Are you sure it is engaged on the steering box splines as far as it was with the original? That's weird.
4-cylinder cross country crawler build
- Thread starter The4bangertj
- Start date
Are you sure it is engaged on the steering box splines as far as it was with the original? That's weird.
I removed the bolt and moved it forward and back to make sure the assembly wasn’t too far forward or back and made sure the bolt was in the proper spot where it had the cut out in the splines for it. It’s odd since I can’t find another account of this happening online with others. It’s totally driveable and just barely touches it to where I can feel some resistance but didn’t know if there was an obvious fix I didn’t think of. Currently my thoughts are removing it and grinding the spot down to clearance it ( I can’t really reach the frame so I’d buzz the steering shaft u joint ears that hit which is hope to take the smallest amount of material away) or maybe using the raised bearing bracket people use for body lifts in hopes it’ll pick up that rear u joint section up and off the frame but am not sure of the other side effects but could try loosening the bracket to fake raise it and see clearances and if it would solve anything.
Could the support bearing have been bolted down in a slightly different spot?or its bracket to the frame?Can you just tweak it a bit?
That’s the bracket I was thinking of buying the taller 1.25in raised for body lift one to pull it up. I can’t think of it moving much off what it was (wasn't bent that I could see and bolted down the same spot) I’ll try and see if it moved too far driver side some how even though it has a bolt on top and side.
I didn't see if you had a body lift in your profile.Is the shaft centered in the bushing coming out of the firewall?
He doesn’t have a body lift, he’s thinking if he used the brackets to adjust for a BL it’ll be enough spacing to get it off the frame
Correct Blake. I don’t have a body lift but I’d use the raised bracket to straighten the angle of the shaft and praise it off the frame as long as I have the clearance at the fire wall hole to do so which I haven’t specifically checked for yet.
It's been a minute since I had my lower steering shaft out, but is it possible to mount the pillow block upside down? The bolt holes are slightly off center if I remember...
I'd have to go look at my spare one to confirm
I'd have to go look at my spare one to confirm
Ohhh maybe. I did notice the shaft bracket that’s on it had a few holes while the frame bracket only had 2 studs on it so maybe I could move it around to off center it in my favor. I installed it how I pulled it out which isn’t the best idea since the previous owner apparently had the clutch on backwards and I just copied his work till I got another clutch that said what face towards the fly wheel and mine was wrong so I need to make sure more.
I have loosened the steering box bolts and tried moving it a bit to help the lower shaft angle. Some how that did help, I think it’s still touching but not enough that the re centering of the wheel from the caster gets stuck on. So now that it’s non existent I havnt pulled the shaft back out.
The next thing was finding out where a vibration is coming from. Checked the rear pinion at 2* low and adjusted it to 1* low. Pulled the front shaft and test drove it, zero vibration. Put the front back in and the vibrations back at 50 ish I can feel a bit but mostly at 70 and gets much worst if I go faster. The highway I drive 70 miles on a day for has a 70mph speed limit so I normally sit right at 70 and would like to keep that without vibration. Changed the front pinion angle to 1* low (realized that the front is opposite to the rear as its favored angle is actually a degree above while the rear is low) the vibrations were worst but all 50mph plus. Changed the front pinion to 1.5* above and not much change. I figured that the vibrations being all high speed and get worst with speed relate to a balance/worn out part rather than angle but I wanted to be sure. The slip on my front shaft has a decent amount of play so I suspect that’s the cause as this shaft is only a year old so I’d be shocked if other parts are worn. I’ll be calling Tom woods tomorrow on what I should do.
Just got my @Fluxor bumper and a pillar light mounts and man are they pretty. Even the wife was shocked at how light it is. Others have already posted better photos of it but one thing I love to see is the different of where the fairlead sits when pushed back vs forward (no sway bar vs swaybar) so I have added those quick pics. I’ll be leaving town next week so I don’t have time to prep it and get it installed before this Friday so it’ll be some time before I get it on but also gives me time to install @sunnysideup_lj soft shackle mounts at the same time which should be coming soon once his new batch is done.
