it's certainly the first step in diagnosing your problem. when a shop does an alignment, they do a "shake down" on your whole front end to see if anything's loose (tie rods, ball joints, suspension, etc...)
That's a good phrase, most Jeepers have to deal with it at one time or another... A good front end alignment can work wonders... After the hellacious stuck, located in my signature pic, the steering wheel was turned to the right about 90 degrees when I was going straight down the road, though it didn't veer to the left or right or anything... One of the wheels was also rubbing the wheelwell at full left lock... I'm freaking, thinking about all these terms that are being tossed at me like "Bent trackbar", or "Damaged Control Arms", or "Broken Steering Box"... A wee $50.00 front and rear alignment at my friendly neighborhood Belle Tire solved that problem, and I found a coupon in the paper for 10 bucks off as I was walking out the door to go and pick it up
And if anything else, as they said, you take it in for an alignment, if they're worth anything, they're gonna tell you what's wrong if the alignment is not the issue...
Funny, all this talk about front end alignments...I haven't had a vehicle aligned since 1986....and that was on my old Toyota 4x4 when it was only a year old. Never had a vehicle since that needed an alignment. I'm sure at some point the YJ will need one (most likely when I get it lifted, but not before). Just not that hard on front ends, I guess.
Most definately will need one after you lift it. All the geometry gets thrown out of whack when you lift it, so it is unavoidable unless you want driveablility issues and lumpy tires.