Oof...ball joints....
Got them swapped over the weekend and I do NOT want to do that again. But, I will when the time comes, and it'll get deleted.
Tore everything down Saturday and was expecting that my new ball joints would arrive that day. They were delayed (not sure why), so I ended up doing a few extra items. There are a few lessons that I learned along the way: 1. ABS sensors and ball joint presses don't get along. 2. ABS sensors do NOT fit through the dust plate with the hub installed completely. Well, they do, but you can't install them into the hole without seriously torquing the line itself and I didn't want to break it.
So, I worked both sides at once, rather than do one at a time. Seemed to be a bit more efficient for me to do it that way. So, jack up, jack stands, pull wheels and brakes, pull unit bearing, pull axle shafts, pull knuckle, remove ball joints. I had the Harbor Freight standard issue ball joint press with accessories, but for the Jeep, I needed the extra set. 25% July 4th coupon here I come! Cleaned everything up and painted most things. I didn't paint the knuckles just because I didn't want to take the time to tape all the surfaces. About everything else got some paint. Pulled the axle cover and inspected the gears, all good, no chunks but did have some fuzz on the drain plug. Nothing to worry about. My guess is this is the first time that the lube has been changed. It was awful dark. Went back with a gasket and I always use the black RTV as well. I probably could have gotten away with copper spray or no gasket at all, but I like the combo. I haven't had one leak that way. Since the ball joint shipment was delayed, I went ahead and started the axle shaft u-joints. I had ordered the Spicer 5-760X and they turned out to be the wrong size. Too small. I had found those digging through forum posts. I looked at the ones I had and found the casting number and that turned out to be a Spicer 5-7166X (Casting Number SPR 1411). Oreilly up the road from me had one, and they help one at another store that was a 15 minute drive. No big deal, I'll just go pick it up. Wrong, the guy at the counter transferred it to another store another 20 minutes away instead of holding it. Ugh. Lots of driving later, I had both. Ball joint press makes quick work of u-joints, but since the head of the joint is larger than the press, you have to be careful when they are stuck. I ended up driving right through one that was seized and it blew up. crap went everywhere, including a small shard of metal right into my finger. Not to be deterred, I pulled it out and went on. Unfortunately, the "ring" was still in the yolk. I tried a regular punch to work it out and that didn't work. I also have an arbor shaft out of an alternator that I use as a punch. It works really well and is a solid piece of metal. I tried a dremel and a hacksaw blade, but they didn't want to touch the hardened steel interior ring of the old cap. Took a bit, but I got it out without having to heat it. New ones went in without much of a hitch. I painted the ends of the shafts after a little work with some emery cloth where they had rusted. After that, I decided to go ahead and change the transfer case fluid. I pulled the skid plate and noticed a bit of rust on that, so I hit it with a wire wheel and painted the top side. Pulled the transfer case plug and drained that as well. I wish new process had put a magnet on the drain plug on these instead of putting a magnet inside the case. By the time I had all that done, it was beer 30 and time for dinner.
Next day, the delivery still showed delayed, and I had to get the tow bar from the coach so I could swap the ends out to fit Demco base plate. Ran down to the coach and grabbed that and by the time I got back, the ball joints had arrived. Got all the tools back out and ready to go. The ball joints were pretty easy to get out because the orientation of the press was good enough to use a long breaker bar and cheater pipe to get them going. Unfortunately, going back in, I had to flip the press over to get the right attachments in in such a way that the press throat was long enough to get in place. That meant that the bottom ball joints had to be pressed in using a wrench only. That made for a hard and slow process. Tops were pretty easy. Once those were in, I put the first axle shaft in, got it all the way in, and realized that I needed to put the knuckle on first. Back out with the shaft, knuckle on, shaft back in. From there, I installed the unit bearing, nut, and bolts holding it in. At this point, I realized that the ABS sensor would fit through the hole, but wouldn't install in the hole. Loosened the 3 bolts holding the unit bearing in enough to get it in there and retightened it all back up. Brake install went easy, wheel back on. The only other problem I had to deal with was the ABS line I mucked up with the ball joint press. The connection is behind the shock tower and is a bit of a pain to get to. In the end, I had to swap both of the ABS sensors. I think that I damaged the passenger side one when installing it.
All fluids back in, skid plate reinstalled over transfer case and painted the underside, off to the alignment shop. The called 10 minutes after and said the toe bar was seized. They managed to get it loose with heat but he said I should consider getting a new one next time. When that happens, I'll probably pull it, mark and measure the location, pull it apart and clean it up and use anti-seize on it. I love that stuff! I used it on various bolts and on the unit bearings when putting everything back together.
Next up is a transmission fluid/filter change and the rear diff lube. Hopefully I can fully test the flat tow soon behind the motorhome and make sure all that works as intended. Alignment was a success and the Jeep drives much better than it did. I had some wheel shimmy around 40-45mph that's not there any more, which is nice. On to the pics!
