Jeep shock indexing???

[gijohn40]

On my 2020 JLURD i have been having a popping sound when I go in reverse and then stop and some times while turning. I figured it was the passenger side ball joint seeing the sound was coming from that corner. So with only 21k miles on it if stopped at the jeep dealership in Evanston to have them look at it.

They took it for a test drive and then up on the rack and came back and told me that the front shock that came with the JSPEC lift kit is the trouble and that it needs to be Indexed correctly.... now I have never heard this before! Anyone with more smarts than me know about this? How do you go about fixing this?

Oh by the way I asked what the factory ball joints cost from the dealership... $250 per joint! so $500 per side!!! and I have not found them on any autoparts store inventory as of yet!

 

[Greg]

Never heard of a shock needing to be indexed.... I could see a spring needing it, in order for the end of the spring to be seated correctly in the spring mount. I'd say pull the wheel off and see if you can tell what they're talking about.

I'm not familiar with the JSPEC lift kit, who makes it and what shocks came with it? Who installed it?

Since you tow, you should look at the 3.3 Falcon shocks. I'm running them on the Gladiator and love that I can firm up the suspension when I hook up the trailer. The adjustable range of the 3.3's is very wide, you can choose a soft supple ride or a firm controlled ride.

 

[gijohn40]

the last I heard the falcon 3.3 shocks don't work on the diesel due to the way they have them situated. it was just on the passenger side. The aux battery is in the way. I know they are working on it just not sure if they have it corrected yet.

Jspec is the old JKS manufacturing they produce their own shocks which are terrible and I am waiting for the falcons.

 

[gijohn40]

So after doing some research I found the JL/JT oem ball joints are going bad after about 20-40k miles due to the plastic cup inside. Bigger the tires the faster the wear!

I found that Dynatrac builds a ball joint that is rebuildible that everyone is moving to. They are about $630 a set of 4. The rebuild kit comes in at $150 a set of 4. The best part is you don't need to tear the whole front end down to rebuild them! Just a couple set screws on top and you have access to the main parts.

FCA wants $250 per ball joint for the OEM that will fail again!

And as far as shock indexing there is no such thing and I'm going to log a complaint to FCA about the dealership!

Dynatrac part number for JL/JT is JP44-2X3050-E and Northridge 4x4 will have these in stock in the coming weeks!