DirtyComanche

And at this point I think the only functional difference (for me) between the current style (sealed bearing) early unit hubs (to 89) and later (90 until they changed the brakes in 99 or 00, or whatever) is that they deleted the seal that I have an issue with. But I still can't really confirm that as Renix stuff is now too old for most people to care about.

The shafts that were in there were the weak 260x junk, and the ujoints were blown right up along with their being a good chance the ears were worn. It would be good money after bad to change the ujoints in them. I have no 297x/760x stuff around, I gave away all my D30 stuff years ago, so I'd have to junkyard or buy a new set of shafts. The ZJ CVs have NOT been tested in any quantifiable manner, but there is plenty of guys running them in ZJ (and WJ, same but different) applications with 33" tires and a V8, so they are almost undoubtably stronger than the 260x setup, and I bet at steering lock they are still stronger than a standard 760x setup. But most importantly they were in stock at my local parts place and for not a lot of money, which assuming I could just bolt them in and go made them a better deal than screwing around at the junkyard or waiting on a set of aftermarket shafts. Truth be told, having run them, they are smooth. This truck is NOT a hardcore wheeler, I think they're probably a good fit for somebody who is mostly on the street and is keeping to smaller tires and not super abusive use. Unfortunately they turned out to be a little less bolt in than I had hoped.

Works great in Arizona, pretty much guaranteed death this far north. I'd run a spool over a lunchbox/autolocker in the rear, at least I know the spool is always trying to kill me and is doing so in a predictable manner. I actually used to run a front spool on the road on my old MJ, again, it was nowhere near as haywire as a front lunchbox locker because the spool is always doing the same thing. I originally just wanted a Truetrac, but I have no contacts that get good pricing on Eaton stuff. So I'm at about $900 frozen pesos for a Truetrac, and $1200 for an Elocker, I'd rather spend the extra for a real locker given that. I'm getting my guy to quote me on a Zip locker, and I'm going to go measure for a Viair setup in a bit... Might start a seperate thread to see what people have for non-A/C pump OBA setups. I think he will probably come in at about $700 US for the Zip, which still leaves some room to buy an OBA setup and be at the same price as the elocker. Frozen air lines do concern me. At work we have a couple poorly fitted fuel trucks with air over hydraulic brakes, and they freeze up all the time. Great fun.

I like the stance, it just looks right. Curious why you didn't go to a long arm setup of some sort at that height?

You're making huge progress. Front axle is looking great, and nice job making the ram spacer.

Cage is looking good so far! I'll be keeping an eye on that. I've delt with DMR before, small world. He cut me an absolutely killer deal on some chromo D60 axleshafts and ujoints, less money than I would have spent just for the ujoints locally. :thumbsup:

Do you use it much in the winter? I'd honestly rather not install a cable also, comparitively the elocker definitely wins in the ease of installation aspect. But I'm guessing it isn't too bad. Do you have pictures of your install? Edit, realized you said "I would go with" not "I went with" - sometimes I skim and miss things.

I bought Raybestos ones that crossed to that Dorman P/N for $1.10 each, FWIW. They are about 1/4" longer than the stock studs.

So you think the doorman stud would be stronger than the Rockwell American 7000 lb ? Equal to or stronger, yes. No hard numbers to back it up, but trailer axles do not see torque loading with the exception of what the brakes apply to them. Typically trailer parts are junk. Typically stuff sold at PA is Chinese junk with 'American' sounding names to try to mislead you. No, I don't know where that brand is made, no I didn't go to PA and price them out or look at them. Also, you could not pay me enough to run a trailer ubolt on my truck. Same for most of the junk included in lift kits. For the record I was almost killed by a failed ubolt.

Dorman 610-449, for the record. Gonna go look at them in person...

Nope. They're not the same knurl diameter. But studs off a LP front axle are, for some reason. NAXJA says 2003 Rubicon, front or rear, should work.

I also bought some RE LCAs to fix the caster a bit. Plus the current LCA bushings were pounded. I think I should buy a set of uppers too, and the bushings for the axle side mounts. They're also pounded. Somewhere in my pile of scrap beside the shop is a JK steering stabilizer, or so I think it is, I'm hoping I can use it. All in all the thing is driving WAY better than it ever was before. Still waiting for a gas tank and some other small parts though.

