I was right! The yoke nut spun off while I was driving...

It was under so much load that when I took out the fourth driveshaft bolt, the whole assembly jumped, and the Jeep rocked forward and back.

The good news is I just reassembled everything, and the test drive went smoothly. I made sure the nut was torqued to 150lb/ft this time.

Disassembly started with this:




As the last threads came out of the last driveshaft bolt, it jumped to this in the blink of an eye

 

Just bought a set of 31x10.50 KO2s with like 80% tread from a coworker for $400. Going to get them put on today so i can try em out this weekend!

 

Sheeeezus..... glad it went back together okay and glad you didn't get hurt in the process. Looks like it was under a pretty decent torque load

 

I was really surprised to see nothing bent or twisted. The splines on the yoke have a little wear on the ends from slipping after the failure, but it only affects about 1/8" on the ends.

It all went back together with a couple light taps from a mallet. A quart of fluid, and I was on my way.

 

New shoes for the gremlin! 31x10.50 KOs . $400. Can't wait to put em to the test this weekend at Uwharrie.

 

Not bad at all. Got lucky!!!

Lookin' good... what PSI you runnin'?

 

The shop said they put 43 in them it looks about right to me. The out side tread is sitting almost flat. I'll play with it some. Any recommendations? Also what would you air down to for wheeling?

 

43 is way too high and I'm almost positive that exceeds the max pressure on the sidewall - which shouldn't be used on a jeep regardless.

Rule of thumb is, the larger the tire, the less PSI you need to run on the highway. Door sticker says 33 psi for 215/75r15s on an XJ... not sure what your ZJ will say, but you should be at less than that.

Start with the PSI on the door and then take a piece of chalk and draw a line across the tread surface of all four tires. Do some normal driving for a few miles. If the chalk wears evenly, you're at the right PSI. If it's more worn in the middle, take some air out.

I air down to 10 PSI on the trails and I'm on 15x8s.... you should be able to do about that much with 10.5" wide tires on those 7" wide wheels.

 

Tire says max is 50 psi. Door says 33. I let out some air and am now at 30 psi. I will check with some chalk when I can tough. OK. I'm on 15x7s so I'll try 10 or 15 this weekend. THanks

 

Gotcha. Either way, too much air for a Jeep on Light Truck tires. You'd wear the centers of those tires out faster than a pencil eraser.

 

Rides a lot softer at 30 psi.... you'd think a "professional " would do it right...

 

NAH.... There's no possible way in the world they could know the perfect PSI for every vehicle they put tires on. Heck, that's why the chalk-line tests exist... because Tire Manufacturers don't even take the time to calculate all that out.

 

Like Basslicks said, they can't know the perfect PSI unless you want to pay a bunch of labor charge for them rolling the vehicle back and forth while they make adjustments.

But on the flip side, there's a lot of incompetent people at tire shops. My 37s were aired up to 45psi after I had them mounted and balanced

 

You'd be surprised how many people are adamant about using what the tire says on the sidewall. It's now almost standard to just go 5 to 10 pounds less when installing other people's tires.

If you want a specific pressure you have to state to the person installing. Not many people know what they want but when you recommend pressure for them, they get upset that it's below the pressure on the sidewall. That's why you typically end up with higher pressures.

 

They inflated 37x12.5 tires above the max pressure rating on the sidewall after I said 26psi, and they didn't understand why I was arguing with them