2008 JKU "Argenta" Build Thread

[WSS]

Eh, it's a 17 year old Jeep with 211,000 miles... bound to have some issues

Ya, mine is a year older than yours. Lots of little things to track down. I think changing the clock spring is the key to most of the JK’s problems. I’m going to change mine for good measure. Maybe my cruise control, airbag light and the other trouble codes issues will be solved.

I went through similar stuff with other Jeeps too. It’s part of the fun.

 

[WSS]

very excited to see the details of the turn stalk and clock spring project. Not that the axle swap is second rate lol.

 

[pc1p]

I think changing the clock spring is the key to most of the JK’s problems. I’m going to change mine for good measure. Maybe my cruise control, airbag light and the other trouble codes issues will be solved.

That's basically what I'm seeing as well... I almost did it when I fixed the horn switch, but wanted to confirm that the switch was indeed the issue. I should have done it anyways.

I went through similar stuff with other Jeeps too. It’s part of the fun.

*Laughs in LJ ECM issues*

very excited to see the details of the turn stalk and clock spring project. Not that the axle swap is second rate lol.

Should arrive tomorrow if I can trust the UPS tracking #... with any luck, I'll have good confirmation that it's working again and will drive it for a few days before bringing back into the garage. I hope to get the gearing done soon and may start looking for a set of wheels and tires I can live with...

 

[tJKrider]

It's been a minute since I got to work on the Jeep. Since getting back from our trip and through the holidays, it's just been busy...

I did run into a slight issue with the Jeep. During one of the snow storms, I was coming up my steep and freshly covered driveway. It caused the traction control to engage, and likely the BLD, and eventually made it up without much issue. About a day or two later, I was driving my Jeep to the school to pick up my son, and the dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree...

View attachment 128882

I thought maybe I had ripped out a sensor while I was slingin' snow getting up the driveway. I did a walk around and nothing looked wrong. Parking and turning off the Jeep reset everything and it appeared fine. However, now every time I drive, once I get above 10-11 mph, the Christmas Tree lights up again. It was extra cold and a snow-filled few weeks, so I figured I'd just let it go and deal with it once the cold snap ended.

View attachment 128883

Fast forward a few days and I was driving through town, stopped at a stop light, and my horn started blaring, my windshield washer pump squirted for 2-3 seconds, and the wipers started. By the time I realize wtf was happening, it all stopped. However, the transmission would not shift out of 2nd gear. It would go into PRN and D, but it would simply not shift out of 2nd gear in D, 2, or 1 on the shifter.

A few days later, while I was parked in my friend's driveway, the horn started blaring, washer pump sprayed almost the entire container dry, and the wipers were going nuts. The Jeep also turned the motor off. I turned the key off, everything stopped, and when I restarted, it was like nothing happened.

Needless to say, I haven't been driving the Jeep for a little while. Now that it's supposed to warm up a little bit (yay, no longer single digits!), I've pulled it into the garage to let it thaw out some and hope to get to working on it. Based on what I've read, the likely suspect is the clockspring. I'll be ordering a new one shortly and hope this fixes the issue. I've heard that the TIPM could also cause similar issues, though all indications here suggest the clockspring is the most likely problem. I did use JScan to check the steering angle and there were a few times where the angle did get erratic and bounced all over the place, though it mostly acts like how you would expect - further evidence that it's like something internal. I'll replace the turn signal stalk while I'm in there, since it doesn't want to "lock" when turning right.

If the weather cooperates, I think I may start on the axle swap sooner rather than later. I still need to throw the gears in the rear, but I'll try to get that done this weekend. I still need to find a machine shop that can cut the lip necessary for the tone rings, but one step at a time I suppose...

Crazy stuff!!

 

[pc1p]

Got the Dorman Clockspring installed, as well as the new turn signal, and although it no longer clicks when turning the wheel, and my turn signal actually stays locked during a turn, it did not fix the error with the ABS/Christmas lights.

