Reid knuckles

[JT1]

Also can I pull both axle shafts at once, or should I pull one side, do ball joints, then put it back together, then remove the other side?

I'd just do one side at a time. It's much simpler.

Which ball joints? Dynatrac?

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[roaniecowpony]

One thing I did before disassembly, was to clamp a piece of angle metal on the hub/rotor and turn the wheel to the stop and mark on the frame where the angle would turn to on each side. This gave me a target on how much to grind off the little stop nub of the new Reid knuckles. The nub is only about 3/8" diameter and a small angle grinder was all that was needed.

 

[caratnic]

Teraflex ball joints

 

[caratnic]

So don't remove both shafts at same time then?

 

[roaniecowpony]

Maybe someone else can explain the advantage of only doing one side at a time. I did both together.

 

[caratnic]

Yes I like to know as well...

 

[JT1]

So don't remove both shafts at same time then?

There is no advantage to removing them at the same time. I just went through the process swapping out ball joints, the only thing different is you will be reinstalling new knuckles instead of reusing the old ones..

One side at a time let's you keep the tierod attached to the jeep so you don't have to remove the steering stabilizer and all that.. use a zip tie or ratchet strap to hold it near the correct location.

 

[caratnic]

I'm installing new metal cloak tie rod, drag link, and stabilizer as well

 

[JT1]

I'm installing new metal cloak tie rod, drag link, and stabilizer as well

In that case, take it all apart at once. Do you have toe plates to adress the alignment or are you going to get it close enough and take it in to set the toe?

 

[caratnic]

I'll get it close and take it in for another alignment ha ha ha, just did one last week

 

[JT1]

I'll get it close and take it in for another alignment ha ha ha, just did one last week

I bit the bullet and just bought the toe plates from metalcloak.. I think they were about $75

 

[caratnic]

Do you feel woth the toe plates it aligned properly without having to take it in for a professional alginement? I'd hate to have to take it again for just the toe alignment

 

[JT1]

Do you feel woth the toe plates it aligned properly without having to take it in for a professional alginement? I'd hate to have to take it again for just the toe alignment

they work great for what they are with a couple checks first. Your steering wheel has to be straight while you are driving, a degree or 2 isn't a killer here. Also they don't do anything but toe. For me, I was losing toe adjustment after trips on the rocks, so used the plates to get it where I wanted, and then I re-check them after every tire rotation.

 

[caratnic]

Sounds good! Thank everybody for the help! Knuckles show up tomorrow, and ball joints today, already got all the steering stuff

 

[roaniecowpony]

There are at least two or three homebrewed methods of setting toe.

With our jeeps, you can simply jack the front tires off the ground, spin them and scribe a straight line on the tread of each tire, then have a friend help measure front and back of the tire scribe lines. You can trig it out, but 1/8" toe in is about the nominal on a 33" tire. Or just put a single mark on each tire and rotate the tire front to back to measure, if scribing a straight line is too hard.

You can clamp some 3 ft (ish) long pieces of metal on the brake rotors (with a couple lug nuts clamping the rotor to the hub) and measure with a tape like the commercially available "toe plates".

There's another method that uses the tread blocks for me

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