cherokeelaredo'90

What is this? It's on the passengers side and it just spins freely. When I turn left it seems like the passenger wheel is popping, for awhile I thought it was the u joint on the axle shaft, but I just grabbed that and shook it around and it's tight. While doing that I found this plastic thing. The drivers side has it too but it doesn't move at all. helpp pleaseee

rompnXJ

its just a little gaurd that helps keep excess mud & grass out of the axletubes

cherokeelaredo'90

Could that be what's clanking around though? Should I just throw a dab of super glue or something and shove it back against the axle housing?

ZINGGG

That plastic shield thingamabob wouldnt make enough noise that would be noticeable inside the cab. At least, I wouldnt think so

dogkatcher

cant believe that plastic survived 23 years .. mine didnt .. good to know its just for debris, I wondered its importance since I broke it doing u-joint

the pop .. check your steering linkage .. twist it w/ 2 hands

look / listen where they connect to steering knuckles .. my 90 only pops very randomly with steering cranked hard to 1 side, not very often .. there is slight play on bushings

my 93 just bought .. drivers side bushing is pretty smashed / even though it looks fairly new .. there is a loud pop on tie rod end, when cornering .. can barely hear it clank, when by hand .. will be fixed very soon .. thats probably it

cherokeelaredo'90

Well somehow it has so I guess that's good. I suppose I could duct tape it to the housing and then if the pop goes away I've found the problem. I probably should've mentioned I only can hear it if my passenger window is down.
On checking the steering linkage and all that stuff should I check it with the front wheels off the ground? Because I did yank on and near all the tie rods but nothing seemed to budge. Or maybe I'm just too weak to wiggle them haha

cherokeelaredo'90

update: I duct tapped it up to the axle housing and the noise remained. I'll throw it on stands this weekend and check everything out.

freegdr

Axle u joints ever been replaced just did mine they were orignials even had no play one cap had rusted out and was poping ,and you can get new dirt sheilds the keep crap from getting into seal and tearing them up .

ZINGGG

I'm going to guess the axle ujoints as freegdr suggested or the frame side track bar is loose or bad. Also, throw some grease on all the zerks in the front end and see if that helps the noise at all.

cherokeelaredo'90

Yeah greasing stuff up should become a habit. I haven't done it, not yet atleast. Should I go with greasable joints or just the normal ones?

ZINGGG

U joints? It's really all preference. If you are the kind of person that spends a lot of time maintaining the Jeep and wouldn't mind greasing at every oil change, I would get the greasables

cherokeelaredo'90

Okay cause I looked it up and people said that the greasable u joints are weaker because of the zerk fitting.. I should probably get into the habit of greasing stuff up, tomorrow will be the first day that I do hopefully all goes well, I've never touched a grease gun before hah

freegdr

tight area for greasable

scottmphoto

I can honestly say that I have never broken a greasable u-joint. I prefer them as if you do maintain them, they will last longer. I have seen rhe broken and I have seen the non-greasable ones broken as well. It's more a matter of preference.

cherokeelaredo'90

Yeah that's what I'm planning on getting from rockauto. Is the harbor freight grease gun alright? The one I currently have has a ridgid nozzle and it makes it pretty difficult to get the ball joints and the drive shaft u joints.