Baystate Jeepers

Dremel bit 9903 will do it.
It's made of Tungsten Carbide. It'll even cut thru hardened tool steel like E-Z outs.
Ask me how I know..

Kurt wrote:Dremel bit 9903 will do it.
It's made of Tungsten Carbide. It'll even cut thru hardened tool steel like E-Z outs.
Ask me how I know..

Thanks, Kurt.

I went to True Value and picked one up. They are close, so I thought I would save time that could be used working on the Jeep. Paid $15.00 for one bit. Well, I wore that one out and checked with Lowe's and they had it for $10.00. Went to get it, came back home, chuck it into the Dremel, get under the Jeep, turn it on, touch it to the bolt head protector and, within 1 second, the bit breaks! What luck. I'm too darn frustrated to continue tonight. I'll try picking another up on the way home from the meeting tomorrow.

Ugh...
That can be a problem with Dremel and a really hard cutting bit like that.
It does take some finesse to keep it from grabbing.

I remember doing Jeffs skid at his neighbors barn. I thought it would just bend bak with a hammer. Then we found that massive press upstairs and presto , it was almost as good as new. After Canada , I built new skids cause mine were mangled . This time its not part of the cross member so I can remove them and not have to support the driveline. FjR68

Went up to visit Don and took care of the exhaust spacers yesterday. Although it helped the issue of the drive shaft hitting the exhaust crossover slightly, it isn't nearly enough to correct the problem. And I can't see waiting to see if the lift settles based on what one of our new members who has the same lift told me. After a year, his settled from the same 4" down to 3.25". After seeing how bad it touches even with the quick disconnects still attached,I don't think it's ever going to settle enough to make a difference. Besides, I'd love to see what the Jeep is like with those quick disconnects in use.

As for the oil pan/engine skid plate, it did have to be removed to make it easier. Boy, was that thing bent. Don put it on his press a few times until we got it to fit well.He did a great job with it. It looks good.

One of the things I discovered on the way to Don's is that I now am having a serious case of "death wobble" that I never experienced before. While traveling on the pike, whenever I hit a bump or pot hole, the wheels shook like crazy. Slowing done got rid of it. I've contacted Rock Krawler and they're going to help me figure out the problem. Their first suspect is the alignment. Don said his first guess was the steering stabilizer. But, that was replaced just last year with a heavy duty Teraflex stabilizer and it isn't showing any signs of leaking. Any suggestions?

Having the suspension settle isn't going to help with the problem of the DS contacting. You suspension is still going to go to full droop when you get high centered.
A few things can be done to help with the contact issue
- Smaller diameter driveshaft
- Limit straps
- Reroute exhaust if that's what's being hit
- Hog out skid pate if that's what the DS is hitting

Even relatively new stabilizers can fail. You can check it by disconnecting one end of it and seeing if there is any in/out play before the stabilizer (shock) affect kicks in.

Right now I am leaning towards the Tom Wood driveshaft but still researching to learn more. I've read numerous times in these forums that Spicer joints seem to be preferred. If that's the case, any opinions on the Dana Spicer driveshaft made for the JK? Your thoughts are appreciated.

Ralph have you had your ball joints checked out? It could be a case of not noticing it before but with the new stuff your ball joints might be the cause of your bump steer. I know you put in a new track bar but has it come loose or did the alignment mess with that at all? The only time my stabilizer was an issue was when I crushed it and it would get stuck while turning. Otherwise Ball Joints and Track bar fixed my issues.


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Like Paul said, check your ball joints.
Also check the torque on your track bar and control arm bolts and jam nuts.

RalphTomaccio wrote:I've read numerous times in these forums that Spicer joints seem to be preferred.

I have no experience with Spicer drive shafts but all my u-joints are Spicer. Made the mistake of going with no name u-joints and they sucked. Replaced them with Spicers

Again, no personal experience, but I hear JK ball joints are pretty weak. And when I say I heard it, I mean from reading articles in JP magazine and on Jeep porn-ums

Yeah my OEM ball joints were replaced 3 times in 1 year. I finally switched to Synergy and my bump steer was cut down drastically. Added in the JKS trackbar and it was gone completely. Occasionally when I'm out of balance or put too much PSI in the tires I will get a little bump steer but nothing like the times I almost crashed because of it. Couldn't tell you the last time I had a problem and I'm well over a year with my synergys and JKS track bar.


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My situation was like night and day. Before the lift, nothing, after the lift serious DW. Don looked at a number of things and said everything seemed "tight".

may want to bring it back to the alignment shop. I had at least one experience where they left something loose after the alignment... Are the wheel weights still on the wheel on the side you are having an issue on? I had DW on my 12 JK when my tires were at the end of their service life and that jeep has no lift and was bone stock when it occurred.

Yesterday when I spoke with Firestone, who did my alignment, and they said "Come over tomorrow and we'll put it back on the alignment lift". So, today I went and he said they were too busy and need to make an appointment. Going back tomorrow at 11:00. I have their "Lifetime Alignment" deal, so it's not going to cost anything and they seem to be very cooperative so far. Of course, they may never take in another lifted Jeep when I'm done with them!

While there I got into a discussion about death wobble and he was quite familiar with it and Jeeps. He insisted it's either the steering stabilizer (which I replaced last year and is not leaking) or it's the control arms. In my case, since the kit included the lower fronts, he feels confident it's the uppers causing the problem and the alignment isn't the problem. What are your feelings about his statements? Just trying to separate the wheat from the chaff!

Question regarding Synergy Sway Bar Relocation Brackets. Don suggested I consider getting those and I'm considering it. Looks like they will fit fine on the driver side, but on the passenger side it looks like the sway bar will hit the front side of the muffler. There is less than an inch space between them now and the brackets drop the sway bar 1" as well as moving it back 1 7/16", that will definitely cause it to hit. Is there anything that can be done about that without having to replace the muffler?

http://www.synergymfg.com/Synergy-Jeep- ... 29981.html

RalphTomaccio wrote:
While there I got into a discussion about death wobble and he was quite familiar with it and Jeeps. He insisted it's either the steering stabilizer (which I replaced last year and is not leaking) or it's the control arms. In my case, since the kit included the lower fronts, he feels confident it's the uppers causing the problem and the alignment isn't the problem. What are your feelings about his statements? Just trying to separate the wheat from the chaff!

A steering stabilizer will only mask an issue and does not fix death wobble.

did you check the wheel weights? To eliminate the tires you could put the spare on the side with the wobble.... do you know if they rotated the tires or if we rotated the tires when doing the lift?