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!
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
The Colonel Is fixed, picked it up today. Some interesting results.
First, I was proven right, the drag link mounting hole was wallowed out (drilled for a tapered insert to flip the DL.) I didn't do the flip, that was the PO but moving forward I'd bite the bullet and do a new knuckle tapered correctly. That's what I told them to do and we went to the Teraflex replacement knuckles. I should have done this when I put in the Ultimate 44, in retrospect, it would have been the perfect time (I did do a new tapered insert - there was no sign of wobble when I put that axle in, I had no reason to worry/suspect an issue.)
Then the thing I did not expect, three of the four ends in the Steer Smarts steering setup were worn out. Rather disappointed in that. This was the single beefiest steering setup I've ever seen (will post comparison pics when I get the parts back). I put those together on in 2021 and the Jeep doesn't have all that many road miles. Yes, I use it in the dunes, but FAR from beating on it, save a romp here and there (and even that isn't brutal) and it's been off road a few times, but nothing that I would EVER have thought would wear out such a beefy system. The shop said they used to use Steer Smarts (there's a photo of their stuff on their website still), being a MI company, but they saw things not lasting as they should and went to using Teraflex stuff.
So went with Teraflex HD steering with the knuckles, the combo nets 4” more clearance under the tie rod as a benefit at least and the TREs can be tightened when they loosen or rebuilt.
On the trackbar mount, they did not do one. They said that there are two mounting holes for it and I used the top of the two, the steering stabilizer is in the lower one (I need to review this when I get it back, I completely missed that). They think that the angles are fine now with the new setup. I still think that it needed to come up, but I'm not mad about not needing to weld on the U44 and I damn sure hope they are right
Aligned, tires balanced (one TPMS had broken off inside), axles drained/filled, trans drain/filter/fill, driveshafts checked/serviced, new front brakes, left caliper was seized and couldn't be compressed, so new one there (Dynatrac ProGrip big brake setup).
It’s driving great with just a slight wiggle that they attributed to tire wear from the wobble/misalignment because all the tires balanced and the alignment is right.
Not cheap, but glad all of this got fixed and done in a fraction of the time I would have.
First, I was proven right, the drag link mounting hole was wallowed out (drilled for a tapered insert to flip the DL.) I didn't do the flip, that was the PO but moving forward I'd bite the bullet and do a new knuckle tapered correctly. That's what I told them to do and we went to the Teraflex replacement knuckles. I should have done this when I put in the Ultimate 44, in retrospect, it would have been the perfect time (I did do a new tapered insert - there was no sign of wobble when I put that axle in, I had no reason to worry/suspect an issue.)
Then the thing I did not expect, three of the four ends in the Steer Smarts steering setup were worn out. Rather disappointed in that. This was the single beefiest steering setup I've ever seen (will post comparison pics when I get the parts back). I put those together on in 2021 and the Jeep doesn't have all that many road miles. Yes, I use it in the dunes, but FAR from beating on it, save a romp here and there (and even that isn't brutal) and it's been off road a few times, but nothing that I would EVER have thought would wear out such a beefy system. The shop said they used to use Steer Smarts (there's a photo of their stuff on their website still), being a MI company, but they saw things not lasting as they should and went to using Teraflex stuff.
So went with Teraflex HD steering with the knuckles, the combo nets 4” more clearance under the tie rod as a benefit at least and the TREs can be tightened when they loosen or rebuilt.
On the trackbar mount, they did not do one. They said that there are two mounting holes for it and I used the top of the two, the steering stabilizer is in the lower one (I need to review this when I get it back, I completely missed that). They think that the angles are fine now with the new setup. I still think that it needed to come up, but I'm not mad about not needing to weld on the U44 and I damn sure hope they are right
Aligned, tires balanced (one TPMS had broken off inside), axles drained/filled, trans drain/filter/fill, driveshafts checked/serviced, new front brakes, left caliper was seized and couldn't be compressed, so new one there (Dynatrac ProGrip big brake setup).
It’s driving great with just a slight wiggle that they attributed to tire wear from the wobble/misalignment because all the tires balanced and the alignment is right.
Not cheap, but glad all of this got fixed and done in a fraction of the time I would have.
