Friday the 13th showed up November 26th, JLUR mileage is at 112,000 and have been hearing noises from the front end for a while but with some family matters and traveling between Tx and Utah, time was not available to deal with it.
Nov 26th, finally got around to inspecting a few things, found worn ball joints, hubs had a tight section then really loose section and a little grinding when hand rotating them so decided to replace them, had the Revolution upgraded axle shafts sitting around for a while so I figured axle shafts, ball joints, hubs, simple enough, I can get it done! ... So I thought...
Figured with everything I needed here; it would be a good day. Driver side apart quickly, ball joints pressed out, decided to assemble the Revolution axle shafts and issue number 1, bearing cap hole for the driver side inner shaft is too big and could easily slip the cap in and out, reached out to Jeremy and was hoping Revolution would send them out right away so I figure I can wait a week -- nope.
Jeremy has been great helping to get a replacement, but Revolution moved their warehouse and guess it's a mess getting orders out, can't wait any longer, so stock shafts back in for now.
While I was waiting for an update from Revolution, Issue #2, the hubs I picked up at O'Rielly technically fit, but the lug studs are the same size as the JK 1/2"x20 and not JL M14x1.5 returned to O'Reilly.
Found hubs online at a local dealer for not much more than O'Rielly's, great! But here's the kick in the ass, went to the dealer because their online price for Mopar JL hub was under $200/hub. Called the dealer parts department, they had them in stock, when I get there, they wanted almost $400 each! and would not honor the online price.
Ordered the hubs online and got them both delivered for a total of $412, received them about 9 days later, they came from a warehouse in Dallas about an hour away from me, but I had to wait for delivery.
Meanwhile, the Jeep has been sitting in the driveway on a jack stand with one side bare to the axle C - I did not install the ball joints due to rain and did not want the studs to rust.
Fast forward to toady, feeling confident, OEM axle shafts going back, the u-joints felt good, no play no binding; Mopar hubs in hand, Synergy ball joints ready, Synergy knuckles arrived and I'm ready to get it done!
Confident that progress will be made today being it was a nice sunny, warm, no wind day and FedEx has sent yet another email confirming the delivery of the Synergy HD steering kit today between 10am-2pm - great day ahead!
Plan was to get both sides done since one side was already 1/2 way there... with new ball joints, knuckles, hubs and stock axle shafts good, I was sure to get it all done!
So, I thought .... hello Friday the 13th you fuck,,,
The good, driver side done:
View attachment 418030
The Bad and the Ugly, my bad for not double checking both ball joints, I pulled one out of the box saw LWR H21 and installed it... GTFO
Grabbed the other ball joint expecting it to be an upper and- LWR A22
...
The other ball joint box had A22 LWR and A21 UPR so ... not knowing what H21 was, I pressed it back out, measured the width with calipers, both the same, whew!
Proceeded to install the correctly marked ball joints from the other box, the rest of the install went smooth but only got one side done.
View attachment 418031
Also replacing brake pads since they are close to the wear indicator and the calipers are off.
The Synergy HD steering was supposed to be delivered today, thanks FedEx for those numerous emails about how my shipment was arriving today between 10am- 2pm; but of course, FedEx being FedEx, no delivery within the stated time frame and yay! your shipment is delayed email... Monday.
Will reach out to Synergy on Monday about the ball joints, hoping they can get it them out quickly before the multiple days of rain arrive.
