Quickly just wanted to report what the swivel ***** look like after 2 weeks and ~1000 miles of driving.

The bluish Marine EP Grease has started to seep out, but the Passenger side still doesn't look good. Overall though, it looks like water is getting in and contaminating the grease, and not a torn CV boot. Any thoughts?

Driver's Side


Passenger's Side

The spitting grease is thinner than what is around the ball, but it's not watery or runny.

I also saw this area under the truck, seal between the engine and transmission seems to have a slow leak. Rear Main Seal?


Last thing I checked was I had the wife in the truck turning the steering wheel left to right to look at all the suspension components to check for any odd motion. The only thing I could find was the Drag Link Passenger side ball joint had some strange up/down motion when switching left to right. I wasn't able to measure the motion, but did go back later with a clamp and calipers to measure ball joint play and found it was ~1mm. Could this be the culprit to my weird cabin/steering vibration issues? (Arrow signifies the direction I saw the ball joint moving when switching left to right)


Currently, I'm trying to get a set of radius arm caster correction poly bushings along with radius arm to frame bushings to replace before I set off for my 2500 mile road-trip to FL and back.

Also, does anyone have any recommendation for shops that know the W463 well? I called up Wolfgang's and they are fully booked and can't see me until September.

Thanks for any tips and suggestions.

 

Shiann - I have set of new caster correcting bushings I won’t be using if you want them. Will sell for what I paid for them and include shipping. DM if interested

Good luck with getting Gwagen ready for trip

 

Replace those swipe seals, you can check the CV boots when its apart, id have them on hand just in case.

 

Just dropped off my G55 at my interior specialist along with all the parts (air shims and hose fittings) to address my drivers seat. So, both back-rest lumbar supports work in my G....what doesn't work is the two side-bolsters for the back rest, and then the lower seat cushion extension bolster. He will also drop in a new Kicker 43CWRT673 subwoofer. Will let you know hot it goes.

 

I'm having a recommended shop take a look at it next week. Any idea what the cost to replace the swipe seal would be using the solid type? Also are there work instructions anywhere? I doubt I will want to do this but maybe if it's not that bad?

Good luck 8899! Ask your specialist to take some pictures of disassembly for the front leg extender cushion. I'm not looking forward to that! Also for the Kicker, the OE sub panel may need some trimming to fit the 43CWRT673. With the factory amp you probably won't notice too much of a difference since it is pretty underpowered, but it should work now!

 

If you're doing CV boots also maybe in the $1,500 range. Parts is about $600 from dealer, thats CV boots, axle seals, swipe seals, grease, etc.
If you're doing radius arm bushings I'm sure you can do the seals. It is a lot of work but just time consuming tearing everything apart and cleaning everything.

 

Hey knowbenz,

Thanks for the info. I expected that to be the price range for the full service, but I'm pretty surprised the parts are that expensive.

I got some nice weather today and got to inspect at the CV boots on both sides, as well as look for a few mystery rattles going on.

Truck up and the wheels off. Seems like this happens every weekend now.


Grease inside is still blue which is a good sign. I dug in there with my finger and it did get more greyish but no sloppy mess. With the wheels off, access to the fill ports was significantly easier, as well as cleaning the swivel *****.


I took the wheels off so that I could feel the boots and rotate the assembly so I could feel all around the boot. DIDN'T FEEL ANY RIPS OR TEARS. That's quite a relief.


After inspecting the CV boots, I realized that the grease was pretty low, even though I pumped about half a tube in each a few weeks back. I filled the swivel ball up to the fill port again and cycled the steering full left to right lock and checked again. turns out the grease level was still really low. I proceeded to pump a whole tube in each side. Whenever I reached the fill port, I turned the steering wheel to the opposite lock, then switched sides to fill again. Did this 3 times and think I filled them up pretty good.

I'll continue to monitor them over the next few weeks. Hoping the OE grease that was in there was just at the end of its life and breaking down/mixing with some water and turning to sludge.

