2013 T.A.Co. Gathering - Official Thread

yeah yeah i know second gens are heavier lol. easily seen when snow wheeling. but yes u do have us on the rust factor....

 

but plastic does break and its impossible to fix and make it look new again, metal rust but with a little spit and paint its like it never happened. and its stronger then plastic. I hate how cars these days are all plastic, but in a way its better cause there lighter, but there weaker

 

solution: just dont live in shitty states that salt the roads lol






and konsta, i cant head down that early, too many days of work missed

 

Alright guys.. quick question about Tie Rods..

I've had a clunk in my front end for a while. Today I jacked the truck up, took off the front wheels, wiggled the hub left and right. no play up and down, just left and right. I felt all the components on the spindle while wiggling, and the movement goes up the tie rod. Outer TRE seems ok, but I pulled the boot off the Inner TRE and the ball has play in the socket. Can anyone confirm if the TRE should be able to hold it's self up? (when disconnected from the spindle and just lifted up?). It definitely seems too loose but its the same on both sides so I have nothing to compare it against. Seems like it's easy enough and cheap enough to just change them out but I'm curious about them since I've never messed with them before.

 

Plastic tends to flex and then pop back to its original shape.

Says the guy that lives in a state that salts the shit.out of their roads now



Side note: 2nd gens make more power than 1st gens and with that extra power they are still faster even though they are heavier and they get the same if not better mileage than 1st gen while doing that

 

if your going to replace them you should replace the upper and lower B-joints cause a lot of times that could be the issue. just my 2cents

EDIT: and cause your going to end up doing the alignment anyway, so replace the joints so you wont have to do it again

 

I was being sarcasm. I always hear first Gen guys yelling me How much heavier their truck is than mine because the have a skid plate Or two Haha. I work with steel. It's not that goddamn heavy.

 

At 490# per cubic foot... its not that heavy...

 

well only a couple more days and the truck goes under the knife lol

lockers get installed next week
12" shocks
BL
and maybe my 37's

and than when I get home i should have a crawl box and a bumper to put on
and I might have one small thing to install at MOAB but that means small


I should add shift work is killing me lol, if i was working 1 and 1 it wouldn't be so bad, but away from home and my garage for 2 weeks at a time and than only home for 1 week, and this upcoming days off I only get Wednesday, Thursday, Friday to do what i want as I have to go home for the weekend for family reasons

 

anyone else have any advice?

 

I would just change them. Not sure if you would need to realign afterwards though. You could keep any that seemed on still for trail spares.

 

alignment would be recommended as you are messing with the way the truck tires point forward

and TBH whats an alignment anyways, i typically have to get one after every major wheeling trip

 

yea i get quite a few alignments a year. absolutely getting one before driving 5,000 miles to go to moab lol.


I was just hoping someone has some experience with Tie Rods and could say oh yea those are shot but still have some life in them or oh no those are completely shot and you better change them out asap. I was thinking of keeping them as spares until I get another new set for spares since they are pretty affordable. I'd just like to know a little more about them.

 

honestly id just change it, i know my tie rod could hold the weight on its own

the clunk though has me curious though, is it only while turning, is it at a stop and go, is it turning left or right, or only going over a bump??

 

No one has skids made out of cubic feet of steel haha.

 

X2
When you take off the old ones you can compare to the new ones and see where the issue is and decide whether or not they are worth keeping.

 

Not even sure I have a cubic foot of steel between my skids and both bumpers! Might be close though haha