Need Help - Out of ideas
01-09-2013, 05:26 AM
#31
JK Super Freak
Thread Starter
Today was the first morning where it has been very cold so i was expecting to hear the noise again. Day started off at 26 degrees (it will be 50 later today). The noise was completely gone 
So, the ONLY thing I did since the last cold day when I heard it was spraying all of my Rock Krawler joints with PB Blaster Lubricant. So....what I have going as a working theory is that one of or all of the joints on my control arms are binding under extreme cold and required some form of lubrication to avoid it. Maybe the bushing ends which I would guess would be more prone to cold temps.
I am not sure but that's all I got at this point. I plan on PM's the guys at RK to ask their opinion to see if it would be possible. Their RK joint (axle ends) are maintenance free with the exception of recommending a spray of WD40 from time to time. I've always done that but never really sprayed the bushing (frame) end. Also, I am using the Northridge bolt kit which were very very tight when putting them in so I will ask about those as well.
Keeping my fingers crossed that a simple spray lubricant was the answer......I need a few more days of cold temps to prove it though...
I guess if it is driveline related and I have imminent failure about to happen, I will find out soon as I plan on wheeling with my club on the 20th.
So, the ONLY thing I did since the last cold day when I heard it was spraying all of my Rock Krawler joints with PB Blaster Lubricant. So....what I have going as a working theory is that one of or all of the joints on my control arms are binding under extreme cold and required some form of lubrication to avoid it. Maybe the bushing ends which I would guess would be more prone to cold temps.
I am not sure but that's all I got at this point. I plan on PM's the guys at RK to ask their opinion to see if it would be possible. Their RK joint (axle ends) are maintenance free with the exception of recommending a spray of WD40 from time to time. I've always done that but never really sprayed the bushing (frame) end. Also, I am using the Northridge bolt kit which were very very tight when putting them in so I will ask about those as well.
Keeping my fingers crossed that a simple spray lubricant was the answer......I need a few more days of cold temps to prove it though...
I guess if it is driveline related and I have imminent failure about to happen, I will find out soon as I plan on wheeling with my club on the 20th.
01-24-2013, 04:25 AM
#32
JK Super Freak
Thread Starter
Just wanted to give an update on my issue. We have had 4 days of ridiculous cold here in the Northeast and the noise has NOT returned. The only thing I had done to try and fix it since the last time it was present was lubricationg all of the control arm joints.
So I am 99.9999% confident that the sound in my video was coming from one or more of the joints binding in the extreme cold. Lubricating them seems to have fixed the issue. Prior to lubricating them, I had checked all of the bolts, jam nuts, track bars, drag link, tie rod, sway links, u joints on DS and axles....everything. Nothing worked until I sprayed the control arm joints with PB blaster lubrication.
I pm'd Rock Krawler and asked if they were aware of any cold related issues and they responded that their joints are not temperature dependent so they shouldn;t be making that noise. I will chalk this up to a one off situation since it is the only thing that has made sense since the noise started.
So I am happy that the noise hasn't returned and I even wheeled it this past weekend without any issues. I even pushed it quite a bit hoping that if something was failing, I could make it break (we had trailers that could get me home if needed) plus I had enough spare parts to build a second JK if needed!! So nothing broke except for me smashing and destroying my steering stabilizer but a few minutes to swap the SS and I was fine. So I conseider this issue closed!!
So I am 99.9999% confident that the sound in my video was coming from one or more of the joints binding in the extreme cold. Lubricating them seems to have fixed the issue. Prior to lubricating them, I had checked all of the bolts, jam nuts, track bars, drag link, tie rod, sway links, u joints on DS and axles....everything. Nothing worked until I sprayed the control arm joints with PB blaster lubrication.
I pm'd Rock Krawler and asked if they were aware of any cold related issues and they responded that their joints are not temperature dependent so they shouldn;t be making that noise. I will chalk this up to a one off situation since it is the only thing that has made sense since the noise started.
So I am happy that the noise hasn't returned and I even wheeled it this past weekend without any issues. I even pushed it quite a bit hoping that if something was failing, I could make it break (we had trailers that could get me home if needed) plus I had enough spare parts to build a second JK if needed!! So nothing broke except for me smashing and destroying my steering stabilizer but a few minutes to swap the SS and I was fine. So I conseider this issue closed!!