Nashville TJ's Build - Continued
- Thread starter NashvilleTJ
- Start date
I'll be interested to see how you like those deletes. I went with the Busted Knuckle ball joint eliminator:
https://bustedknuckleoffroad.com/products/05upbjenonutkit?_pos=2&_sid=215889a33&_ss=r
They claim with theirs you can run a standard lower. We shall see.
OP
OK - off to the races. I tackled the ball joint delete install project this week. First order of business was - well, this...
I mentioned previously that I was concerned how much the Dynatrac HD ball joint would protrude below the knuckle, and that I thought that may be susceptible to trail damage. Here is how much they would have stuck out:
And here is the current lower ball joint. The end is mushroomed so much from trail carnage that I was not be able to remove it as it - and it does not protrude below the knuckle very much at all. I don't think that Dynatrac ball joint would survive long.
But after a little work with the grinder, and a few whacks with the BFH, out she popped.
A complication for me is that I run RCV shafts. The ball end is larger than a standard u-joint setup, and causes clearance issues. You can see how much I originally had to trim the lower ball joint bolt to clear the ball. The top is tight as well, but a standard ball joint does not protrude from that part of the knuckle.
The America Iron joints have a nut on the bottom like a standard ball joint as above, but also have a nut at the top. Knowing this may cause a problem with the RCV's, I emailed Josh (the owner of American Iron) and asked if his joint would clear the RCV shafts.
Josh's response was that they will clear the RCV's. "It will be close, but they will clear."
Well, no, they don't clear. And this was after trimming the upper bolt to be almost even with the nut.
Wonderful....
I mentioned previously that I was concerned how much the Dynatrac HD ball joint would protrude below the knuckle, and that I thought that may be susceptible to trail damage. Here is how much they would have stuck out:
And here is the current lower ball joint. The end is mushroomed so much from trail carnage that I was not be able to remove it as it - and it does not protrude below the knuckle very much at all. I don't think that Dynatrac ball joint would survive long.
But after a little work with the grinder, and a few whacks with the BFH, out she popped.
A complication for me is that I run RCV shafts. The ball end is larger than a standard u-joint setup, and causes clearance issues. You can see how much I originally had to trim the lower ball joint bolt to clear the ball. The top is tight as well, but a standard ball joint does not protrude from that part of the knuckle.
The America Iron joints have a nut on the bottom like a standard ball joint as above, but also have a nut at the top. Knowing this may cause a problem with the RCV's, I emailed Josh (the owner of American Iron) and asked if his joint would clear the RCV shafts.
Josh's response was that they will clear the RCV's. "It will be close, but they will clear."
Well, no, they don't clear. And this was after trimming the upper bolt to be almost even with the nut.
Wonderful....
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OP
Not so easily deterred, I started a cuttin'. I was able to get enough clearance on the lower joint by grinding the bolt down even with the nylock nut.
But doing the same on the top was not enough - it still was contacting the ball, as evidenced by the ware mark.
To get clearance on the upper, I had to go a bit caveman. I trimmed the top section of the nylock nut down to the threads.
My thought is that this will still be as strong, as all I did was remove the nylon thread portion of the nut, I did not get into the actual threads. I'll loose the "locking" component of the nut, but I'll use red Loctite to keep it in place. Does this make sense?
But doing the same on the top was not enough - it still was contacting the ball, as evidenced by the ware mark.
To get clearance on the upper, I had to go a bit caveman. I trimmed the top section of the nylock nut down to the threads.
My thought is that this will still be as strong, as all I did was remove the nylon thread portion of the nut, I did not get into the actual threads. I'll loose the "locking" component of the nut, but I'll use red Loctite to keep it in place. Does this make sense?
OP
And with that, we have clearance, Clarence.
The American Iron instructions state that the joint will be tight, and difficult to turn at first. This was certainly the case, and although I can turn the knuckles by hand, it does take a good bit of effort. I'm expecting to notice a difference in my return to center. AI states that they will loosen up over time.
I'm happy so far - now it's time for a test drive.
The American Iron instructions state that the joint will be tight, and difficult to turn at first. This was certainly the case, and although I can turn the knuckles by hand, it does take a good bit of effort. I'm expecting to notice a difference in my return to center. AI states that they will loosen up over time.
I'm happy so far - now it's time for a test drive.
Nice work. Always satisfying to get through the inevitable issues when working on a custom set up
I am very interested to hear your long-term report on the road manners of the American iron ball joint deletes. I had Carly ball joints installed on my dodge tow rig years ago when the stock ball joints wore out at 30,000 miles. Those Carley joints were tight as well. The truck had poor return to center (which was intermittent, oddly enough). It would have good days and bad days. Subtle and random enough that I began to think it was just me. Carli said there was no issue, of course. I was less experienced with vehicles then and put up with it for 60,000 miles. Finally, I paid another shop to swap in Moog OEM style joints. If that didn’t work, I was going to sell it. But, it worked. Drove like new. That was 70,000 miles ago. Still have the truck and do most of my own work these days
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How long did spicer joints last? I'm not saying mods for mods sake isn't valid. Just wondering
OP
I installed the Pro-Rocks in ‘08, so the ball joints lasted less than 20,000 miles.
A center console with a 4 speed Atlas.
No parking brake but might give you some other ideas. It's a LS swapped TJ on 41" IRock's
HP60 front & 14B rear.
No parking brake but might give you some other ideas. It's a LS swapped TJ on 41" IRock's
HP60 front & 14B rear.
OP
I just got 3 days out of a brand new set of Dana 44 Spicer joints. Summit Racing is sending me a new kit and provided the following quote "typically failure on these parts is either quick or they last a very long time.". So looks like mine fell in the quick category. Kudos to Summit who has always shipped fast, responded quick, and typically has parts in stock.
You are doing a lot of work on that front axle that you are going to sell me. Thanks!
OP
Funny, I was thinking the same thing a few minutes ago.
At the same time I was also thinking (and I’m completely serious) that I’ll have to give you a huge discount due to all the crap you will have to cut off of the thing…
I have no idea what triggered those thoughts.
Have oxy-acet, plasma, grinder and recently came to realization that no matter how much I want this Dana 44 to work for me that it won't. Reality is painful and expensive!
Don't think so but the guy doesn't say. And my post didn't have anything to do with the axles it was about the center console. If you really LIKE the TJ it's For Sale for $40K
EDIT: OOOPS had the price wrong. $48K
https://www.facebook.com/groups/roc...29827250585540/?sale_post_id=3729827250585540
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OP
Rinc was carrying over a joke from another thread. A guy was looking for stock TJ width dana 60, and we were joking around about it a bit.
OP
Great! So no discount!
Doh!!! I got to learn to keep my mouth shut.