What is the consensus on the complete ring swipe seals vs the split-type seals? I'm confident I can do the split-type without too much difficulty but am more hesitant to pull the whole axle out. I'm also working outside so that may not be the best idea. I realize the split-type will probably not be as good as the solid type and may only last a few years, but that's a tradeoff I'm willing to make if it seals up the swivel ***** better than now.

Next up is the Radius Arms.

I ordered Caster Correction Radius Arm bushings from Jack @JACWAGN that should get here any day.
I just need to place a small order from Vlad @fourbyfourclub now for the radius arm to chassis bushings and the whole front will be set.
I also ordered a new front drag link from FCPEuro since I have some weird vertical play in one of the tie rods. Hoping this is the actual source of my steering/cabin vibrations.

Cheers!

 

Thats the price for everything from the dealer, I can send the parts list over if you want. I've seen some OEM stuff online for less.
I've never tried the split type.
Pulling the axles out isn't as much work as it seems. You can get the nuts loose and tight with a punch or order the socket as well, I think the socket is around $90 from MB

 

Thanks for the info knowsbenz. I've decided (for now), to replace the diff fluid in the coming week or so (front, rear, and transfer case) to make sure the inner axle seals are still ok. If that is the case I'll just live with the leaking swivel ***** unless it starts getting worse.

I stopped by the Mercedes specialists recommended by a ClubWagen member in Brooklyn, NY. (Wolfgang's isn't taking any new customers until September) Kraft German Auto. Great little shop. They were super busy at 9AM and seemed very knowledgeable about exactly what needed to be done to replace the swipe seals. They recommended to replace all the other seals, as well as CV boots. The price was, ok course, high, but expected. I won't be having this service performed for now.

I've been gathering a bunch of goodies over the past month in anticipation of a front suspension teardown to finish replacing all the bushings.


Caster Correction Eccentric Bushings from Jack @JackWagonOverlanding
Thrust/Radius Arm to Frame Bushings from Vlad @Fourbyfourclub
Interior Door Handle Bolt Rubber Covers from Vlad @Fourbyfourclub
Swaybar Endlink Bushings from Vlad @Fourbyfourclub
Swaybar Mounting Bushings (updated design with shoulder) from Vlad @Fourbyfourclub
Rear Panhard Bar Bushings from Vlad @ Fourbyfourclub
Front Drag Link from FCPEuro

All of these updates better fix all my front suspension/steering issues!

I won't be tackling these until a few weeks from now but will document the process when I do.

Cheers!

 

Rcrewse7 Do you know how hard it was to have these installed? or how long the shop had the car? Was this a first for them on the G or are they experienced with the G. Did you do front and rear or just the front? I have been considering these and I wasn't sure if the cab has to be pulled or if just some room to work and ability to weld vertically. I have plenty of friends that I would trust their welding ability but it's one of those you start on it and you need to finish. I also could get a few off-road shops to look at it but it's not a jeep so the freak out would start and more then likely overpriced bid to do the work. Also which lift do you have? Any downside past your concern of getting caught on something
Thx

 

Hi Imjustdave. So the shop was able to keep the cab on and did it in one day. I know they dropped the axle and everything connected to make as much room as possible. While I was the first G wagon in there, they have worked on many Toyota FJ80 Landcruisers, the which bear many similarities to the G in the suspension design. I personally wouldn’t trust this job to a friend who can weld unless they had solid automotive fabrication experience.

I did just do the front as my primary goal was caster correction. With that said, my fabricator indicated that if I wanted to move forward with custom length shocks to take advantage of the extra droop, he’d recommend installing the drop brackets in the rear also to do it right. No steering benefit in the back obviously, but corrected suspension geometry and proper droop in the back too does have me considering it.

In regards to lift, I have the Thor springs installed with OME shocks currently. The soft springs are pretty slinky and make for good axle movement and articulation when traversing obstacles slowly off road, however the OME shocks make for a stiffer set up during normal speed driving…something I plan to correct with Fox shocks in the future.

