"Oki": 4x4tographer's 2018 Jeep JLUR

[4x4tographer 2,711]

Another Oki Update....... I did a thing.

 

Also, a quick reminder that I'm a complete amateur with all of this. Figured I'd document my first time experience in even thinking about the below. 😅

 

 

 

After the Clayton lift, I began experiencing some "Death Wobble" in pretty unpredictable circumstances. Getting a lot of great advice from a bunch of you ORP'ers, I went through and checked torque/re-torqued literally every suspension component. 

 

Initially, I found the new front track bar was a little loose at the axle-side bracket, so tightened it and called it good. Death Wobble was temporarily banished, but eventually returned. So back to another round of re-torquing, and everything checked out.

 

We then moved on to checking other components, such as the tie rod ends, ball joints, and the drag link. BINGO - the ball joint on the drag link at the pitman arm was pretty sloppy and producing a clunking noise. Bounced a video of it off of several folks and they all agreed it was toast.

 

For reference purposes, my Jeep is a 2018 JL Rubicon with 36,000 miles. Based on my Gaia GPS records - about 4,500 of those miles were off-road.

 

So - replace the drag link end or upgrade? With my long term goals, upgrading made sense. After talking with @theksmith it made sense that if the ball joints on the drag link were going bad, the tie rod ends might not be much further behind it.

 

 

So - pulled the trigger on Metalcloak's complete steering set up with 1 ton end joints. Here's a side-by-side.

 

 

The camera doesn't quite do it justice, but the new TRE's are yuuuuuuge and pretty substantial when compared to the factory TREs.

 

 

 

Like any project, it looks pretty simple. Drop the tie rod, pull off the drag link, stick the new ones on. And sure enough, everything was going smoothly (for once).

 

1. Zapped off the tie rod in about 30 seconds with both ends simply falling out after removing the bolt.
2. The passenger-side drag link end joint was the same. Removed the bolt, popped it once with a hammer, and it fell right out.
3. ....
4. Then I had to commit a murder.

 

 

 

The ball joint at the pitman arm simply would NOT give up. Part of the problem being clearance. The Jeep's frame and radiator are just above and next to the pitman arm, giving you a small amount of space to get in there with a box wrench. You're only real access is through the drive side wheel well.

 

Removed the bolt, and...... nothing. It was stuck. REALLY stuck.

 

Time for specialty tools - a Pickle Fork (or "tuning fork") and a BFH.

 

 

Concept is simple enough, insert the fork between the ball joint and the pitman arm and wail on it until it separates. The fork acts as a wedge.

 

Only it wasn't so simple. It took me 2 hours to get the drag link off.

 

After a few smacks with the BFH it began to separate. More wailing, more separation. Then it all just stopped. For whatever reason the darn thing just wouldn't come off. 

 

I hit up my neighbor who is a cool dude and mechanically inclined. He recommended go ahead and tear off the remainder of the boot that surrounds the ball joint. It was already pretty mangled. His theory was that the rubber boot material was acting like a shock absorber and interfering with the wedge process. So we went about cutting and prying the boot off to get more room.

 

Back we went with the hammer and fork. A few more pops and BOOM off it went!

 

Then we realized the problem. The pickle fork I had bought wasn't quite wide enough for the factory ball joint. I needed to have gone up a size. We had basically buried the fork and were bending the tines outwards. You can see it pretty clearly on the above and below photos. The tines were originally parallel.

 

 

Here's a shot of the pitman arm and the lack of space.

 

 

Here's a shot of the passenger-side knuckles.

 

 

 

Here's a shot of everything mounted before snugging up the jam nuts. I picked up a new steering stabilizer clamp mount for the tie rod since my old one was too small.

 

 

 

A shot of the clearance between the tie rod, drag link, and stabilizer. It too a little fiddling to adjust the drag link "bend angle" to get it to clear both the stabilizer and tie rod at full steering lock.

 

 

 

So here is my next project. Wheels and tires.

 

I'm running factory wheels. While the Jeep is perfectly drivable in normal street driving. However, I'm unable to go all the way to full lock due to the size of the tie rod ends.

The below image is of the passenger tire, wheel turned full driver as far as it would go, and then released. The tension on the tires sprung it back slightly. 

 

I should have a few more degrees of steering but will grind the TRE on the wheels until I either get spacers or wheels with a better offset/clearance.

 

 

 

Here's a look at the full front end. I'm digging the gold zinc coating on the Metalcloak components and how they play well visually with Clayton's gold zinc coated jam nuts.

 

 

Metalcloak milled in some nice wrench points on the tie rod and drag link to help with adjustments and when you're torquing down the jam nuts.

 

The tie rod has counter-clockwise and clockwise threads on each end for super fast toe adjustments. Loosen the jam nuts and just twist the tie rod until you get the measurement you desire.