The next thing was finding out where a vibration is coming from. Checked the rear pinion at 2* low and adjusted it to 1* low. Pulled the front shaft and test drove it, zero vibration. Put the front back in and the vibrations back at 50 ish I can feel a bit but mostly at 70 and gets much worst if I go faster. The highway I drive 70 miles on a day for has a 70mph speed limit so I normally sit right at 70 and would like to keep that without vibration. Changed the front pinion angle to 1* low (realized that the front is opposite to the rear as its favored angle is actually a degree above while the rear is low) the vibrations were worst but all 50mph plus. Changed the front pinion to 1.5* above and not much change. I figured that the vibrations being all high speed and get worst with speed relate to a balance/worn out part rather than angle but I wanted to be sure. The slip on my front shaft has a decent amount of play so I suspect that’s the cause as this shaft is only a year old so I’d be shocked if other parts are worn. I’ll be calling Tom woods tomorrow on what I should do.
Just got my @Fluxor bumper and a pillar light mounts and man are they pretty. Even the wife was shocked at how light it is. Others have already posted better photos of it but one thing I love to see is the different of where the fairlead sits when pushed back vs forward (no sway bar vs swaybar) so I have added those quick pics. I’ll be leaving town next week so I don’t have time to prep it and get it installed before this Friday so it’ll be some time before I get it on but also gives me time to install @sunnysideup_lj soft shackle mounts at the same time which should be coming soon once his new batch is done.
Check the centering pin on your h yoke too. But if you have spline play, thats likely your culprit
Thanks you! Surprised you have that pic. The problem I see is while the bolt pattern can be moved the shaft is still centered by the center hole that gets pushed up to the bearing so i would also have to cut the center out to have any actual movement for the shaft. Its good enough now that if i get some free time ill work on it but with leaving next week i then have 4 weeks till i am done college and will be moving back east for good and i will also be getting flux’s hinge and tire carrier which i hope to install before that cross country drive and move.
Driveshaft has zero play anywhere but the slip, a little grit so the center ball prob could use some grease but nothing of concern to me. Not sure how a slip is rebuilt if that’s even possible but I did try and re grease the slip but even then seeing the grease come out of the splines it was moving just as much.
Play in the splines will definitely cause a vibration. I chased some for a bit before I found that. Quick call to TW and 400 bucks later, new driveshaft fixed it. That was my OEM shaft though, if you’ve put a new one one already, that’s no bueno.
After a great week in Maine for a family reunion I was able to actually put the new bumper on. Painted the steel and bushed the aluminum some so it all matched after the welding and oil marks. I’m not a huge polish fan as I don’t like chrome but a cnc marked aluminum or brushed so that’s what I ended up doing and it’s far from perfect but I figured I’d have to touch it up later anyways as it oxidizes. Also had to weld a new nut on the frame as it was missing one since I purchased it so I wasn’t able to use one of the bolts for the @sunnysideup_lj soft shackle till I weld a new one in.
Pulled my old bumper set up off and man I know I havnt been working out a lot lately but that thing was a struggle to get back in my apartment. Threw the winch on the new set up and the flux bumper with winch and all weights just a little bit more than the motobilt bumper bare which is hilarious to me. It was fairly easy to tell that the flux with winch was heavier but the amount more over a bare bumper is astonishing. Jeep now sits half an inch taller with the new bumper weight.
Pulled my old bumper set up off and man I know I havnt been working out a lot lately but that thing was a struggle to get back in my apartment. Threw the winch on the new set up and the flux bumper with winch and all weights just a little bit more than the motobilt bumper bare which is hilarious to me. It was fairly easy to tell that the flux with winch was heavier but the amount more over a bare bumper is astonishing. Jeep now sits half an inch taller with the new bumper weight.
Story time. My days in idaho have come to an end. On Friday I will be driving the Jeep across the country (hopefully the last time) to move my wife and I to New Hampshire. Part of the things I wanted to get done is a working front drive shaft that won’t vibrate the whole trip, grease, oil change, and just a nut and bolt check. Tom woods shaft came in super fast as always ( made in 1 day then shipped the next and was delivered the following morning, that’s faster than my Amazon shipping times all for a custom made shaft) greased every single fitting and a good oil change before and were solid.
