High Mileage 2001 Sahara Build

Yeah the locking nut was a bad choice on my shops part. Going to replace it with a normal one.

The bolt is now seized in the ball which is causing me a lot of fun. Heat and beat has been my method so far.
 
Yeah the locking nut was a bad choice on my shops part. Going to replace it with a normal one.

The bolt is now seized in the ball which is causing me a lot of fun. Heat and beat has been my method so far.

That’s just the hardware from the kit I think. My JKS bar had the same locking nut. Penetrating oil and patience for that bolt lol
 
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Good to know on the nut. Definitely swapping that out for a normal nut and some red loctite. I ended up getting the bolt out of joint after a ton of heat and a BFH. Joint didn't actually look too bad after I dissembled it but it was absolutely dead seized. Needed a hammer to move the joint around. Going to put the new joint in tomorrow.

Has anybody replaced the axle side joint on a currie bar before? Looks to just be pressed in. Mine is fairly cracked and I'd rather get it swapped out while the bar it out.
 
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I should also add that even if you have a locking nut on the trackbar you shouldn't have as hard of a time as I did. Before I applied heat, the bolt was so seized to the joint that the entire joint was spinning when I turned the bolt. Even with the nut completely removed, it was very difficult to spin the bolt at all since the joint was seized up and the bolt was seized to the sleeve. Removing that bolt a quarter turn at a time with my foot on the breaker bar was fun :D. If I knew what was going on, I would've just found a way to spin the nut out instead of the bolt. That would have been much easier.

This trackbar was installed in February 2016. It was taken off for my frame swap in January of 2019, but I imagine they never took the bolt out and just reused the hardware. Pretty lazy.
 
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Finally put the trackbar back on with a new joint. Took about 5 minutes this time (thankfully). I put some antiseize on the shank of the bolt and some red loctite on the threads. Also included the Currie washer that Blaine was kind enough to send over after I realized I was missing it. Blaine's flag nut combo is also getting here tomorrow so I'll be swapping it on.

The Jeep drives pretty much the same, but the front end squeaking that the Jeep has had for the last 2 years is gone. This means my trackbar JJ was having issues as far back as May of 2018, two years after it was installed. I think JJ's are great, but this nonsense of getting 10+ years out of them just doesn't seem to hold up when you use the Jeep often. It is a very easy job to get them off the Jeep, disassembled, and greased so it doesn't really matter.
 
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Swapped MrBlaine's bolt in. Jeep is now 10x cooler.

The Marvel Mystery oil has caused a bit of lifter clatter. Doing my semi-annual oil change a bit early to get it out of the system.

Even more fun, my Jeep has started making a banging noise. When I down shift, I pull to neutral, rev the engine to match speed, clutch in, and then push into gear. This keeps the clutch and synchros a bit happier since everything is matched. Now seemingly randomly, when I hit the gas while in neutral to rev up, there is a large banging noise from the transmission area. No clue what it could be and it only happens about 5% of the time I down shift.

I checked the engine and transmission mounts, as well as the clutch fluid. Everything is looking good and the Jeep drives perfectly. I'm at a loss. Might have to just have my shop look at it since I'm not yanking a transmission out in my parking garage. I wish I was able to put some idea on what it could be, but I honestly have no clue since it is such a random problem.
 
I'm getting a sloppy banging on upshift recently. Trans may be going south.

My trans should only have about 15k on it, maybe 20k max. It is a rebuilt unit from JeepsUnlimited in Colorado. Not too impressed with it honestly, but it has been predictable since I installed it. I swapped it in after my original trans had synchro problems at about 220k.

It almost sounds like the banging that is caused by trying to jam the transmission out of gear under load. I wonder if it is getting hung up in gear and then when I hit the gas it pops to neutral loudly. Might have to take a look at the shifter? It is odd since it shifts completely normal even when the banging occurs. No grinding, no lurching, nothing. Just a loud bang when I blip the gas. Very confusing.
 
Do you get a banging if you let out the clutch at a stop using the brake to put the drive train under load? Mine has 180K+, so I'm not surprised.
 
Do you get a bangint if you let out the clutch at a stop using the brake to put the drive train under load? Mine has 180K+, so I'm not surprised.

I haven't tried that so I'm not sure. I don't think it is the clutch since the banging occurs with the clutch pedal up. It only seems to happen directly after coming out of third gear and blipping the gas in neutral. And only randomly too. I can't intentionally trigger it.

I think it might be something internal in the transmission. My first thought was either the Savvy crossmember, engine mounts, or transmission mount. But all seem good.
 
Did an oil change to get the marvel mystery oil out of the system. I followed their instructions and replaced 1 quart of oil with 1 quart of their mystery oil (which appears to be mostly ATF). After around ~100 miles, the lifter noise was too concerning to keep it in there. I've never had a problem with engine noise, but I thought I'd throw it in there to see if I could get rid of my very minor tick. No such luck.

I'm also fairly certain that the banging noise is driver error at this point. I believe I'm blipping the throttle before the transmission is fully out of gear, causing the driveline to load up and the transmission to bang out of gear. I don't know why I would start doing that after 5 years of matching speeds when downshifting, but it appears to be the case since I can't make it bang when trying to, only when I'm not thinking about it. Might have something to do with the slightly colder weather.
 
Was going through some old photos since I'm considering swapping back to 33's when I swap tires this coming winter. The Treps have become undriveable on dry pavement at this point. I can't stop without squealing the tires. While I was looking through my old photos, I remembered that I'm trying to use this thread as a place to store a lot of my good photos. I have them on a few machines as well as google drive, but it can't hurt to keep them here as well in case something goes wrong. Anyways, this is mostly a garbage post that is meant to just store a few photos.


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Clarification, the photos in the photo dump is your savvy 3" springs and 33" km2's with a 1.25" BL?

When I had the KM2’s I didn’t have a body lift. A 1.25” BL along with savvy 3” springs would be a good setup for 33’s, I just never ran it that way.
 
Took apart and greased my driver lower front arm. Definitely dry on the inside and new greased freed it right up. About 1.5 years and maybe 10k miles at most. A year would be a good service interval for JJ’s in my opinion.

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Knocked two more arms out today. Pretty much the same story as the first. Not terrible but needed some grease. All my arms had the stock grease from Currie in them, so I'll be interested to see if the Red'n'Tacky I put in lasts longer.