Thought I'd just top this up a little with the events of the last few weeks..
Well, ABS lights were sensor failures, ECU recorded failure for front right and rear sensors, could have been dirty, don't know, also, brake fluid was low, and that was causing a problem with the self test on startup, causing the ABS light to come on as well. I had the fluid topped up, and gave the sensors a spray and the light hasn't been on for a couple of weeks..
Also in the braking area, rear pads delaminated last Friday, and I had the rotors (front and rear ) surfaced and new pads, so alls good in the stopping dept.
Right, upper control arm ball joints and arms. Further more to my ongoing "front end clunks" I found a heap of play in the upper ball joints, you didn't get a clunk all the time , just when the road was currogated, or if I went over a pothole. Turns out the only thing limiting the front wheel/suspension droop is the upper control arms stopping against the body of the car (in those little mounting pockets ) that in turn means the ball joint takes all the downwards force and weight of the suspension/wheel and travel and hammers the ball joint apart. When I got mine out last night I could pill the joint out about 3mm or more, so I think catostrophic failure was only weeks away, and that would not have been good. I have replaced the arms , and that was not as easy as I was hoping, you have to have very small hands and 19 elbows and wrists on each arm to do it easily, I being nonmutant, had all sorts of discomfort contorting myself to get to the bolts, but, finally did, and now all good there as well..
Now, I'm looking at getting limiting straps for the front end, as I don't want a rpeat of this to happen again. I want to stop the lower control arm before the weight comes hammering onto the upper ball joint when I lift a wheel off the ground.. Now this seach is my new nemisisissiissss's.
On a GOOD note, although I had done the pinion reset and that made a world of difference to the car, it still sometimes played up around 60kph, just as I reached 60 it would drop into overdrive, torque converter would lockup and the engine would bog down doing 1100rpm. I read over all my stuff and checked my notes and found although I had found the correct revs per mile to be 677, I must have had a dislecksic day that day, and had them put in 667, well.... I had Jeep reset to 677 and mystery solved, car purrfect at 60kph, still has a little confusion at 70, but, higher revs at 70 don't cause any hassles, and runns great at 100-110kph... Soooooo alll good there too..
Stay tuned..... I'm going away again this weekend, lets see what goes wrong
