My buddy's new Rubicon.

[Autism Family Travels]

Here is my good friends new to him rubicon. It has tons of quality aftermarket gear installed. I am looking for some information regarding getting it all back to tip top shape.

Couple of Poser shots, By my house.....


Down by my Shop in the back of my house.



Time to get wrenching on it so it can be inspected and get up in the bush!

 

[Autism Family Travels]

First question has to do with the PSC steering box on it. It' has some major play in the steering wheel. More turning right than left. Driving it home, I had amost a quarter turn before it would move the wheels, going left, just a little. I does have a bad tie rod on the right side, but that would not make it do this as if I was driving straight doing 110kph, it was straight as a whip, no shimmy, weird shakes, or wandering. I am thinking it is the steering box. Any thoughts on this one? I am going through one fix at a time to get this thing back to super solid.

 

[Autism Family Travels]

Another one we need to figure out quickly too. The clutch when completely disengaged (pedal down), still is "engaged". Meaning it's really hard to put into gear from a stop. you put a little pressure on the gear shifter, towards first and the jeep will start to roll without the jeep in gear. Just making contact with the shifter to first will make the jeep move. Once in gear, the jeep will not move with the clutch pedal down however. I think it's just an adjustment, and nothing major wrong with the clutch. Please prove me right. Ha ha ha.

 

[Trail_pilot]

Nice looking rig! I would check all the cheaper parts before diving into the steering box. If it has a PSC box then the lines and lower steering shaft have been changed out to make it work. If you have gone through all the other options f tie rod ends and track bar bushings I would check to make sure the lines on the box are on properly and that there is no play in the steering shaft. There are 2 ways to install the PSC box 1 is to do what their instructions say and drill out the dowel on the lower steering shaft and compress it as if it were in an accident, or put in an older 97-02 lower steering shaft. If the previous owner used an old shaft there may be play, or maybe they left a broken of weak bolt in there. As for the transmission. The NSG370 trans can be a little sticky in first gear. It's fairly common.

 

[Autism Family Travels]

Ok, I will check those things. The transmission is REALLY sticky. Any ideas?

 

[Trail_pilot]

Ok, I will check those things. The transmission is REALLY sticky. Any ideas?

NSG370 can be picky about fluid. They like specific Mopar fluid. You can check if it's dirty and change it out but may have a syncro that's a little rough.

 

[Autism Family Travels]

Amsoil would not work it? I will check the fluid too.

 

[Trail_pilot]

Mopar stuff is expensive but it works. It's not a regular ATF+4 fluid never tried the amsoil though.

 

[wigsajumper]

First question has to do with the PSC steering box on it. It' has some major play in the steering wheel. More turning right than left. Driving it home, I had amost a quarter turn before it would move the wheels, going left, just a little. I does have a bad tie rod on the right side, but that would not make it do this as if I was driving straight doing 110kph, it was straight as a whip, no shimmy, weird shakes, or wandering. I am thinking it is the steering box. Any thoughts on this one? I am going through one fix at a time to get this thing back to super solid.

for the steering I would double check the u-joint between the upper and lower steering shaft. I was having almost the same issue with a lot of play in the steering wheel.

 

[M Rose]

The clutch fluid is DOT-3 Brake fluid, NOT ATF. Using ATF in the clutch master cylinder will cause your exact problems @Autism Family Travels .
If bleeding the clutch doesn’t work, it’s time for a new clutch kit... not hard to do on these old TJs.

as for steering, start with the known bad tie-rod... but the TJ has a recall on the 04-06 steering gear box so your assumption is probably correct. Also while you are at it for recalls. Make sure the Distributor Recall has been addressed. Jeep used a Brass drive gear instead of an iron drive gear and it causes drivability issues at about 45k miles to 100k miles. My ‘06 had 58k when the problem arose.

btw, I might be driving a Bronco now, but it replaced my 29th Jeep... I’ve owned just about every model from 1950-2006.

