We all know that Johnny Joints live forever with absolutely no maintenance. Until they don't. Of the 16 JJs on my Jeep, there are a few that have not been well greased since I installed them about 50-60k miles ago.
Lately I have been noticing an occasional clunk along with some odd tracking while driving. I finally figured out that I had three well worn joints that needed my attention.
Rather than buy $21 rebuild kits, Blaine had the interesting suggestion of adding more washers to tighten up the races.
I first tried some spare JJ washers, but those were way too thick and I was unable to press the joint together without the top washer sliding into the circlip groove. So I went to the hardware store and found these thin spacer bushings that are less than half the thickness of a JJ washer and only cost $1.75 each.
These particular spacers were just a hair too large in diameter to fit into the JJ housing, so I ran the edge over a file a couple times.
One washer gets added onto either side of the races and the whole mess gets pressed back together and reassembled.
The next drive was instantly better. And it only cost $3.50 per joint to fix!
Regardless, everyone should grease their Johnny Joints!
Lately I have been noticing an occasional clunk along with some odd tracking while driving. I finally figured out that I had three well worn joints that needed my attention.
Rather than buy $21 rebuild kits, Blaine had the interesting suggestion of adding more washers to tighten up the races.
I first tried some spare JJ washers, but those were way too thick and I was unable to press the joint together without the top washer sliding into the circlip groove. So I went to the hardware store and found these thin spacer bushings that are less than half the thickness of a JJ washer and only cost $1.75 each.
These particular spacers were just a hair too large in diameter to fit into the JJ housing, so I ran the edge over a file a couple times.
One washer gets added onto either side of the races and the whole mess gets pressed back together and reassembled.
The next drive was instantly better. And it only cost $3.50 per joint to fix!
Regardless, everyone should grease their Johnny Joints!
