Dana 30 knuckle question

Reservation Cody

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2007
Location
Cherokee
I have 2005 Jeep Wrangler unlimited. Picked it up a few months back and have been going through it doing lots of maintenance type items. I replaced the ball joints on it with some Moog ball joints. Ok I took it out today and drove it around and it done good going down the road still want to replace the tie rod ends and the shocks, I will get to that next. Ok the question is when I went to look it over after driving it for awhile I noticed the driver side knuckle is fully seated while the passenger side still lacks a good 1/4 inch if not a little more from seating. So my question is....is the driver side correctly installed or the passenger side? Im more of a Toyota guy than a Jeep guy. Let me hear your thoughts.

Thanks in advance

Cody
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2149.JPG
    IMG_2149.JPG
    105.7 KB · Views: 231
  • IMG_2150.JPG
    IMG_2150.JPG
    104.6 KB · Views: 245
Have you checked that the castle nut is tight? That's really the only way to tell if it's seated or not, because either it's tight in the bore taper or it isn't. Assuming you don't have the wrong part, and the bore taper hasn't been reamed, you would expect them to be the same unless they're completely shot and super sloppy along the taper axis.
Checked free play in the upper and lower on each side yet? Nevermind, I see you just changed them. Did you torque them to spec when you installed them?

Be careful about looking at the boots too, because a boot with more or less grease fill than the other boot will change the amount of shaft that's covered by the boot. It looks like the first picture has a boot that's ballooned out more than the other. Hard to tell from the pictures.
 
Last edited:
Is the gap the same when it's on the ground with weight on it? Is there any vertical play in the ball joints? Put the tires back on and slide a pry bar under the tire on one side and pull up and see if the knuckle is sloppy on the ball joint or if the ball joint is sloppy. Looks like the castle nut may be tighter on one side than on the other, but it's hard for me to see in the pictures.
 
just the difference in the cut of the stem of the ball joint. Run it.
 
Put a set of knuckles off a stock rig on there. Fixed the problem. The driver side was just wallered out. Replaced both sides while I was at it!

Thanks!!!

Cody
 
Back
Top