I'm about 98% sure it's the ABS module at this point in time. I found an older forum post where people were giving some advice on how to test. If i restart the Jeep (which resets all the ABS lights) and mash the gas on a dirt road, the traction control kicks in and does its thing. Continuing to accelerate past 10 MPH and the ABS/traction light stays off. If I brake hard on dirt (to engage) ABS, the lights come back on and the system is disabled. I can repeat this many times and the same thing keeps happening, suggesting the fault within the ABS module. Looks like that's my next thing to replace...

The weather appears to be breaking some, so I began prepping the 14B for gears. Got the housing stripped and cleaned out. I can't find my Wheatstone set, so I had to ordered some new ones from Amazon. Once those get here, I'll finish prepping the ring gear and new Richmond Powertrax Pro Grip carrier. I hope to have the gearset fully installed this week and can then move to getting the hubs machined for the tone ring.

 

[pc1p]

Had a busy weekend - the Mrs. grand Cherokee just rolled over 100k miles and to thank me, it started to leak at a seam on the radiator…

Thankfully, a new Mopar unit off eBay was relatively cheap (~$300) and quickly delivered. Swapping it out wasn’t as much of a nightmare as I was expecting, taking the better part of 3 hours (I had to start/stop a few times to deal with other things).

I wrapped it up just before dinner time on Friday, which was good because we spent the next day racking up about 400 miles on a college visit to UCONN. Nothing like stress testing a new install right away

At least Sunday evening and most of the week have been slow, allowing me some time to get back into the garage. I got the carrier bearings installed and began getting the pinion setup:

Other than having to drive back to AutoZone twice in one night - first to get a 7-ton puller (my 5-ton was about 1/4” too short!) to make pulling the yoke easier and the second to get a chrome 1-1/2” socket for the pinion nut (my 1-1/2” impact socket wouldn’t fit inside the new 1350 yoke!!), the setup was easy. Gotta love 14 Bolts…

I was able to get the pinion preload near perfect at 35 in-lbs with the Yukon Solid Spacer setup from East Coast Gear. I landed at ~0.0055” BL, have no perceptible runout, and got a fairly respectable pattern - I shouldn’t have any issues with this install.

Next up is putting a thin coating of oil on the gears and carrier bearings, then pulling the hubs off to knock the studs out and hopefully find someone local who can machine them for the tone rings. With any luck, I’ll bolt these axles in by the end of the month!

 

[pc1p]

As I usually do, I did a final check after torquing everything down and setting the proper carrier preload. The final setup ended up at ~0.006" of backlash...

I got about a good a pattern as I could hope for with gearsets these days:

I always take final setup photos and show my shim stacks, just in case I ever need to do a warranty claim. It also makes a handy reference should I need to regear it again for any reason.

Gotta love living in a small town... I took the hubs down to the local machine shop to get the tone rings installed. The guy had them done in less than an hour and wouldn't even charge me for it!

Time to soak these in some Rust Killer and then get the new bearings installed. Once done with that, I think it's just a matter of getting the ABS sensor holes cut and verifying clearances. I've been waiting on Fusion4x4 to have a holiday sale, but with all the crazy tariff stuff going on right now, I figure it's best to stop waiting and just get things ordered.

 

[pc1p]

I got busy yesterday and distracted doing some general stuff around the house - and it all worked out. I sat down after dinner and worked on my Duolingo a bit, then went to Facebook Marketplace to scroll around and lo and behold, I got a "Sponsored Ad" - guess who was having a Tax Return Sale???

I could not have nailed the timing any better! *Chef's Kiss Sound*

I've got the hubs scrubbed, steel brushed, and soaking in rust converter/remover. With any luck, the new hub bearings will arrive mid-week and I may even be able to get this thing moving sooner than I had hoped...

 

[WSS]

Nice when something works out like that. The job looks great btw. They cleaned up like new.