Of note, the the original lift with springs appeared to give me 3” up front, and only 2” in the back. This looked OK without any weight in the truck, but gave a sagging look in the rear with anything loaded in. I ended up contacting Elast-Pol from Poland to have custom 20mm rear spacers made (the common 30mm spacer would have been too much after measuring things.). I’ve been happy ever since getting them installed.

 

Having the info of about a day is actually great there are a few offroad shops around here that I would trust .. mainly because friends know the people in the shop and I feel they would hear me out about the time and such. VS saying yeah we can do it for 4k hoping I just leave as they really don't want to the work. If I do this myself the one guy I would feel comfortable with doing this build those big aerial lifts that people go 200 feet in the air on, he's been welding 20+ years bunch of certs, I agree you want experience for sure I'm sure I could stick it on but no way I would trust my abilities on this part.

I should add I have a 30mm puck lift on my G and have never driven it stock so I really have no idea what factory steering is like VS modified. Also has KM2 BFG tires so it's setup to get dirty VS pretty mall truck. I would like to go to 35 tires, I suspect I could fit a set on but would have some rubbing. Also wouldn't mind all new springs shocks...

 

Did you run into any problems with the headlights fitting into the brackets? I'm trying to mount a pair of KC Gravity Pros, but the notches on the brackets do not align with the headlights, so they are tilted about 10 degrees. Curious if you ran into sanything similar. Thanks!

 

Hey Brian,

I didn't run into any issues with my headlights not being straight on the Amazon generic headlight brackets I purchased. The cutout fit the JW Speakers correctly. Not sure if that tab is a standardized thing or if I just got lucky. Trimming the brackets shouldn't be too bad.

 

I've put about 1000 miles on the truck since the last real update a month back and still haven't gotten to install any of the front suspension parts, but have been able to take on a few other side projects.

A member reached out inquiring about the fan cooled resistor packs I designed a while back when installing my LED headlights. I had 3D printed all the parts and purchased all of the components, but had never gotten around to assembling them nor installing them.
He was running into the same issue with LED headlights as I was, the headlight computer turning off the headlights after not seeing the correct current draw. (Originally a halogen equipped vehicle).

The old design and the updated design, with 2x the load resistors, 2x the heatsinks, and 2x fans to actively push air across the heat sinks.



So I finally was able to carve out some time to make him a set and documented it as a potential solution for others who decide to run LED headlights (switching from a halogen equipped truck) that are running into the same issue.

So this was the first time I was able to partially pull in the G to the new house garage (It was finally clean and organized enough), but still can't pull it all the way in as the garage door isn't tall enough.
Lowering the brush guard was quick with my bolt-lock washer combo.


The original resistor packs have held up fine overall and I have not had any issue with them over the past year. They did get surprisingly dirty though.


Cleaned up some wiring hacks from previous owners. I plan to swap the side marker connectors over to a waterproof 2-pin barrel style, but didn't have them at the moment, so temporarily decided to just direct solder them.


I replaced the side marker bulbs and turn signal bulbs with LEDs I sourced from SuperBrightLEDs.com. They fit and worked, although I do sometimes get a bulb-out warning. I think adding in a load resistor to this circuit will solve the issue though. I also wanted to eliminate the DRL bulb, but still get an error for those after removing the bulbs. I eventually plan to use the DRL light circuit to run a functional DRL, but that will be a project for another day. Taped off the connector for now and removed the bulb sockets as they were completely toast.


Active cooled load resistors for LED headlights fully assembled and ready to test in the car.


Installed in the car using the side marker screw holes (replaced with different hardware). Then testing with the headlights to make sure everything worked as expected.


So I made a few minor changes to the design for the set I'll be making for myself. Shipped these off to the member and hope they solve his problem! I haven't decided if I'll make this another kit I plan to sell, but if there are enough people looking for this solution, I can create a separate thread about it and go from there, similar to the glove box fix.