 

At the moment, I'm set about 1cm "toe in" measured at the tires (33"). I'll need to get it into for an alignment check, but did a test drive around the hood and 2 exits on some bumpy highway and it drove great!

 

 

 

Here's the double adjusted on the drag link for quick steering adjustments.

I'm not a super big fan of the 2 different sized jam nuts here. I have to carry a total of 4 crowfoot wrenches in the tool bag now in order to keep up with all of the jam nuts on the Jeep now.

 

 

 

Front end shot. Looking forward to filling the wheel wells with bigger tires at some point.

 

 

 

[theksmith 3,827]

looks good Ryan! hopefully that fully cures your wobbles.

 

i'm not sure if the JL knuckles have normal steering stop adjuster bolts, but if so then you might want to go ahead and adjust them out for now - just to make sure your wheels don't push on those TRE's and prematurely wear them. unless you're getting those new wheels very soon.

 

 

1 hour ago, 4x4tographer said:

the ball joint on the drag link at the pitman arm was pretty sloppy and producing a clunking noise.

 

FYI, those are commonly just called TRE's on the ends of the drag link too - though i'm sure there's a more correct technical term that covers that style of joint regardless of location - spherical articulating joint or something fancy like that!

[4x4tographer 2,711]

19 minutes ago, theksmith said:

i'm not sure if the JL knuckles have normal steering stop adjuster bolts, but if so then you might want to go ahead and adjust them out for now - just to make sure your wheels don't push on those TRE's and prematurely wear them. unless you're getting those new wheels very soon.

 

Awesome suggestion man! I didn't know this was a thing. I'll look into it for sure. 

 

Wheels are "on the horizon". When we do it, it's going to hurt my wallet, so I'm trying to ride these tires out for a few more months. I kicked around the idea of spacers, but it's a little silly to run spacers "just to get by".

[4x4tographer 2,711]

Also forgot to share this. Found a pretty great video that walks through every aspect of your front end, how to check things, explanations as to why things are they way they are.

Worth a watch. 

 

 

[4x4tographer 2,711]

Sure enough @theksmith, I've got the adjustment bolts. 

 

I'll crawl under there after work today and check them out. Thanks again man!

 

[Stacey and Scott 1,164]

You're my real world application tester. Been thinking about upgrading our front end with Metal Cloak bits & pieces also. Looking forward to a trail report.

[ob1jeeper 484]

18 hours ago, 4x4tographer said:

Also forgot to share this. Found a pretty great video that walks through every aspect of your front end, how to check things, explanations as to why things are they way they are.

Worth a watch. 

 

 

Pretty good information you shared Ryan...   The gent with the glasses who was doing most of the talking/explaining, is the owner of Dyanatrac, and a knowledgeable axle/steering guy for sure...  

The only thing I take a small amount of exception to is the descritpion on how to measure/check toe-in.   Marking both front AND back of the tire is not very accurate methodology, UNLESS you have a static marker, and can rotate the tire one full turn to mark a complete line circumferentially around the tire.   It would be better to mark one spot on each tire, then rotate each tire to the fore-aft positions for measurement, to ensure you are always measuring the same lateral position.

Edited March 16, 2021 by ob1jeeper

[jgaz 545]

Ryan,

I’m not sure where in Peoria you are located, (I’m at 74th and Happy Valley) but in the future if you need a tool that isn’t that common hit me up.

I might just have it.

 

 

 

[4x4tographer 2,711]

Thanks Jim! I really appreciate the offer! I'm just up the road from you in Vistancia.

[4x4tographer 2,711]

Welp, I did a thing.

 

 

Some new Icon Vehicle Dynamics Rebound wheels and Yokohama Geolandar G003 M/Ts. 

Here are some details on the new setup:

 

Icon Rebound wheels

• Size: 17x8.5"
• Backspace: 4.5"
• Offset: -6mm
• Weight: 30lbs each
• Load Cap: 2,750lbs each
• "Titanium" painted finish

 

Yokohama Geolandar G003 M/Ts

• Size: 35 X12.50R17
• Tread Depth: 22mm
• Weight: 71lbs
• Load Rating: E

 

 

Really excited with how it came out, they look great. I'm also happy with the wheel color. I was originally torn between a matte black and the titanium. I was little worried it would be "too silver" but its a bit of a "smoky metallic" and darker than the factory wheel with the machined lip.

 

The extra backspacing is really going to help with preventing the wheels from rubbing up against the new tie rod and some of the other new suspension stuff we installed recently. However, that also means I need to make some adjustments to my tire carrier (until I upgrade) since the new wheel/tire no longer engages with the bump stops on the tail gate.

 

 

I also picked up a TaserJL from Z-Automotive to program in the new tire size and enhance some other goodies on the Jeep.

The range of things the TazerJL can do is pretty slick. Light shows, hood alarms, "winch mode" (where the engine will rev to 2,000 RPM), line-lock burn outs, and other potentially useful features.

 

Edited April 16, 2021 by 4x4tographer