Hey-o,

Looking for some opinions here. I have done axle u-joints last year as they were needed. I did track bar cause I think that was the OG 21 y/o bar and have a new steering stabilizer. I am unsure when/if TRE, ball joints, and hubs have been done. I've owned the heep for about 9 years and I know I haven't had any front end work done outside of what I've done. I picked up a ZJ tie rod to do that conversion, new drag link and TRE's to just refresh that. simply based off the test where you try to shift the wheels left to right and up/down I don't have play at all. However I have noticed that my new-ish tires have had some uneven wear patterns, more on the inside than the outside on both sides. If I'm not mistaken that's ball joints but could use some confirmation there. My question is since I'm already going to be taking everything apart should I just do the hubs while I'm at it and refresh the whole front end? It's not so much a cost thing but I'm curious am I just throwing out money if I don't clear symptoms.

Thanks all!

 

Your wear could be a misaligned toe-in.. check the ball joints for torn boots, play, etc. There are a number of DIY tricks that don't require fancy equipment to check for very bad wear on them.... if you're worried about a marginal wear that's difficult to detect by hand, I'd say it's worth it to take advantage of your likely "free lifetime rotation" on those new-ish tires and nicely ask the tech to give you a second opinion on them. You'd be surprised how nice folks can be if you treat them with respect and ask politely.

Re: Replace as a maintenance job

It depends on what's in there. If you've had the thing for 9 years and the hubs have never been changed - they're probably OEM and I'd leave them in there until they fail. The aftermarket ones are really not so good - even the once reputable brands like Timken, etc. The point here is - OEM is usually vastly superior so long as it's not worn out or broken.

Most of that stuff - once you do it once, is not all that tough to do again. How do I know this? -- most aftermarket (especially those "made in china") parts are junk and don't last all that long.

Therefore -- I would say, if it aint broke, don't fix it. If you have to do the ball joints - do the ball joints - use Spicer joints and if the old ones are OEM - try to get the non-splined ones so you don't enlarge the hole in the axle. Get Spicer either way, if you can. Throw some anti-seize on the hub bolts and where the hub sits in the knuckle and then you don't even have to worry about removing the axle from the hub... and risking not torquing the axle nut to 175ft/lbs (which will REALLY cause pre-mature failure of the new hub unit!)... you can take the 3 hub bolts off - pull the hub and axles as a single unit and replace them the same way.

Take your time when pressing the new ball joints in and out... better to double and triple check your setup than bugger up your axle or new parts by a mis-aligned spacer cup or something like that.

They make a mighty "pop" when you break the old ones out with your ball-joint press. It can sound like you broke your breaker bar if they've been in there for a long time. If you've done little to no pressing of parts in the past, this can be downright scary - FYI.

 

solid advice. Yea I had taken everything apart for the u joints and honestly for how much trouble rusty bolts have given me on the ol' heep it was actually easier than I thought. the hub bolts were fairly easy and even taking the hub itself off not too bad either. I used the trick where you back em out a little bit then give them a few good whacks with the socket over it. I was pretty surprised. I definitely used a lil bit of anti seize on those things with re-assembly and was able to torque down the axle nut again no problem. So yea the once you take it apart it's pretty easy to do it again as long as you don't wait another 20 years lol.