I don't trust any of their trailer stuff with my life. Some of it is fine, a lot isn't, and I wouldn't be comfortable using a trailer stud in a drive axle application. There's already a set of adapters on it. The problem is because the disk brake rotor is a little thicker than the drum brake hat was, so I have marginal thread engagement on the adapters. It isn't going to fall off, but it didn't make me feel as warm and fuzzy putting it together as it could have. So true !! If it's not in the computer it doesn't exist. I had to go to NAPA and look and compare. I did not record the specific part #. Take current stud and a caliper with you and ask the guy/gal to go through the actual BOOK with you. (HINT: look for the old guy). I found 2 studs, one 1/2" longer and one 3/8" longer, with the right size and length (and diameter) of shoulder. There wasn't anything we could find that was Jeep or Dana specific and actually fit like I wanted it. I went with 1/2" longer because I barely had 3/8" sticking out with new wheels on it. Unfortunately Dorman made their online stud catalog into a pain in the @$$, so I didn't have much luck with it. I think the one place here will still have the paper catalogs for this stuff, and I'll probably go see them. 1/2" longer would be great.

Does anyone have the P/N for a slightly longer (1/4" would be great) wheel stud for the D44? Just walking into the parts store and asking tends to produce blank stares.

No idea, I think I'd need to change my knuckles and brakes, there's a difference there. Eagle probably knows. But it would be a waste if the only functional difference (for this issue at least) was that they deleted the seal and sealrunner that I'm having issues with.

The retaining compound definitely works better than RTV, RTV would be the last resort. I have other adhesives in my tickle trunk that would probably get it done without any issues, but that's beside the point, it would be a hack repair at best. The real question is if I need to even worry about it. A speedi-sleeve is a speedi-sleeve. I get the same CR/SKF/FAG/TImken/National/Whatever stuff as anyone else, it's just a lot harder to get oddball pieces. I'd bet if there is one available that would do it that I'd be $300-400 Canadian Pesos into it, at which point I'd put the good money to better use and buy different shafts.

And I don't want to talk about lunchbox autolockers. The best one is the Spartan, best bang for the buck is the Lokka, argue with me about it in another thread if you want.

Other way around. Lokka is the manufacturer, always has been, always will be. From Lokka: http://lokka.com/site/faq Aussie reps hate to admit it because they are upcharging you for the same product, well, they put it in a box that looks exactly the same but says Aussie Locker on it...

It happens, somebody will fix that for you. But yes, frozen (or rusted) cables are the issue. You can't cable actuate anything up here and expect it to always work, even worse if it's seldom used.

Cables freeze or rust solid in this area... Road salt, water, dirt, massive temperature swings. The last thing you want is to need you locker and not be able to actuate it because there's a pile of ice jamming the cable. I have a Lokka (Aussie) in the front right now. I'd recommend you price it from Lokka before you buy it from Aussie. Lokka makes the Aussie Locker, it's the same thing, just there is a US company that sells it as the Aussie Locker because originally Lokka did not distribute internationally.

If you had money to spend, which one would you buy at this point in time? I want one for my rear D44. I don't have onboard air, nor any huge desire to do so as this isn't really a wheeling rig. But it could happen if need be. ARB, as I see it, is the old standby. It works, as it's a proven design. The install kit probably still comes with crappy fittings and hoses, although maybe they finally realized they should fix that. Plus you need air to actuate it, so more money or time working that out. Although having air in the future would be an advantage if you chose to upgrade the front locker to the same, or if you want to refill tires, or whatever else you like doing with air. Yukon offers the Zip Locker, which is sorta a ripoff of the ARB. But they actually listened to the customers and produced a better product. It also comes with new Timken carrier bearings and shims, which I don't think the ARB does. Fittings and hoses are supposedly okay, but I'd have to do more research. Again, you need air. A plus to me is they have a large dealer network, and I have a guy who does very nice pricing on Yukon stuff for me. Eaton offers the E-locker. It's electrically actuated. I hear good things about them, although early versions had reliability issues. I think now the biggest downside is the price. I don't know what is included in the kit, as far as if they give you carrier bearings and shims or not. Then there's OX. I don't know how big their dealer network is, it seems small, I can't get anywhere with that. However, it's considered to be a pretty damn strong and simple design. It was intended to be cable actuated, which is a complete no go in my climatic conditions, however I believe they offer both an electric or air actuator option for it. Also not sure what's included, if there is carrier bearings or shims. My biggest issue here is pricing just seems high once you go away from cable actuation. Did I miss any others?

