Well I finally got my front diff back in after the regear. Been almost 5 weeks without 4wd. Took it out for a short little test run, seriously 30 minutes worth. Decided I would wait til this week to have some real fun since I have it off work. Drove down the road and pulled into the parking lot of my favorite Japanese food place. Unfortunately forgot today was Sunday and its closed. When I turned into the parking spot to turn around I heard a crunch and saw my driver tire give a little jerk from the reflection in the window. My first thought is that i left something loose from the install this morning. Get out look under and everything appeared tight. Grabbed my driver tie rod and no movement. Grab the passenger side and it was moving all over hell! Crawled all the way underneath and see that where one of the two mounts is actually what broke.
Luckily my place is like 3 blocks away so I limp home. Pretty much when you turn the wheel there is about an 1/8th of a turn before the tires do anything. The Jeep was very flighty feeling and was slowly wondering around the road. Hopefully I can reweld the bracket but if not looks like ill be buying a $450 steering rack. Ive been waiting for it to crap out from hearing about the 08s having weaker racks. Another thing is that I would intermittently hear a creak while turning, which has been going on for months, and figured it was something internal about to go because the tie rods have never appeared loose and nothing felt wrong with the steering.So when comes the point of having to replace to many broken parts and trading the HEEP in for a better Jeep.