 

[pc1p]

Don't you just hate when you're washing your rust-remover soaked hubs and the kids put their cereal dishes in the sink??!!?? Kids these days...

After soaking for 2-3 days each, then scrubbing aggressively, followed by a nice bake out in the oven, I hit each hub with some Rust Reformer and some black high-heat paint. I was hoping to get these all done and reinstalled so I could install the ABS senor brackets and drill the holes, but Torque King 4x4 took a little while to get me one of the seals.

The Fusion 4x4 drag link and tie rod showed up at least - these are beefy for sure!

I'll be pressing in the studs today and the ding-dong of the door bell is probably a good indicator that the bearings and cups finally made it to the house. Hoping to get those pushed back together and the holes drilled over the next few days. My daughter goes to SFO tomorrow to spend spring break with her uncle, so my first task will be to get her gas tank swapped out (the seal at the top is leaking, or possible cracked... picking up a new tank tomorrow just in case!). Once that's done, I should be all ready to get these axles moving underneath...

 

[pc1p]

The bearings arrived, so I took a few minutes to get some paint on the hubs, get the new studs pressed in, and get the bearings installed...

Although I had a set of Artec VSS mounts and tone rings, I bought a set of Barnes 4WD VSS mounts and tone rings on a holiday sale. I liked that it also included a "drilling template", which I thought would be helpful...

I saw a few "tips" on various forums where they suggested to not follow the instructions (which wanted to you drill the template out to 3/4" and then use that as a drill guide) and instead use the 1/4" hole to make a nice pilot guide for a 3/4" hole saw:

This process worked well and cutting through the dust shield, backing plate, and housing flange cut like butter with a fresh carbide hole saw. Unfortunately, even with the hole drilled perfectly aligned, the VSS was nowhere near where it needed to be:

We are talking millimeters off! I thought maybe the mount was installed backwards or upside down for a moment. I decided to try the Metalcloak VSS mounts and I couldn't even get the VSS inserted as it was still about 1/2" blocked by the axle flange. Needless to say, I spent a good amount of time clearancing the flange and backing plate to get the VSS to fit. Once I made enough room, the VSS dropped in place and was in perfect position (using the Metalcloak mounts!):

So for those looking to do it, I would say skip the Barnes kit completely as they simply are not made with enough precision to be helpful. With the VSS sensors cleared and installed, I had to make my parking shoes fit around the tone ring. You can see below just how much has to be taken off the inside edge of the shoes. All you need to essentially do is make the inner circle a "true" circle.

Those took a short while, but everything went together and I'm just waiting on the 9-lug socket to get the spindle nuts properly torqued/set and adjusted...

 

[pc1p]

My daughter's Jeep has been smelling like gas fumes here and there. Some days are better than others - where some days it smells like a spark from across the county will cause a boom, and some days you can't smell anything. I've checked the hoses, including the nefarious roll over vent nipple that tends to crack, but there weren't any issues visible. I found a used tank for $250 and picked it up before dropping the tank just to make sure I could fix it in quick order...

Unfortunately, getting the tank out was a pain in the a$$, requiring me to cut one of the bolts out of the frame mount. Additionally, there was a lot of corrosion on the inside of the tank skid, where knocking the rust loose actually caused a hole to form. I ended up having to place an order for a new skid with Amazon, and picked up a new Delphi pump while I was at it.

There were no broken nipples and no cracks to be found, but literally "smelling" around the tank suggested that maybe the seal around the pump is what was causing the odor (which explains why the smell sometimes is fine, and why sometimes it's terrible). Anyways, gives me a chance to clean the frame up while I was down there...

There is a ton of scale and rust on the rear shocks, though nothing cancerous really anywhere. I suspect the PO's parked on a lawn a lot, which is where you usually see that level of scale develop. Hopefully, I'll be able to clean this all up this summer, since I'll be doing lots of driving next year while my daughter is in college and I start the Hemi swap on my Jeep