James
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- James
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2017
- Threads
- 14
- Messages
- 560
- Reaction score
- 558
- Location
- Huntington Beach
- Vehicle(s)
- 2018 JLUR, 2018 Jaguar XE, 2018 Fiat 500E
- Occupation
- Real Estate Broker
- Thread starter
- #1
Hey folks,
This is kinda of a crazy one. Thought I would post it to see if anyone else has had this problem or is this a freak one off case.
We were out a few weeks ago, met up with some other JLUR owners from this form for an easy trail. There were three JLUR and one JKUR, I was leading the group.
Again nothing major or difficult on this run. About halfway through the day we came to another right hand turn on a flat graded road, the Jeep in this photo has the Mopar 2ā lift with 35ā tires and was following the three previous jeeps line. Nothing major! Flat graded road.
He said he heard a pop and the front driver side tire slammed towards the passenger, the guy taking the photo yelled stop, something broke! They yelled for me to come over to see what happened. I have to say my jaw was hanging down in surprise, I have never seen ball joints pop out like this before. We were going really slow into the washes. So speed was not a factor.
We spent the next 5 hours in the hot sun dealing with this problem. Since the upper and lower ball joints were no longer attached and we were a good drive from a major road for a flatbed, we needed to get these ball joints back into place.
The first problem was getting the Jeep stabilized on jacks in the supper soft dirt, we ended up using some concrete blocks we found.
Once stabilized I started working on taking the front wheel off to see what needed to be done. The axle u joint was broken and the odd part again was both upper and lower ball joints were completely out. I pull the axel out of its shaft and remove the ball joints from the steering knuckle. What I found odd and again Iām no mechanic was the nuts for the ball joints were finger tight. There are cotter pins holding them in place, I just thought these would be tighter. I took both off with my fingers once the cotter pins were removed. Is this normal?
I used a deep socket and 5lb sledgehammer to reinstall the upper ball joint. The upper one went in fairly easy (thought it should have been a lot harder and again Iām not a mechanic) I just remember doing the ones on my TJ and omg a bitch with the correct tools!
I started to work on the lower one. Yes Dorthy, this one is what I expected, a complete bitch to get in and took me a long time. I had to take a few brakes and even switch hands a few times. I even dug a deeper hole underneath it to be able to get a better swing on the hammer. After a lot of bad words and swinging for the fence it was in good enough. I installed the knuckle and wheel. We were back in business to get him to a main road for a tow truck.
The owner took his Jeep to a dealership and omg they are saying the entire front end needs to be replaced. They are quoting the entire axel and knuckle to be replaced.
And itās not covered by any warranty!
My concern, is there a problem or is this a freak one off deal?
Again this is not my JLUR it is one of the members from here.
Any thoughts?
This is kinda of a crazy one. Thought I would post it to see if anyone else has had this problem or is this a freak one off case.
We were out a few weeks ago, met up with some other JLUR owners from this form for an easy trail. There were three JLUR and one JKUR, I was leading the group.
Again nothing major or difficult on this run. About halfway through the day we came to another right hand turn on a flat graded road, the Jeep in this photo has the Mopar 2ā lift with 35ā tires and was following the three previous jeeps line. Nothing major! Flat graded road.
He said he heard a pop and the front driver side tire slammed towards the passenger, the guy taking the photo yelled stop, something broke! They yelled for me to come over to see what happened. I have to say my jaw was hanging down in surprise, I have never seen ball joints pop out like this before. We were going really slow into the washes. So speed was not a factor.
We spent the next 5 hours in the hot sun dealing with this problem. Since the upper and lower ball joints were no longer attached and we were a good drive from a major road for a flatbed, we needed to get these ball joints back into place.
The first problem was getting the Jeep stabilized on jacks in the supper soft dirt, we ended up using some concrete blocks we found.
Once stabilized I started working on taking the front wheel off to see what needed to be done. The axle u joint was broken and the odd part again was both upper and lower ball joints were completely out. I pull the axel out of its shaft and remove the ball joints from the steering knuckle. What I found odd and again Iām no mechanic was the nuts for the ball joints were finger tight. There are cotter pins holding them in place, I just thought these would be tighter. I took both off with my fingers once the cotter pins were removed. Is this normal?
I used a deep socket and 5lb sledgehammer to reinstall the upper ball joint. The upper one went in fairly easy (thought it should have been a lot harder and again Iām not a mechanic) I just remember doing the ones on my TJ and omg a bitch with the correct tools!
I started to work on the lower one. Yes Dorthy, this one is what I expected, a complete bitch to get in and took me a long time. I had to take a few brakes and even switch hands a few times. I even dug a deeper hole underneath it to be able to get a better swing on the hammer. After a lot of bad words and swinging for the fence it was in good enough. I installed the knuckle and wheel. We were back in business to get him to a main road for a tow truck.
The owner took his Jeep to a dealership and omg they are saying the entire front end needs to be replaced. They are quoting the entire axel and knuckle to be replaced.
And itās not covered by any warranty!
My concern, is there a problem or is this a freak one off deal?
Again this is not my JLUR it is one of the members from here.
Any thoughts?
Sponsored