DW and Draglinks

salfi

salfi

New member
I experienced the DW about a year ago, took it to the dealer they said nothing was wrong except that I needed shims because of the wider tires. And it stopped after that. Recently it started again, but its not constant and this morning on my way to work it started pulling to the right at all speeds, and started the DW at about 45+mph. Last night I squeezed the TREs and DL ends with some channel locks and pretty much all of them have vertical play, maybe 1/8"- 1/4", so I'll be replacing them this weekend. Checked the torque on almost everything. I cant get my torque wrench on the nut of the drag link on the pitman arm side. I was going to buy a crows foot set, but I just wanted to make sure that's the best or right way? Any other comments are thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
 
Sounds like your TRE's are bad for sure and needs to be replaced. No need to check the torque on the pitman arm joint as it is a tapered stud and if it's loose, you'd be able to see it just by having someone turning your steering wheel.
 
Thanks for the info on the pitman end of the DL. I could feel a clunk on that end though, when the steering wheel was being sawed back and forth. I didn't feel anything in the adjustment collar or further down. It's my daily driver, and Hawaii is beautiful and all but we are limited on part suppliers. All I can get immediately are the Moogs. Never used any of their parts, are their TREs ok? My JK is all stock, suspension and steering wise.
 
If you're feeling something, you need to have someone clock the steering wheel back and forth while you give it a look. Could be that it's just rotating back and forth and that's okay. If it is bad, yeah, I've run Moog before and they are good.
 
I just went to the local 4x4 shop to make them replace the stock drag-link they put on back in November. They tell me its normal to have some vertical play in the tre's and would not warranty it. If someone turns my steering wheel ten to two back and forth I can feel a clunk at both draglink tre ends and also see a little vertical play. Also my trac bar moves at the axle mount. They say thats normal for the trac bushing and the 14mm bolts in 9/16 holes is not an issue and its promoted by vendors to sell the hardware kits. The mechanic said the channel lock test on the tre's is crap. He did it to all my tre's and every one moved up and down. I personally think there's an issue and will be buying an Artec raised track bar mount & Synery draglink to flip. I have 3" evo coils and hope these two parts fix my sloppy steering.
 
Hooligan said:
I just went to the local 4x4 shop to make them replace the stock drag-link they put on back in November. They tell me its normal to have some vertical play in the tre's and would not warranty it. If someone turns my steering wheel ten to two back and forth I can feel a clunk at both draglink tre ends and also see a little vertical play. Also my trac bar moves at the axle mount. They say thats normal for the trac bushing and the 14mm bolts in 9/16 holes is not an issue and its promoted by vendors to sell the hardware kits. The mechanic said the channel lock test on the tre's is crap. He did it to all my tre's and every one moved up and down. I personally think there's an issue and will be buying an Artec raised track bar mount & Synery draglink to flip. I have 3" evo coils and hope these two parts fix my sloppy steering.
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Really?? This is what they told you?? Walk up to ANY stock JK or hell, even a JK that has all it's joints in good working condition. Tell me if you see any vertical shifting in their joints. Same can be said of the track bar. So long as you make sure to keep the mounting bolt tightened to torq spec and maintain it between wheeling trips, you should not need to replace any of your bolts. Sounds to me like you need to find another shop.
 
They said that even new tre's when compressed with channel locks will move up and down. I've no idea as I have not checked them on another jeep. But you are right about finding a new shop. Ill do what I can myself ,I only went there because the dl was still under warranty.
Thx
 
Hooligan said:
They said that even new tre's when compressed with channel locks will move up and down. I've no idea as I have not checked them on another jeep. But you are right about finding a new shop. Ill do what I can myself ,I only went there because the dl was still under warranty.
Thx
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I've found a warranty is only as good as the place that's willing to honor it and back it up. it sounds like this shop doesn't want to honor it.
 
I'm about to pull th DL off and post up some pictures.

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Apparently this is the culprit this one had the most vertical play about 1/4 inch. I have to special order all the others. Love Hawaii. Smh. My track bar was loose on the axle side also. About 2 1/2 turns. About to bolt it all up and see how it does.

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Finisher it up. Found the roughest road, which ain't hard in Hawaii. No DWs. Steering wheel is s little off but I can live with that for a day or two. Going to see if I can get it aligned soon.

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