 

[Trail_pilot]

The clutch fluid is DOT-3 Brake fluid, NOT ATF. Using ATF in the clutch master cylinder will cause your exact problems @Autism Family Travels .
If bleeding the clutch doesn’t work, it’s time for a new clutch kit... not hard to do on these old TJs.

as for steering, start with the known bad tie-rod... but the TJ has a recall on the 04-06 steering gear box so your assumption is probably correct. Also while you are at it for recalls. Make sure the Distributor Recall has been addressed. Jeep used a Brass drive gear instead of an iron drive gear and it causes drivability issues at about 45k miles to 100k miles. My ‘06 had 58k when the problem arose.

btw, I might be driving a Bronco now, but it replaced my 29th Jeep... I’ve owned just about every model from 1950-2006.

Yes the clutch fluid is DOT but the trans fluid uses Mopar not ATF. Also the newer TJ motors are a disteibutorless motor. Maybe oil pump drive you are thinking?

 

[M Rose]

Yes the clutch fluid is DOT but the trans fluid uses Mopar not ATF. Also the newer TJ motors are a disteibutorless motor. Maybe oil pump drive you are thinking?

No I’m not mistaken... it was a distributor... used from 2003-2005... some of the early 2006 models had it as well... although you have to fight Jeep to get the recall work done and have the serial number of the engine in order to get the repair done via recall.

 

[M Rose]

No I’m not mistaken... it was a distributor... used from 2003-2005... some of the early 2006 models had it as well... although you have to fight Jeep to get the recall work done and have the serial number of the engine in order to get the repair done via recall.

As I look up the part, it’s listed as a cam shaft position sensor... but it got replaced with a 7 wire distributor and coil.

 

[Trail_pilot]

As I look up the part, it’s listed as a cam shaft position sensor... but it got replaced with a 7 wire distributor and coil.

Something doesn't add up there. They go in the same spot but if it was a camshaft position sensor they took out and added a distributor the vehicle would have 2 sets of ignition wires and the computer would fight itself trying to figure out what was going on.

 

[M Rose]

Something doesn't add up there. They go in the same spot but if it was a camshaft position sensor they took out and added a distributor the vehicle would have 2 sets of ignition wires and the computer would fight itself trying to figure out what was going on.

One set of ignition wires... removed the coil packs, retuned the ECU...$2500 would have been the fees had it not been covered by the recall.

 

[Trail_pilot]

One set of ignition wires... removed the coil packs, retuned the ECU...$2500 would have been the fees had it not been covered by the recall.

I've never heard of that before. Not sure why they would step back in time on a recall like that.

 

[M Rose]

I've never heard of that before. Not sure why they would step back in time on a recall like that.

Because there wasn’t a drive gear made of the right material to fix their problem... it also required a camshaft swap if I remember correctly... or maybe they pressed the gear off the cam... again I don’t remember what they did to the cam, I just remember the distributor part because the old Cam Position sensor stayed under the seat the whole time I owned that piece of junk.

I bought the Jeep in February of 2018... and sold it in July of 2018... in the five months I owned it, it spent 4 months in the shop and still had other problems when I decided enough was enough. I put maybe 200 miles on it during that time. I filled it up with gas 1 time.

 

[Trail_pilot]

Because there wasn’t a drive gear made of the right material to fix their problem... it also required a camshaft swap if I remember correctly... or maybe they pressed the gear off the cam... again I don’t remember what they did to the cam, I just remember the distributor part because the old Cam Position sensor stayed under the seat the whole time I owned that piece of junk.

Well if there was a sensor and not a distributor originally there wouldn't have been a drive gear to start with.

 

[Autism Family Travels]

Found the steering issue. it's the track bar. There is an adjustable version on this rig, with a tie rod end at one end. Is this normal? That joint is not tightening up. I can't get the nut to loosen or tighten. I am not sure why I never had crazy death wobble when I was running at 120 kph on the way home. We are going to bleed the clutch too. I think thats all it is. It works great once initally put into gear.

 

[Trail_pilot]

Found the steering issue. it's the track bar. There is an adjustable version on this rig, with a tie rod end at one end. Is this normal? That joint is not tightening up. I can't get the nut to loosen or tighten. I am not sure why I never had crazy death wobble when I was running at 120 kph on the way home. We are going to bleed the clutch too. I think thats all it is. It works great once initally put into gear.

Assuming the end that looks like a tie rod end is on the frame side, yea that's normal.