Built In The Rain - 2001 Sport

Well I got my exhaust installed, welds aren't pretty but it clears everything and will work until I feel I need it professionally re-done, which will allow me to do test drives to dial in my drive shafts. Speaking of which
- My rear drive shaft angle is only 3* difference from my pinion, Is this enough? I've heard of having it 1* lower for when the axle is under load. should I still go for more?

Also, am I ok to drive without the front driveshaft installed?
 
Vasq said:
Well I got my exhaust installed, welds aren't pretty but it clears everything and will work until I feel I need it professionally re-done, which will allow me to do test drives to dial in my drive shafts. Speaking of which
- My rear drive shaft angle is only 3* difference from my pinion, Is this enough? I've heard of having it 1* lower for when the axle is under load. should I still go for more?

Also, am I ok to drive without the front driveshaft installed?
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I would go with 0 degrees between the output shaft of your transfer case and the axle yoke. It doesn’t matter what your driveshaft angle is since you’re not at some extreme lift height and are checking for driving. What’s your TC output angle? Yoke angle? And yes there is nothing wrong with driving without a front shaft.
 
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Vasq said:
@BuildBreakRepeat
I'm not sure on the t-case angle, how would I got about measuring that?
My driveshaft angle is 21* and my axle yoke is at 19*
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My bad, went back and saw you have a DC driveshaft. So you want those two to be the same angle. 3 degrees is kinda alright but you’ll probably get some vibes. The whole 1 degree down thing doesn’t translate as much into our vehicles given we don’t get a lot of axle wrap (we have control arms instead of leaf springs) I run mine at .5 degrees down. I would start there.
 
Vasq said:
Spent the morning cruising through some build threads on the forum. Looking at front drive shaft angles, caster, etc.
Got curious about my own measurments so I went out just for kicks. My front CA's were set at whatever MetalCloak suggested as a starting point in their instructions, I was way off. So I roughed in my front axle so to speak.
As far as I can tell, I have 7* Pinion angle, and 6*(ish) caster.
Here's a picture of my arms, uppers still have about 50% threads still in the arm. Dunno about the lowers.

View attachment 123251

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And just for kicks, I took a picture of my TT and all my new clearance (which is 17") :geek:

View attachment 123252
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Also measured for my drive shafts that I will be placing an order for on Monday. I just measured off of the yoke faces as requested on the Tom Wood website, hopefully I understood that correctly.
Front - 41.75"
Rear - 18.75"
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Just realized on this previous post you have the pinion pretty low in comparison to your front shaft. For future reference is best to start completely parallel - shaft in perfect alignment with yoke on axle. Then on the front you add degrees of caster (lowering the pinion) until you start to get vibes at cruising speed. Then dial it back. Essentially going back and forth until you have a front driveline with no vibes and as much caster as possible without them.
 
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BuildBreakRepeat said:
Just realized on this previous post you have the pinion pretty low in comparison to your front shaft. For future reference is best to start completely parallel - shaft in perfect alignment with yoke on axle. Then on the front you add degrees of caster (lowering the pinion) until you start to get vibes at cruising speed. Then dial it back. Essentially going back and forth until you have a front driveline with no vibes and as much caster as possible without them.
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I haven't even gotten to the front yet. What do you mean it's low in comparison to the front? Just want to make sure I'm not doing anything wrong.
As far as the rear, Tomorrow I will get it as close to 0* difference as I can, while it's under its own weight.
 
Vasq said:
I haven't even gotten to the front yet. What do you mean it's low in comparison to the front? Just want to make sure I'm not doing anything wrong.
As far as the rear, Tomorrow I will get it as close to 0* difference as I can, while it's under its own weight.
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I was saying your front axle pinion angle is low, just remember caster comes second to pinion angle up front. Good to focus on the rear though - you can always run without a front shaft until you get that one dialed in too.
 
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Well last night and this morning were big for me. Got the drive shafts installed and dialed in with no angle difference between the shaft and yokes!

IMG_5425.jpg


No vibrations after a short test drive! Ran some errands and only ever sustained around 35 mph, but its super smooth. The new shafts threw some grease on the muffler which smelt funny and made me panic for a second. The new thrush welded muffler I picked up to use is WAY too loud for me, but it was cheap and I kinda knew it would be. But it's working for me and will let me work out other kinks until I can get it into a shop and have a new tail pipe made and hopefully find a quieter muffler that is still the same dimensions.
Speaking of exhaust, my homemade modified tail pipe works but doesn't connect that well. And a bunch of seagull's flew into the shop and pooped on it while I was trying to weld 😜

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And the least exciting but also least problematic.. I replaced my steering stabilizer that blew its seal during the install of everything else over the last month. Dunno how, but it suddenly decided to die.

IMG_5419.jpg
 
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SO. The only issue: when braking, it pulls to the left a bit. At first I assumed it was the brakes themselves, either a caliper or my drums aren't working great or whatever other brake stuff makes it pull.
However.. did a bunch of hard breaking (with the pull to left happening) and then jumped out to sniff it out and see if anything was hotter than it should be. Nothing. No smell, no excessive heat, brakes seem to work good..

So my question: Is there somehow that my suspension, particularly the adjustable arms, aren't aligned correctly and is causing a slight pull to the left during braking? It doesn't pull harder if I press the pedal harder. And as far as I can tell, it's a "dive" to the left, so I'm thinking it's not the rear.

Hoping someone has some insight.

