The install went smooth and step by step, but now I am having some problems that have come up after driving it a bit. I had 2 issues during the install...

1) I forgot to reattach the parking break on the PASSENGER side (this is key). After I had everything back together I took it for a drive and everything was perfectly fine, no noises, no nothing. The ABS light and traction control light were lit up, but drove perfectly fine. I discovered that I forgot to re attach the parking break when I got home and pulled the break but got little to no resistance. I crawled under and re attached it. Tested the break and got tension and figured problem solved.

2) I had trouble getting those PITA speed sensors disconnected, I felt like I practically had to break them to get them lose. During the install when re attaching them, they went on really easy and one of them I can pull off by hand even with the red tab pressed in. I have driven the jeep about 30 miles now and both are still attached, but not sure if that is part of my problem.

My issue seems like a break issue?

I can hear some pretty good rubbing on the DRIVERS side. Stopping power seems the same and no issues stopping, but when I start forward I get a really good squeal until I get to about 15mph then it's just the rubbing sound.

I had my wife engage and disengage the parking break while under the jeep thinking that my mistake not attaching the passenger side might have done something, but it seems to be engaging and releasing perfectly.

Also, I noticed a small amount of some fluid/lubricant on the inside of my driver side tire/wheel (drivers side that's making the rubbing squealing noises). Not much of a leak, just enough to notice. I am attaching two photos of that. It seems to be coming out at a very slow rate between the axle and dust shield. (The passenger side that's not making this noise has no leaks or issues).

My only thought is to pull the tire off and re install everything and see what happens? Any thoughts or ideas on what is going on or what I need to look at?

 

Just to add something else I wasn't real clear on. When I did the test drive, when the parking break on the passenger side was not connected, I got zero issues or noises, other than the ABS and traction control lights being on. No rubbing it squealing, none of that.

 

Could be the dust shield rubbing on the rear rotor. Jack up the back take the tires off and put it into gear and let it spin and find the noise

 

On the Parking brake you are not supposed to engage the brake with it disconnected from the axles. There is some internal tensioner inside the handle assembly that is supposed to be pinned in place before the shaft install. I believe that when you pulled the handle with it disconnected you caused an issue inside the handle assembly with the tensioner spring. (When I did my rears I left the ebrake off and never disconnected the ebrake cables in the rear. I just pulled the rotor, undid the 4 nuts on the retainer, and swapped the shafts.)

The fluid is gear lube from inside the diff. A few drops means nothing, it can drip a bit during the shaft swap. Clean the area and look for continued leakage. If so you might have damaged a seal on install. A tip that I followed was a little rtv sealant around the outside of the axle seal before install. I haven't had any leakage!

There are write-ups I found online that explain some of this. Google has answers!

 

I kind of ruled that out because I think I would have heard it on the first test drive where I got no noises or issues.

 

With the new shafts, did they come with new bearings, seal retainer, etc? Also, did you remove the bearing race from inside the axle tube?

 

Yes and yes. I bought the nitros with everything pressed on and did pull out the bearing race on both sides.

 

A little update, got tied up with work and had to leave town, so just pulled it apart this morning, when I pulled the tire off there was clear metal on metal rubbing from the brake caliper and the rotor. Pics attached...

Then when I pulled the shaft the thing just fell apart on me, bearings and shards of metal everywhere, grease in the axle tube etc. Pics for this as well.

It looks like maybe the axle wasn't either seated all the way in and caused the break caliper to shift and rub the caliper, then with driving, some serious failure to the axle bearings and all of that stuff. Or, could it have been manufacturer error and Nitro didn't have everything pressed on correctly?

I had it hauled into my shop by flat bed to hopefully save any further damage. They are going to see what it looks like and see if we can go to nitro for any warranty issues, or might even have to just buy a whole new shaft.

 

Damn that's a mess. Sorry man hope it gets better

sent from my work leash

 

Thanks, I hope it does too. I have no idea what went wrong. The more I think about it, the more perplexed I get. I torqued everything down. Everything was seated. No noise until I re connected the parking break. Then.....squeaking, squalling, rubbing, grinding.... Then I find this. I don't get it.... I would knew I had a break issue, but never expected the shaft to be like the way it was...