We’ll fast forward I just finished finals for this semester ( I have 1 semester left that consists of 1 online class and an internship which I’ll be getting a job in nh to fill that internship role) but with school done and packing all day I went to go shoot out in the desert one last time and then ride some trails. While I was out shooting I noticed a small smell of gas, then from trail riding I noticed a small leak of gas. Once I got off the trail I was dumping gasoline like a hose. Made it to my buddies house to drop off hit atv that was on my tray and I was making such a puddle I decided to just drop my tank there hoping the gas line was just disconnected since I knew it didn’t leak unless fuel pressure from the pump was there. Found out that the fitting on the pump was the problem.
The stress sank in when i realized no one makes this hose since it’s a gm/jeep fitting with the tank side being 3/8 and the hard line on the frame being 5/16. Went to every store in town and found the connectors separately with their own line already fitted on it. Ok now the fittings are done, how the heck was I suppose to get 2 different sized lines together and hold the small pressure and withstand the gasoline. At this point it’s 9pm and everything is closed so we decided to cut and weld on the barbs that came with the fittings to see if we could make our own 3/8 to 5/16 barb fitting. It was better than before but it was still very visible that it was still leaking through the weld. Limped it home with the welded barbs to be home and have the jeep at my place.
My parents were in town to help me move back east so this morning they took me to the biggest jeep dealership around. They basically told me I’m crazy and will have to build my own line which I expected but the hardware stores close to me didn’t have the double barb I needed to we tried Home Depot and to our luck they atleast had a 3/8 barb to female pipe and a 1/4 barb to male pipe. Throw on some yellow teflon tape and we can make them work. Came back and smashed it all together, got new carriage bolts while I was at it and she’s all good to go. Stressful since today was my only free day to fix this issue since tomorrow I walk for graduation ( they let me a semester early so I don’t have to fly back) then Friday morning I do my 3 days of 14 hours of driving to get back east and couldn’t do that with a leaking line.
I’ll be surprised if anyone reads all that since I’m writing it on my phone outside cleaning up the mess and my mind is everywhere.
We’ll fast forward I just finished finals for this semester ( I have 1 semester left that consists of 1 online class and an internship which I’ll be getting a job in nh to fill that internship role) but with school done and packing all day I went to go shoot out in the desert one last time and then ride some trails. While I was out shooting I noticed a small smell of gas, then from trail riding I noticed a small leak of gas. Once I got off the trail I was dumping gasoline like a hose. Made it to my buddies house to drop off hit atv that was on my tray and I was making such a puddle I decided to just drop my tank there hoping the gas line was just disconnected since I knew it didn’t leak unless fuel pressure from the pump was there. Found out that the fitting on the pump was the problem.
The stress sank in when i realized no one makes this hose since it’s a gm/jeep fitting with the tank side being 3/8 and the hard line on the frame being 5/16. Went to every store in town and found the connectors separately with their own line already fitted on it. Ok now the fittings are done, how the heck was I suppose to get 2 different sized lines together and hold the small pressure and withstand the gasoline. At this point it’s 9pm and everything is closed so we decided to cut and weld on the barbs that came with the fittings to see if we could make our own 3/8 to 5/16 barb fitting. It was better than before but it was still very visible that it was still leaking through the weld. Limped it home with the welded barbs to be home and have the jeep at my place.
My parents were in town to help me move back east so this morning they took me to the biggest jeep dealership around. They basically told me I’m crazy and will have to build my own line which I expected but the hardware stores close to me didn’t have the double barb I needed to we tried Home Depot and to our luck they atleast had a 3/8 barb to female pipe and a 1/4 barb to male pipe. Throw on some yellow teflon tape and we can make them work. Came back and smashed it all together, got new carriage bolts while I was at it and she’s all good to go. Stressful since today was my only free day to fix this issue since tomorrow I walk for graduation ( they let me a semester early so I don’t have to fly back) then Friday morning I do my 3 days of 14 hours of driving to get back east and couldn’t do that with a leaking line.
I’ll be surprised if anyone reads all that since I’m writing it on my phone outside cleaning up the mess and my mind is everywhere.
Thank you! Excited to see the New England area more and hopefully not have to drive the Jeep in the winter too much lol.
I've found that hose from Rays Wranglers on eBay before. Might be worth looking into and shipping somewhere along the way