bigwalton's new Jeep: "The Colonel" - 2018 Rubicon Recon JKU
- Thread starter bigwalton
- Start date
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
It’s not coming off without a replacement hood.
- City
- Olathe
- State
- KS
Just find someone that wants a snorkel and swap?
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
Exactly my thought.
- City
- Rochester
- State
- Mi
I’ve got a guy when you are ready
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
Updating this thread. This thing has been our dependable dune rig/Postal fill in and until this year was making the trip up and back basically every weekend. Last fall I did the Drummond event with it and it did amazingly well. It's been to a couple 4 Wheel to Heal events (not to wheel, I was working the event as a board member) at Rausch Creek and we've had it camping up on Drummond
This year we decided to leave it up there for the summer and run back and forth in the Renegade since the Postal wasn't there (and gas prices
), that let us keep it aired down and ready to run on the sand.
Earlier this year, it started having an issue with slight wobble in the front end at the standard 52-54 mph and went into full wobble one time. Ever since I swapped the Ultimate 44, which I neglected to order with a raised track bar bracket
I had to swap the drag link back under the knuckle (ordered the UTK drag link end from Steer Smarts to swap back on) due to unholy bump steer.
While the Steer Smarts stuff is beefier than anything I've ever come across, the TRE nuts are simple nyloc with no other locking provision. From about 6 months on, I've had issues with those nuts backing off slightly and tightneing them got rid of the little bit of wobble. I've replaced the nuts a couple times and tried various thread lock. The knuckle was drilled through and uses a drop-in insert to correct the taper to go OTK (the PO did this for an aluminum steering setup he managed to bend and I replaced in AZ with the Steer Smarts stuff) and I replaced that as well thinking it may have lost it's "bite".
The wobble came back here at the end of the summer and tightening that nut didn't do as much to help it. I was also starting to hear a metallic sound that seemed to be front-axle related but came and went and I coulnd't ID it. I'm fed up with the bump steer and have no ability to fab/weld the trackbar mount myself (there's nothing I could find commercially for the larger tube on the U44 and I couldn't have welded it on anyway) so it's time to get this sorted once and for all.
As we've seen with the Postal, I have no time (or desire to take time away from the Postal) so I'm not going to mess with this one anymore. It went to Ken's Kar Kare to have a raised track bar mount fabricated and do something permanent to fix the top-mount situation to go with it. I'm going to have them go through both axles, driveshafts and do fluid/filter on the trans and drain/fill the Tcase while it's there. Hopefully find whatever the metallic sound is and that it's something simple
Ken Farley owns the shop and he's "Dr DeathWobble" if you've ever seen that. He's built one of my favorite Jeeps ever in his Cherokee Chief and I've known him since the JPFreek days. It's in good hands.
Ken's Chief:
This year we decided to leave it up there for the summer and run back and forth in the Renegade since the Postal wasn't there (and gas prices
), that let us keep it aired down and ready to run on the sand.Earlier this year, it started having an issue with slight wobble in the front end at the standard 52-54 mph and went into full wobble one time. Ever since I swapped the Ultimate 44, which I neglected to order with a raised track bar bracket
I had to swap the drag link back under the knuckle (ordered the UTK drag link end from Steer Smarts to swap back on) due to unholy bump steer.While the Steer Smarts stuff is beefier than anything I've ever come across, the TRE nuts are simple nyloc with no other locking provision. From about 6 months on, I've had issues with those nuts backing off slightly and tightneing them got rid of the little bit of wobble. I've replaced the nuts a couple times and tried various thread lock. The knuckle was drilled through and uses a drop-in insert to correct the taper to go OTK (the PO did this for an aluminum steering setup he managed to bend and I replaced in AZ with the Steer Smarts stuff) and I replaced that as well thinking it may have lost it's "bite".
The wobble came back here at the end of the summer and tightening that nut didn't do as much to help it. I was also starting to hear a metallic sound that seemed to be front-axle related but came and went and I coulnd't ID it. I'm fed up with the bump steer and have no ability to fab/weld the trackbar mount myself (there's nothing I could find commercially for the larger tube on the U44 and I couldn't have welded it on anyway) so it's time to get this sorted once and for all.
As we've seen with the Postal, I have no time (or desire to take time away from the Postal) so I'm not going to mess with this one anymore. It went to Ken's Kar Kare to have a raised track bar mount fabricated and do something permanent to fix the top-mount situation to go with it. I'm going to have them go through both axles, driveshafts and do fluid/filter on the trans and drain/fill the Tcase while it's there. Hopefully find whatever the metallic sound is and that it's something simple
Ken Farley owns the shop and he's "Dr DeathWobble" if you've ever seen that. He's built one of my favorite Jeeps ever in his Cherokee Chief and I've known him since the JPFreek days. It's in good hands.Ken's Chief:
- City
- West Bend
- State
- WI
It's crazy you've had this thing 5 years already. Damn time flies!
Is the metallic sound rotational? Or is something hitting? Hopefully it's nothing major.
That Chief is sick as hell!
I always wanted one but could never find one that wasn't completely rotted out. Oh well. I have enough projects. Lol
Is the metallic sound rotational? Or is something hitting? Hopefully it's nothing major.
That Chief is sick as hell!
I always wanted one but could never find one that wasn't completely rotted out. Oh well. I have enough projects. Lol
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
Initially thought it was a brake pad dragging or something stuck in/beside a pad. Sounded more bearing/rotational when I got it to Ken’s. Wondering if I have been losing a unit bearing? I had back luck with the Timken's I put on Laura’s when we got it (ironically replaced as a precaution) and had to replace both of them already.It's crazy you've had this thing 5 years already. Damn time flies!
Is the metallic sound rotational? Or is something hitting? Hopefully it's nothing major.
That Chief is sick as hell!