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'09 Rubicon

TJDukit

TJDukit

I.Y.A.A.Y.A.S.
Location
Clearfield
I think I may have found the problem. First problem was a bolt I had replaced months ago with what I remembered being a 1/2" bolt on the passenger side upper control arm frame side bracket. Some how I realized it was a 7/16" bolt which is much too small. So I replaced that with a 1/2" bolt first but still got some feedback that felt like it was getting ready to wobble. Then it dawned on me that I have a perfectly good gopro I can use to record from underneath and check everything out.

I had checked all the TRE's by hand and they felt fine but in watching the video I heard a slight clunk when I moved the steering wheel from 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock rapidly a noise I had failed to hear before probably because of engine noise. So I grabbed a buddy and had him do it while I was underneath and sure enough a clunk I hadn't heard the last time we did this. There is nothing visually wrong when he turned the wheel but when I held on to the TRE at the pitman arm while he did it I could feel it.

I think I will just leave it be until I get the new drag link installed with all new TRE's and I'll pick up yet another TRE for a trail spare just in case. I think that the small bolt combined with the bad TRE together is what was causing this.

I knew it had to be something I had simply missed.

Here is a video I took, I forgot to turn the upside down video back to normal after I had tried doing it with the camera upside down but in the first 30 seconds you can hear the clunk but I still can't see anything visual to see the bad TRE.

[video=youtube_share;2oQ4IrlhV2U]http://youtu.be/2oQ4IrlhV2U[/video]
 
TJDukit

TJDukit

I.Y.A.A.Y.A.S.
Location
Clearfield
So between the guys at Rock Krawler and the guys are River City Offroad, somebody fat fingered my address. Luckily I was able to bail out of work for a few minutes to go pick up my drag link. I'll get it installed tomorrow morning before I head out to HTT in the evening.
 
TJDukit

TJDukit

I.Y.A.A.Y.A.S.
Location
Clearfield
IMAG0890.jpg
 
TJDukit

TJDukit

I.Y.A.A.Y.A.S.
Location
Clearfield
Got the new drag link installed. The only problem I ran into was one that I thought might be a problem to begin with. Since I don't have extended sway bar links up front the sway bar would hit the drag link at full passenger lock on full droop.

Not a big problem so I made a couple of tabs on top of my shock towers so I can manually disconnect the sway bar and have a place to bolt them up out of the way.

I've been wanting to go with manual disconnects anyway because I just don't trust that electronic disco stuff. It was a great idea that Jeep came up with but that motor would not be covered under my warranty and people are usually getting about 50k miles out of them before they start acting up under heavy abuse. Since mine does see heavy abuse and I'm right at 42k miles now I guess it's a good time to move onto something more reliable.

I also added some bumpstop to the front. I realized that with the shock extensions I was bottoming out my shocks and that's no good. So I took three hockey pucks, cut one in half and glued a full one to a half of one and glued them down. This method worked very well for me with my TJ so I'm hoping it holds up with this thing.

Kinda came down the wire with getting this ready. I now have a couple hours to spare to pack up my tools, parts and camping stuff to head out tonight for HTT. I'd say I pulled this one off like Steve does but he is usually driving to the trail head with hot welds still glowing, but it was pretty close.
 
lhracing

lhracing

Well-Known Member
Location
Layton, UT
TJDukit said:
Got the new drag link installed. The only problem I ran into was one that I thought might be a problem to begin with. Since I don't have extended sway bar links up front the sway bar would hit the drag link at full passenger lock on full droop.

Not a big problem so I made a couple of tabs on top of my shock towers so I can manually disconnect the sway bar and have a place to bolt them up out of the way.

I've been wanting to go with manual disconnects anyway because I just don't trust that electronic disco stuff. It was a great idea that Jeep came up with but that motor would not be covered under my warranty and people are usually getting about 50k miles out of them before they start acting up under heavy abuse. Since mine does see heavy abuse and I'm right at 42k miles now I guess it's a good time to move onto something more reliable.

I also added some bumpstop to the front. I realized that with the shock extensions I was bottoming out my shocks and that's no good. So I took three hockey pucks, cut one in half and glued a full one to a half of one and glued them down. This method worked very well for me with my TJ so I'm hoping it holds up with this thing.

Kinda came down the wire with getting this ready. I now have a couple hours to spare to pack up my tools, parts and camping stuff to head out tonight for HTT. I'd say I pulled this one off like Steve does but he is usually driving to the trail head with hot welds still glowing, but it was pretty close.
Click to expand...


Move the rear links to the front. Take the fronts, cut them in half and weld in some tubing to extend them for new rears. To get you by for the weekend I have an extra set of rears if you want to use them in your front. PM me, Lane
 
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TJDukit

TJDukit

I.Y.A.A.Y.A.S.
Location
Clearfield
So after going on a strange trip(drug free mind trip) about maybe buying an XJ or doing something else silly I'll just go ahead and stick with the plans for this thing. I had always thought that my wife would be pissed if I called her up and said "Hey honey I rolled the Jeep today" after speaking with her and realizing that our insurance will cover anything I do to it as long as I'm not in a competition, she is perfectly ok with me rolling the Jeep if it were to happen.

So I'm not allowed to roll at OSRC but I can live with that.

I still keep jumping back and forth in my mind about doing the long arm or not and I have to make my decision before I get home. I had initially planned on taking a month off when I get home but that isn't going to work and I'll be stuck with two weeks. I have some family stuff to do in the middle of June so taking a month off and then more leave a couple weeks later just wouldn't work out so well.

Because of the two week time limit before I get back to work I have to have everything pretty much ready to go and waiting for me so I can at least get it on the trail before my two weeks is up to fix anything that needs fixing before OSRC.

So when I get back anybody that wants to come to my place to help out and have a beer or two is more than welcome. I'll even be sure to do a full saturday and have the wife do something for lunch or dinner. She actually really enjoys cooking for people and happens to be an excellent cook so a good home cooked meal should be incentive enough right.

I also can't believe I haven't posted in this thread since August.
 
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