PAHUNTER21

Last night I was driving around town, and all of the sudden, when turning left I started hearing a very loud and annoying clicking sound. I did go on a run on Saturday, so today I climbed underneath to locate the issue and found a couple thing. Since it was only happening when I turned left, I started with the steering. I found a busted up stabilizer.










After finding that, I took the stabilizer off completely, and took it around the block just to find that it wasn't THE problem. So back underneath I climbed only to find a bolt that connects the driveshaft to the transfer case sheered off. The bracket between the two bolts was very loose and was extending as the driveshaft turned and was hitting part of the frame. I got a wrench on the remaining bolts and found that they were only finger tight. I also just tapped the other one with the wrench and it sheered off too, no torque at all. I got the rest of the bolts tight.

Now's the time where I ask for some opinions. Being as loose they were, i'm thinking it came from the factory that way. Also, opinions on if I should run it that way or have them fixed immediatly?













Your help and advice is appreciated!

-BJ

08{GA}RUBICON

WOW! Thee SS is an easy fix, get a new one. Not sure how it happened though. As for the bolts breaking like that, you must have really stressed that flange. Any vibrations??? I'd clean the JK up and take it to the Stealership ASAP!

mkjeep

If your outta warranty, I'd use a reverse bit to get those out, get a whole new set of bolts, torque to spec (14 ft lbs), and blue loctite on them. See how it runs. Now is the time to get a better stabilizer.

MOWrangler

If you can't get the broken bolt out, you could probably find someone who will hook you up with a replacement flange from when they replaced the drive shaft.

Or... better yet... put a 1310 front shaft in yours!

Mark Doiron

I wouldn't bother with an after-market SS. Find someone who thought they needed one and get their old, stock one. Then use the money you save to get a Woods SS relocation kit and get that puppy out of harm's way.

As for the drive shaft: Definitely replace those broken bolts ASAP--you don't want to be the test case for how much over-spec the engineers went on the attachment of the drive shaft. A drive shaft coming off at speed can become a deadly missile. A drill and some Easy-Outs should make the task simple. You may need a drill bit harder than normal--go for cobalt (usable on hardened bolts) or, if you can find one, diamond-tipped (will go through #8 bolts like a hot knife in butter).