Got them swapped over the weekend and I do NOT want to do that again. But, I will when the time comes, and it'll get deleted.
Tore everything down Saturday and was expecting that my new ball joints would arrive that day. They were delayed (not sure why), so I ended up doing a few extra items. There are a few lessons that I learned along the way: 1. ABS sensors and ball joint presses don't get along. 2. ABS sensors do NOT fit through the dust plate with the hub installed completely. Well, they do, but you can't install them into the hole without seriously torquing the line itself and I didn't want to break it.
So, I worked both sides at once, rather than do one at a time. Seemed to be a bit more efficient for me to do it that way. So, jack up, jack stands, pull wheels and brakes, pull unit bearing, pull axle shafts, pull knuckle, remove ball joints. I had the Harbor Freight standard issue ball joint press with accessories, but for the Jeep, I needed the extra set. 25% July 4th coupon here I come! Cleaned everything up and painted most things. I didn't paint the knuckles just because I didn't want to take the time to tape all the surfaces. About everything else got some paint. Pulled the axle cover and inspected the gears, all good, no chunks but did have some fuzz on the drain plug. Nothing to worry about. My guess is this is the first time that the lube has been changed. It was awful dark. Went back with a gasket and I always use the black RTV as well. I probably could have gotten away with copper spray or no gasket at all, but I like the combo. I haven't had one leak that way. Since the ball joint shipment was delayed, I went ahead and started the axle shaft u-joints. I had ordered the Spicer 5-760X and they turned out to be the wrong size. Too small. I had found those digging through forum posts. I looked at the ones I had and found the casting number and that turned out to be a Spicer 5-7166X (Casting Number SPR 1411). Oreilly up the road from me had one, and they help one at another store that was a 15 minute drive. No big deal, I'll just go pick it up. Wrong, the guy at the counter transferred it to another store another 20 minutes away instead of holding it. Ugh. Lots of driving later, I had both. Ball joint press makes quick work of u-joints, but since the head of the joint is larger than the press, you have to be careful when they are stuck. I ended up driving right through one that was seized and it blew up. crap went everywhere, including a small shard of metal right into my finger. Not to be deterred, I pulled it out and went on. Unfortunately, the "ring" was still in the yolk. I tried a regular punch to work it out and that didn't work. I also have an arbor shaft out of an alternator that I use as a punch. It works really well and is a solid piece of metal. I tried a dremel and a hacksaw blade, but they didn't want to touch the hardened steel interior ring of the old cap. Took a bit, but I got it out without having to heat it. New ones went in without much of a hitch. I painted the ends of the shafts after a little work with some emery cloth where they had rusted. After that, I decided to go ahead and change the transfer case fluid. I pulled the skid plate and noticed a bit of rust on that, so I hit it with a wire wheel and painted the top side. Pulled the transfer case plug and drained that as well. I wish new process had put a magnet on the drain plug on these instead of putting a magnet inside the case. By the time I had all that done, it was beer 30 and time for dinner.
Next day, the delivery still showed delayed, and I had to get the tow bar from the coach so I could swap the ends out to fit Demco base plate. Ran down to the coach and grabbed that and by the time I got back, the ball joints had arrived. Got all the tools back out and ready to go. The ball joints were pretty easy to get out because the orientation of the press was good enough to use a long breaker bar and cheater pipe to get them going. Unfortunately, going back in, I had to flip the press over to get the right attachments in in such a way that the press throat was long enough to get in place. That meant that the bottom ball joints had to be pressed in using a wrench only. That made for a hard and slow process. Tops were pretty easy. Once those were in, I put the first axle shaft in, got it all the way in, and realized that I needed to put the knuckle on first. Back out with the shaft, knuckle on, shaft back in. From there, I installed the unit bearing, nut, and bolts holding it in. At this point, I realized that the ABS sensor would fit through the hole, but wouldn't install in the hole. Loosened the 3 bolts holding the unit bearing in enough to get it in there and retightened it all back up. Brake install went easy, wheel back on. The only other problem I had to deal with was the ABS line I mucked up with the ball joint press. The connection is behind the shock tower and is a bit of a pain to get to. In the end, I had to swap both of the ABS sensors. I think that I damaged the passenger side one when installing it.
All fluids back in, skid plate reinstalled over transfer case and painted the underside, off to the alignment shop. The called 10 minutes after and said the toe bar was seized. They managed to get it loose with heat but he said I should consider getting a new one next time. When that happens, I'll probably pull it, mark and measure the location, pull it apart and clean it up and use anti-seize on it. I love that stuff! I used it on various bolts and on the unit bearings when putting everything back together.
Next up is a transmission fluid/filter change and the rear diff lube. Hopefully I can fully test the flat tow soon behind the motorhome and make sure all that works as intended. Alignment was a success and the Jeep drives much better than it did. I had some wheel shimmy around 40-45mph that's not there any more, which is nice. On to the pics!
