icrashbikes

Hey! So it's been a long few weeks. I finally have a minute to sit so I'm sharing this with all of you fine people. I like to add photos so be prepared.

My rear brakes have been squeaking for some time. After some investigation, it turns out the driver side rear axle seal was leaking and bleeding gear oil into the brakes. I read a little and decided to just replace the shafts rather than swap out the bearings and seals. I picked up some revolution shafts, very nice stuff. They warranty pretty much every failure so I figured I couldn't go wrong. So I get around to swapping the shafts out and I found.... (let me find a pic)....



Yeeeeah. Awesome right? Did I mention my ebrake doesn't really do anything? It never really has, but it's gotten worse. The jeep rolled right into the garage door one day, pretty sweet dent. Anyway. I spent HOURS cleaning it. My axle shaft adventure should have taken around an hour, instead it was 5. Couple cans of brake cleaner, wire brush, compressed air. You know the drill. Got here:



I scrubbed the whole ebrake assembly as well. Got the new shaft in (no pic) and reassembled everything. That was about the end of the day and I thought I had the squeak licked. Nooooope. Drove that around a few days. Still squeak. Did the other side next. The passenger side was missing the little rubber adjustment plug and apparently had been soaking in a small salt water ocean based on the amount of rust. I cleaned that bastard out too.



Got the shaft in on the passenger side as well. I didn't get a picture of either, it was dark after all the cleaning.



Since that side was missing a plug, I swung by the dealer the day after to pick one up. We happened to chat about the whole ebrake saga (I'm at the parts counter a lot, surprise) and he told me they sell the entire ebrake assembly brand new for like $100 and change. Some 8 hours of my life could have been had for a couple hundred bucks. Nice. Anyway, moving along. I've also been working on a Poison Spyder trail cage in the meantime. I read about a bunch of installs (here) before purchasing and I was ready. Some things were a little out of sorts and I have to say Poison Spyder has been absolutely excellent about helping get the cage in. It's been fun with the windshield down, I rocked that for a week or two.





That's my boy. He rocks. Anyway. I decided at this point that the Duratracs were a little burned out and it was time for tires. Then, in true Jeep fashion, that turned into new wheels and tires. (The existing set are in the for sale section btw and they are bangin.) Theeen I was like well, there are brand new ebrake assemblies available. I probably need new brakes. New wheels and tires on the way. Might as well do the whole thing, right? So, since I was already in a hole, I figured I'd shoot for Dynatrac's big brake kit. Ordered that sucker up. Oh speaking of which, NR4x4 for the brakes and Discount Tire Direct for the wheels and tires. Both absolutely delightful companies to work with. Full disclosure, I am having a few drinks after a long days work. Trying to keep up the quality. So I ordered all this crap. I downloaded Dynatrac's fit templates and tried them out in the old wheels. I went from Level 8 Trackers to Level 8 Tracker Pros, figured the profile would be pretty similar. I had a momentary crisis about going with 17 or 18", but ended up sticking with the 17s for all the good reasons. When the wheels came in I was pretty stoked. Who doesn't love this?





The 35" Duratracs are worn down to about 33.5". The 37" K02s Measure up at around 36.5. Really not a huge difference.



For reference, I have a 2012 6 speed Rubicon, front axle is sleeved and gusseted. Had many an off road adventure on the 35s with no incident. I don't think the extra inch will kill me. Still on the stock 4.10s too, very comfortable there.

The wheels arrived mounted and balanced. In my discussions with DTD, we went over clearances for the big brake kit. They did their best to accommodate, but some weights were interfering with the fit templates. I think those fit templates are a little oversized to allow for extra clearance over the owners' good judgement. Either way, I moved some wheel weights outboard. If they wobble, I'll get them balanced again. Reckless? Maybe. That's the price of being AWESOME. On drink #4 over here. Moving on.

Somewhere around here I bought and assembled this:




For those of you not oblivious to scale, it's an Axial Wraith. Poison Spyder licenses some stuff through them, or something like that. Bought this from the local hobby shop though. This has been my night time project. Since we are who we are and we can't leave well enough alone, I've been 3d printing upgrade parts for it for the last few days.




Aaaaaanyway, today I figured I'd go out, clean up the end of the axle, put some paint down and put things together. Clean:



At this point I wanted to paint, but without getting paint in the axle tube. Enter the 3d printer. Took about 5 minutes to draw up and 25 minutes to print a plug:



I went out to ship some heater controls and came back to this. Looked cool.



