As some of you may know, Cindy and I have made some substantial changes to our 2020 Jeep JT Gladiator and the biggest of them, are the badass trailing arms by EVO. They literally allow us to do things that we really shouldn't be doing in a production vehicle and it really is amazing. But, being that we've put a lot of hard miles on it before the upgrade and after hammering on it right after the build, I decided that I really needed to take some time and give it a thorough once over. With that said...
The first thing I found that needed some help was this - a blown out center support bearing or carrier bearing.
As you can see, the bearing has completely torn away from the rubber bushing and that's allowing the shaft to flop all over the place.
Fortunately, that's an easy enough fix and so I've already removed it and shipped it to JE Reel to have it replaced and have the whole shaft rebuild and rebalanced just for good measure.
Now, the second problem is a bit more concerning. With 22" of vertical travel, the rear end of our Gladiator can now tear across serious whoops, at crazy speeds and without ever bottoming out. However, up front... that's a different story. As well as it has done and still does, there are times where the 12" of vertical travel just can't keep up with the rear and there have been a few... harder than I would prefer hits to it during our testing. And, after going over the front axle with a fine tooth comb, this is what I found.
Need a closer look?
Yup, that's a crack you're seeing and right on the webbing of the passenger side differential. It's about 1/2" long and while it's not leaking, it is clearly a point of failure and one that will need to be addressed before it becomes a bigger problem.
Crazy thing is, this is on a Dana UD60, a very stout axle and one that has held up to everything we've been able to throw at it or at least, up until now. And, this really goes to remind me that way more than playing on the rocks, SPEED can and will break anything and everything.
Anyway, now the question is - what to do with this thing?
The first thing I found that needed some help was this - a blown out center support bearing or carrier bearing.
As you can see, the bearing has completely torn away from the rubber bushing and that's allowing the shaft to flop all over the place.
Fortunately, that's an easy enough fix and so I've already removed it and shipped it to JE Reel to have it replaced and have the whole shaft rebuild and rebalanced just for good measure.
Now, the second problem is a bit more concerning. With 22" of vertical travel, the rear end of our Gladiator can now tear across serious whoops, at crazy speeds and without ever bottoming out. However, up front... that's a different story. As well as it has done and still does, there are times where the 12" of vertical travel just can't keep up with the rear and there have been a few... harder than I would prefer hits to it during our testing. And, after going over the front axle with a fine tooth comb, this is what I found.
Need a closer look?
Yup, that's a crack you're seeing and right on the webbing of the passenger side differential. It's about 1/2" long and while it's not leaking, it is clearly a point of failure and one that will need to be addressed before it becomes a bigger problem.
Crazy thing is, this is on a Dana UD60, a very stout axle and one that has held up to everything we've been able to throw at it or at least, up until now. And, this really goes to remind me that way more than playing on the rocks, SPEED can and will break anything and everything.
Anyway, now the question is - what to do with this thing?
