat tip for all the posts I have read on doing my own alignment.