On my MJ with an 87 XJ front D30 (first generation unit bearings) I swapped to the ZJ CV shafts. This is in my build thread too, but nobody reads those. Business end of a 260x shaft vs a CV shaft: Image Not Found I'd been told that the ZJ CV shafts were a bolt in swap. I'm guessing they might be for a later XJ, or an ABS equipped XJ. Using my early non-ABS unit bearings they are not. The tone ring, far left, had to be removed for the shaft to actually fit with the unit bearing. However, this left an issues, as there is a seal on the inner side of the unit bearing, which normally rides on the runner, far right, pictured as removed from the OEM 260x shaft. However, the machined surface that the tone ring is pressed onto on the ZJ shaft is a smaller diameter than the surface for the seal runner on the OEM shaft, so you can not just install the seal runner on the ZJ shaft. As it was I felt I needed to just get it put back together and installed it with the seal not running on anything, I packed the bearing face with grease to protect it for now. The debate (to me) is if the seal is actually needed, as IMHO it is a holdover from the original hub design which did not use sealed bearings. However, needed or not, it would help to protect the bearing from water/dirt. If I have to I believe I could center punch the mating surface on the CV shafts, then put the seal runner on with a little RTV or Loctite retaining compound, as it is maybe only 15 or 20 thou different in diameter (calibrated eyeball). I'm supposing this issue also could be that the CV shafts I bought are built goofy (they are A-1 Cardone), or perhaps the seal runner from a later 297x/760x shaft is the correct dimensions. Looking at unit bearings on Rockauto leads me to believe I am okay, as the major visual difference between the early (to 89) and later (90+) unit bearing is that they deleted the seal which would mate with the runner on the axleshaft. I did not check to see if later axleshafts even have a seal runner on them, or if it would be a different part number. Anyone able to shed any light on this? Would rather not tear it apart to bojang the wrong seal runners onto it, but I don't want to destroy an expensive set of brand new unit bearings.

Waiting on some parts. But I put the front axle back together and drove it to work. Terrible picture of the front end back together with all new BJs, wheel bearings, ZJ CV shafts, V8 ZJ tie rod and later XJ drag link: Shaft comparison: I'd been told that the ZJ CV shafts were a bolt in swap. I'm guessing they might be for a later XJ, or an ABS equipped XJ. Using my early non-ABS unit bearings they are not. The tone ring, far left, had to be removed for the shaft to actually fit with the unit bearing. However, this left an issues, as there is a seal on the inner side of the unit bearing, which normally rides on the runner, far right, pictured as removed from the OEM 260x shaft. However, the machined surface that the tone ring is pressed onto on the ZJ shaft is a smaller diameter than the surface for the seal runner on the OEM shaft, so you can not just install the seal runner on the ZJ shaft. As it was I felt I needed to just get it put back together and installed it with the seal not running on anything, I packed the bearing face with grease to protect it for now. The debate is if the seal is actually needed, as IMHO it is a holdover from the original hub design which did not use sealed bearings. However, needed or not, it would help to protect the bearing from water/dirt. I will have to do more research into this. If I absolutely had to I think I could have used the XJ seal runner, I would just have to centerpunch the ZJ shaft to produce a raised area and RTV or otherwise bond the seal runner on. I only was able to pull one seal runner at the time, and it was not in great shape, if I had two news ones I would have probably tried that to assemble them. Knuckle: In order to get the ZJ CV shafts into the knuckles I had to replace the zerk fitting in the lower BJ with a flush one. A non-greasable BJ would allso solve this. Either way, it worked in the end. Note these are some of the weakest knuckles with the windowed steering arm and seperate caliper mount. Anyways, all of this fixed my death wobble, camber issues, and allowed me to do a more proper alignment. I also installed a Lokka locker in the front axle, however I failed to take a picture, because nothing says reliable DD like buying the cheapest autolocker available.

This is probably one of the nicer taper inserts for steering: http://www.tmrcustoms.ca/steering/steering-builder-parts/tie-rod-end-inserts-jeep-taper-tj-lj-xj-zj-mj.html Basically drill the current tapered hole for the TRE out to that size, then weld that one in so the taper is revesed. There's a picture in my build thread of it, since I did exactly that.

I'd do something at that point. Honestly, the factory tie rod is complete junk for any use. The V8 ZJ tie rod and late model XJ drag link would not be a bad bet. Especially if you use a taper insert to flip the TRE on the driver's side knuckle.