After all day of cleaning, prepping and painting, I realized that the ebrake kits came with the stupid plate I had put so much time into. Figures, right? Knocked them off and put everything together. Here's the driver side, the second one I did. It was getting dark.



Got everything buttoned up in the rear. Rain tomorrow so I had to at least get it rolling. No pictures of mounted wheels.. because it was dark. I already miss the summer. I took a quick ride (to the liquor store obviously) with 37s in the back and 35s up front. Fun!

So that's it for now. Next are the front brakes and wheels. I'm going to print some hubcentric rings because the ones included aren't quite right and why the hell not. The 37's are definitely a tight fit and I'll find out next weekend at Rausch what needs to be trimmed. I have an RK long arm kit in my garage waiting to go in, I've been on a stock suspension for a while so maybe this will help push me along. So that's my story. Always a bunch of projects going on. Hope you enjoyed it! I'm going to go model v3.0 of the Wraith battery/ESC/receiver tray. When I wake up tomorrow and there's something unrecognizable on the print bed, I'll know this was a bad idea.

I need to make a for sale post. I have some JW speaker lights. Lots of stock roll bar padding and interior trims. Grab handles. Seriously, so much just sitting around. Who needs an intake for a 2015 F150?? I hated Ford for a long time because it was the thing to do. They have done a bang up job with the current F150. I have the 3.5L ecoboost with a tuner and it will just melt tires on command. And this is coming from a 2014 Silverado which I never really warmed up to. Who would have thought. I only drive it when my job forces me to, the Jeep is always my go-to. I love it to death. I'm rambling. Time to click Submit. I should probably do some work too, since I did exactly zero today. Thanks for stopping in, go hug your Jeep.

karls10jk

Did your parts guy share the part number for the whole assembly? I keep looking into doing new ebrake pads because they do suck but if it's just as easy to click and install the whole unit then why not?

Revolution shafts- I ran across them and the warranty was screaming along with the price but they're unheard of here. Where'd you go to find them?

icrashbikes

I have the part numbers on the boxes in the garage. I'll grab them tomorrow. I bought the shafts direct from revolution. Couple bucks more than everyone else, but I like the product

icrashbikes

This is the sticker on the ebrake assembly:


And it's the complete assembly, all put together. Super easy to install, even the adjustment on the ebrake was dead on.

icrashbikes

And some follow up for kicks, I Mad Maxed it for a day with the old 35's up front and the 37's out back. And one half soft door for good measure.



Got the fronts finished yesterday with the big brake kit.



So far the braking is excellent. They are still wearing in but the damn squeak is gone and it's already got a good feel. I don't like the red hub rings with those odd holes in them so I drew up and printed some prototypes to a) fit better on the rear flanges because there's too much bevel in the red ones at the mounting surface and b) why not. I like the beveled version best. And I just read about some new print filament that's reflective from any angle so I may pick up a spool of that and give it a shot.



And that's that. Wheels are all mounted up, new brakes all around, new axles in the rear and I feel good. All my connections are cleaned and sealed and anti-seized or painted or whatever's required. I love the lugs that come with these wheels, they have little knurled studs on the ends to spin them on and off. I do have some rubbing (no lift) on big bumps and at full steering lock, and some tight clearances. It was expected and I have trimming plans to take care of most of it until the lift goes in. And! I found some beadlock wheels for the Wraith that match the trackers. Just for fun

PsychoCupcake

Thanks for the info on the ebrakes. Recently tried to adjust mine and they still do nothing. Maybe replacing the whole assembly is the right thing to do.

icrashbikes

Even with the stockers adjusted aggressively they were barely passable. With the new parts it's functional but not great. I did set the ebrake on a good incline and they held the jeep securely so I guess it's a win. It just has a mushy feel still. I may adjust the cable under the console an inch or so, to take some slack out and get a better angle on the brake lever. Now that I think about it, the new shoes and rotors will probably take some time to wear together and get the best hold. Either way it's better with the new parts so for the price it's definitely worth trying!

Four Low

3D Printing ! Thats a must-have tool for DIY Jeep people.
Are your Flat Fenders stock, Trimmed ? Look good, would do mine if they're stock.
If not, whose ? Thanks

Four Low

3D Printing ! Thats a must-have tool for DIY Jeep people.
Are your Flat Fenders stock, Trimmed ? Look good, would do mine if they're stock.
If not, whose ? Thanks

icrashbikes

Yes those are stock trimmed fenders. Nice of Jeep to give us those big fender canvases to work from..