Update: Did some more test driving. The pull to the left is now a little intermittent. Brakes are still as cool as cucumbers (as compared to what they would be like if they were locking up and causing the dive). So after some searching on here, I've determined I need to do an alignment and then re-evaluate the situation. I'll do that tomorrow.

And then take a bunch of pictures since It's been over a month since I've been able to drive it and I have been having withdrawals.
 
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From @Blaine on another forum:

Common causes of a pull are as follows- Sticky caliper Out of spec rotor meaning damaged, heavily rusted, or excessive run-out. Worn pad mount surfaces Tie rod end and draglink grease boots squirting grease on the rotor. Especially if the pull is intermittent and starts during or right after a hard brake event and then goes away after the grease burns off. Loose or worn control arm bolts, bushings, mounts or any combination that lets the axle shift back under a hard brake event. Those are some causes, there are others, those are most common.
 
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BuildBreakRepeat said:
From @Blaine on another forum:

Common causes of a pull are as follows- Sticky caliper Out of spec rotor meaning damaged, heavily rusted, or excessive run-out. Worn pad mount surfaces Tie rod end and draglink grease boots squirting grease on the rotor. Especially if the pull is intermittent and starts during or right after a hard brake event and then goes away after the grease burns off. Loose or worn control arm bolts, bushings, mounts or any combination that lets the axle shift back under a hard brake event. Those are some causes, there are others, those are most common.
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Thanks for all that info, I didn't know that many factors could play into it. The brakes (calipers, pads, rotors) are all relatively new, less than 500 miles on them and have been working perfectly. I just installed a new lift kit, so all the hardware is brand new, I don't think my boots are squirting grease now, but not prior to the lift. Tomorrow I'm planning on pulling the upper CA's and confirming on a bench that they are the same length, maybe I lost count while adjusting for pinion angle. I will also do an alignment since I haven't done one in a while and just messed with the suspension.
 
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Well I did an alignment this morning. It was off by a considerable amount. Despite correcting that, it still has a little drift to the left and more so under braking. Brakes still feel fine, nothings hot or smelly and the seem to respond correctly. Front and rear trac bars are still tight, and don't seem to be in a bind. Control arms are equal as far as I can tell. Can't find any wiggle in any of the steering components.

Last thing to do is straighten the steering wheel, read in a different thread that might have something to do with it. But my steering wheel is turned slightly to the right, and I'm drifting left, so I dunno.

Update:
Straightening the wheel cured the very slight wander to the left, even though the wheel was cocked to the right? Whatever, at this point I don't need to understand haha! So now I'm left with a very gentle/gradual pull to the left under braking. It's not "diving" to the left so I'm almost wondering if it's my drums in the back? I've been putting off doing the rear brakes because I'm going to do the ZJ V8 Dana 44 rear disc conversion. Guess I'll have to dive into that sooner than I thought. ✌
 
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Well I'm celebrating. It only took me 1.5 months (mostly due to JB Conversions) but I got all my parts installed that I've been hording and it's back in action with no vibes! 3.5" MC lift, with tummy tuck :cool:

IMG_5433.jpg

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Now the only thing left to do is put a little more bend in my shifter. And eventually replace my loud AF muffler and have a custom tail pipe made.
.. and then I'll..
 
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Vasq said:
Well I'm celebrating. It only took me 1.5 months (mostly due to JB Conversions) but I got all my parts installed that I've been hording and it's back in action with no vibes! 3.5" MC lift, with tummy tuck :cool:

View attachment 124458
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Now the only thing left to do is put a little more bend in my shifter. And eventually replace my loud AF muffler and have a custom tail pipe made.
.. and then I'll..
Click to expand...
Very cool! I need to drop by and hear this obnoxious exhaust you speak of. Eventually, I'm going to need a new exhaust for mine (I cut it off to have better access to the frame and floor pan). I'd like to actually be able to hear how yours sounds. You never know, what you despise, I might love! ;)
 
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Squatch said:
Very cool! I need to drop by and hear this obnoxious exhaust you speak of. Eventually, I'm going to need a new exhaust for mine (I cut it off to have better access to the frame and floor pan). I'd like to actually be able to hear how yours sounds. You never know, what you despise, I might love! ;)
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I will definitely bring it by next time you're around!! Just not in the morning 😜 it's that annoying haha
 
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Squatch said:
Sounds more like an open exhaust, by your description!
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It's a thrush welded muffler. There's no matting so it sounds really cool at idle, annoying under acceleration. You'll see :LOL:

Mumblewood said:
Nice, we’ll have to hook up and go wheel sometime soon, Evans is about to close so I’ll be either at Elbe or Walker
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That would be fun! Never been to elbe, would my bald 32's stand a chance? 😜
I've run walker before (with timber tamers) and that was before all my extra goodies, so I would assume I could make it again.
 
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Vasq said:
It's a thrush welded muffler. There's no matting so it sounds really cool at idle, annoying under acceleration. You'll see :LOL:


That would be fun! Never been to elbe, would my bald 32's stand a chance? 😜
I've run walker before (with timber tamers) and that was before all my extra goodies, so I would assume I could make it again.
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Elbe’s cool but bald 32’s this time of year....not so much, super slick, and definitely not on the Busy Wild trail. But most everything else doable.
Ive run with a few of the tamers, they used to run/host the Team trophy challenge Washington about 10 years back, my team got 9th 1st and 2nd the years they had it. I thought about joining their club for a while.
 
I think about it from time to time but I don't get out enough. And I don't think I'd ever do the busy wild haha, I've seen videos of that one.
 
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