It's been a long day...
I started removing the shocks this morning at 7am... then sway bar end links, wheels, brakes, etc...
I was worried about how difficult it would be to get the track bar loose from the frame... there isn't much room to work... but it came out pretty easy. The pitman arm put up a major fight... it refused to seperate from the steering link. I finally drove down to O'reillys and rented a puller and removed the arm from the steering gearbox.
The bent axle was out by 12:30...
I went ahead and removed the steering gearbox and swapped it for a remanufactured one... I had just put the old one in the jeep right before the accident (it was a remanufactured unit also), but it took such a hit in the accident that I felt it would be wise to go ahead and replace it while I had it apart.
Anyhow... I started putting the replacement axle back in this afternoon. I have all four control arms loosely bolted in, installed the springs, and installed the track bar.
And that's when I ran into a snag... there is always a snag, isn't there?
I was about to start installing the new pitman arm, when I noticed there were no split pins installed in the castle nuts on either end of the tie rod on the 'new' axle... and both castle nuts were loose. The passenger side nut tightened down and the joint looks to be in good condition.
The drivers side nut and stud are both stripped... so I guess I'll be shopping for tie rod parts tomorrow.
I've also found another issue... Jeep used two different front brake disks, one type has a deeper center than the other. I don't know if it is dependent on year or if one fits Jeeps with ABS and the other fits Jeeps without ABS... I'm putting an ABS axle in a non-ABS Jeep. I'll have to research that.
I'm hoping it's just a matter of swapping to the shallow disks... I'd like to keep the calipers because they were also just a couple of months old when the accident happened.
I decided that would be a good time to stop for the day...
-Bear