0311sgt

Sa far with in 12200 miles i have replaced the following.....

right AND left ball joints
tie rod
and just today the inner axle seal on the front dana 30.

I have only been wheeling 2 times now with the JK, 3 inch lift and 33x11.5 tires and 4.1 axle ratio. Now my 98 tj only has a 2 inch lift and 31 and the 1.5 liter. it has been over the river through the woods over the boulders and back through the river more times than i can count, and i have not even had a u-joint problem. freinds of mine are bigger lift and tires and beat the hell out of their JK''s and nothing happens. i put it in 4 lo to pull a friend out and i am in the shop the next day. my TJ is my trail rig but i take the whole the family out in the JK. jk ahs not seen any thing even close to what i have conquered in th tj. and at this pace it never will.

is anyone else having these or any other problems???

jared1843

What happened to the tie rod, and what made you replace the ball joints?

How did you know you needed to relace the axle seals??

duneslider

I have a leaky inner seal too. My tierod and ball joints are good though.

0311sgt

the tie rod was bent at camp jeep last year. not sure how it happened though. the driver side ball joint was the first to go. as i pulled into my driveway (one week after out 1st offroad trip in th JK) i felt something,and heard something break. i got out and looked under te front end to see my ball joint in peices. i have never seen anything like it. after our second trip, i asked my local dealer to do a quick once over the JK and they told me that the right side ball joint was too sloppy to even pass our state inspection. after 2 days of debating they decided to cover it under warranty. and now the inner axle seal. a friend of mine was stuck in a mud hole at the river and called me to come get him out. anothe friend in his 04 rubicon came with me and actually did most of the pulling at one point i hooked up to the rubi and pulled him as he pulled the other guy. i heard something snap.... drive home was fine, noticed a puddle of oil in the drive way next morning. and did some looking around...found oil ddripping out og the axle at the u joint. again...warranty. but i am afraid to go wheeling with my JK. the rubi did all the work, he went wheeling with me too. he is fine and i am broken, 2 times now. I dont know waht is going on. My TJ has been through hell and not one problem yet.

pearl-drum-man

Sounds like you're having some bad luck with your D30.

Gunny

Just keep wheeling to work out the rest of the bugs , but no I haven't had your kinds of problems. My Rubi was delivered to me missing two hub bolts and the third one was loose.

mcnaught6

i wish i lived near your dealer!

jkkat

RubyDoo had her front seals go bad, espically on the right (passanger) side.

adaycj

Through the history of the D30 the axle seal leak is not uncommon. Mud in the tubes has been blamed on occasion, and there are aftermarket seals that fit near the u-joints to prevent this. Some have failed under warranty without mud however.

A tie rod that bent off roading is not a factory defect. It can happen to all of us. No Jeep has extra stout steering linkage stock. I've bent a TJ and CJ one too. It is no surprise to me that the JKs parts will bend easily too.

The ball joints typically fail from impact from an accident or jumping. If none of that was involved, maybe yours was driven off the shipping truck with the ramp partway up? Even after multiple off road trips and 25k miles I have absolutely no play in my ball joints.

The ball joints can also fail if water or mud gets in. Often this happens if you sit in the water or mud for a long time (stuck). This problem is amplified since the stock parts cannot be greased, so you cannot push the nasty stuff out when you get home. The mud and water just cause accelerated wear, not sudden breakage. Your case sounds more like the accident/jumping.

I'll bet you don't have another problem now that it is fixed.

0311sgt

I have never jumped my JK or TJ for that matter. If it was driven off the truck with the ramp partially up maybe. Not one for mud and water either, when wheeling we stay on the rocks ,keep it nice and slow, and crawl in 1st gear. It might say newbie next to my screen name but i have been doing some seriouse wheeling since 1998. From the tank trails and mountains of Camp Pendelton, sand dunes of Glamis, to the clay infested hills of West Virginia. Can't forget, Paragon AP before they got royally screwed, and the Bad lands in Indiana. I do not have lots of money so I drive carefully because i not only have to drive home, but back and forth to work all week. Just seems like i got ahold of a bad Jeep this time. If you read the first post my left ball joint literally exploded in my drive way, not on the trail, and without any warning. This was 2 weeks after the dealer had aligned it. I had just installed an adjustable rear track bar. and got it realigned. so it was good during the alignment. and 2 weeks later POW pieces in the drive way.


07 JK Unlimited
3 inch BDS lift
33x11.5x16
JKS quicker dico.
Black DIamond ADJ rear track bar
skid row oil/trans skid plate
warrior tube doors
Mopar off-road rear bumper
Custom Front bumper by Round Star Offroad