The Jeep Guru

Driving a sports car again.

For the last six or seven years my daily driver has been a Jeep Cherokee. Now that I have started driving my Eagle Talon again I have noticed several differences.

First, I had no idea how rough the roads had gotten. In the Jeep I just drive over the sped bumps, manhole covered, pavement transitions and others inconsistencies. In the Talon, I have to be ever watchful for these places or I get a resounding jolt as the suspension bottoms and jars my teeth. While the ride in the Talon is firm, its biggest problem dealing with the every day road conditions is lack of travel.

Another issue is parking. Compared to the Jeep, the door son the Talon are really long. And due to the lower seat height, they are more difficult to get in and out of. I have to park where I have plenty of room to open the door and get out.

Also due to the long nose and low clearance, I have to be ever watchful for tall parking bump-ers. I have already scraped the bumper cover a couple of times. I can’t just roll up until I feel it stop like in the Jeep. Also, in the Jeep I could just drive over it if I felt the need. Not so in the Talon.

The power and handling of the Talon make driving in traffic much more interesting. In the Jeep I am usually content just to pick a lane and patiently go with the flow. However, In the Talon, I know a simple blip of the throttle with get me to the other lane and quickly past the car in front of me. I am much less patient in traffic. Also there is something about being pushed back in to the seat as the turbo boost builds that is addicting.

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Driving in Snow

Christmas morning we woke up to 4 inches of fresh snow. White Christmases are rare in Tennessee. So when we heard the prediction of snow, we expected maybe a dusting. We were quite surprised by 4 inches and more still falling when were set out to for our family gathering at my Mother’s house across the county.

On a normal “snow day” in Tennessee, everything shuts down. Schools are closed, businesses close and most folks stay home. So, normally, driving around in my Jeep, I have the roads to myself. At least that is what I expected when I headed out our long driveway.

I was really shocked at the number of tracks in the fresh snow. I was even more surprised by the number of vehicles out driving in the snow. And not just Jeeps and 4×4 trucks but mini vans and Lexus cars as well. The worst part of the drive was the other cars who seemed to have no idea where the center line was under the snow and tended to use my lane and theirs too as they slid toward me. Those little bumps in the snow in the middle of the road are caused by reflectors folks. It is a good guideline as to where your side ends and my side begins even if you can’t see the stripes.

We managed to make the trip that normally takes 20 minutes in just under an hour. The country scenery was beautiful.

As we ate and opened presents, the snow continued to softly fall. By the time we left there were a good seven inches accumulated. My two grown boys built a snow fort and had a snowball fight.

Back home, we played with the sled on some of hills in the front yard and even made a few runs down one of our steep Jeep trails. The Jeeps enjoyed slinging snow much the same as mud.

The next morning, the snow had crusted over with some ice. This made the sled run even faster down the hills. Some of the snow had melted off the roads. In fact most of the main roads were clear even though our driveway was still covered in snow. We made several runs down the hill on the sled.

On Monday, we were scheduled to travel to Mississippi for a family reunion. The Suburban was still covered in snow and I damaged a windshield wiper scraping snow and ice off the glass.

Dad’s driveway was still covered with ice making it hazardous to back his car out of the garage so we changed our plans and picked them up in the Suburban. The 4×4 does not get much use in the big truck but it sure made driving on the snow much safer feeling.

There was one long patch of ice on the road leading to their house but the Geolander tires and 4×4 made it feel fine as we drove across. We made it up the hill to their house and even up their steep driveway as easily as we had in the Jeep.

We saw traces of snow as far south as Pontotoc, Ms, where we stopped for the night.

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Lately I noticed the roar in Janice’s Cherokee was getting louder. The rear wheel bearings have need a change for a while but I keep putting it off.

On the lift I noticed that the right front axle U joint was loose. That was making more noise than the rear wheel bearings so I decided to tackle it first. Also I am very familiar with this job.

I began by removing the wheel and brake caliper. Then I removed the center nut and washer. I then pulled the three hub mounting bolts.

I was very pleasantly surprised at how easily the hub came out. Most of the time I have to hammer these out but this one can out in my hand.

I used a support to hold the axle up while I pulled the axle shaft out. This reduced the amount of gear oil lost from the differential.

I then move took the axle shaft to the vise to swap out the joint. This is a job I have also done many times as evidenced by all the roller bearings on the floor behind my vise.

This joint proved very stubborn to extract. I pressed and hammered and finally got one cap off. I then went to press the cross back through and the other cap must have gotten crooked because it jammed and the cap broke rather than come out.

I used a combination of hammering, pressing and using a punch on the anvil to finally extract the broken cap. The other two caps from the stub axle came out relatively easy after that.

I put the new caps on the anvil and tapped them in to the axle. Then I put in the other two caps. I used the press to move caps in enough to put the C clips on.

I slipped the axle back in and reinstalled the hub. Then I put the rotor back on and the brake caliper. With the wheel back on and the lugs torqued, Janice took it for a test drive and noticed that is was much quieter.

Now I still have to do the rear wheel bearings. I have everything on the shelf, I just have to schedule some time.

POLARIS U UNIVERSAL JOINT FRONT AXLE SHAFT XPLORER 300 96 97 98 99 400 95-98 4WD US $31.99 Auction Ends: Saturday May-25-2013 11:59:10 PDT   | Watch this Item

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