Also checked the swivel ***** after ~1500 miles since the last time I cleaned them. They don't look that good. Granted there's been a crazy amount of rain the past few weeks, but a lot of grease is seeping past the seals, which means I'll put that on the list of things to DIY, most likely next spring. I'll probably tackle this myself with a friend as shelling out $3k for the service seems silly to me. The one side being a darker color still concerns me a bit but I'll keep an eye on it and will be replacing the differential fluid with Amsoil Severe Gear 75W-90 (GL5) and the transfer case fluid with Amsoil Transaxle Gear Lube 75W-90 (GL4).


Also finally got some time to wash/clean the truck. Busted out the power washer and went to town getting all the grime off. I used just normal soap out of a foam cannon, and iron remover on the wheels and lower half of the truck. For a quick wash, this worked out pretty well.


I had some extra time so decided to compound/polish some of the panels in an attempt to try to restore the paint which is in pretty bad condition.
I used a Porter Cable 7424 Random Orbital that I've had for years with Griot's Garage polishing pads and their compound and polish. I did maybe 5 passes at full speed and it came out really really good, considering this was my first time trying to restore damaged paint.

Some pictures of the process:

Before and after condition. Take a look how cloudy/hazy the paint is and also some of the deep scratches on the panel. Cleared up the haze really nicely and took out a majority of the scratches. Blended and was able to hide the really deep scratches. Also took a closeup next to the trunk panel that is in a similar condition to before starting the compound/polish.


Hood taped off for a 50/50. And last shot showing the difference of the compounded/polished hood vs the top of the front grill.


The difference was amazing. I only did the passenger side rear corner and the hood (for now due to lack of time), but plan on doing this to the entire car. I temporarily sealed/protected the two panels with TheLastCoat. We'll see how well this works but I do eventually plan on ceramic coating the entire truck with something like Avalon King's Armor Shield IX.

Next up is to order some smaller sized polishing pads and pick up some ceramic coat when it goes on super sale during Black Friday. Then compound/polish an panel or 2 every time I wash. Eventually I'll finish the whole truck...eventually.

Cheers!

 

I've been having some issues with my rear view camera not working recently. When I installed it maybe 9 months ago, I wasn't able to snake it through the corrugated plastic wire loom so I just ran it on the outside and used tape to bundle everything together. MISTAKE.
I didn't have the correct tools at the time so I opened everything up to try to find the issue. Pretty sure a wire break will stop any video signal from working.

Cut the cable and repaired all the wires, soldering the joint and shrink wrapping everything. Ran the camera line through the loom and buttoned everything back up. Last thing to do on this will be to hook up the reverse wire for the camera to look 'down'...


Which leads me to my next project. The reverse light on the G is terrible. Truly terrible. I did some careful measuring and found that these lights from Diode Dynamics will fit into the OE position perfectly. I will have to make up a custom bracket when removing the OE lights, but these should be a 10x improvement.


I was originally going to go with the Baja Designs S2's in a flood pattern, but these lights from Diode dynamics also have a red backlight, which will be great as a substitute for rear fogs. I'll be replacing both the reverse light and rear fog with a pair with these and should be a huge upgrade in terms of light output.
This bracket should be pretty easy simple and may be something I can offer for sale if anyone is looking for a better reverse light and/or fog light.

I got a little ambitious and wanted to replace my drag link. Lots of tools required including 2 very large wrenches for tightening the drag link. I had an adjustable wrench and a pair of knuckle busters that were the right size.


Ran into a snag trying to get the tie rod out of the passenger side. Tried hammering on the nut end, and also destroyed the threads on a ball joint press. Soaked everything in PB Blaster on both sides and put the castle nut back on with new cotter pins. I'll pick up a larger/better ball joint press tomorrow to get the tie rod removed.


I believe a majority of my steering vibration is coming from the drag link passenger tie rod. One of the tie rods has some excessive vertical play when loaded and now I can feel a clunk when turning during specific load/turning conditions. Hoping this is the issue and solving the steering issue will probably slow down the swivel ball grease leak as I won't get to replace the seals until next spring most likely.

Still also have eccentric radius arm bushings and new sway bar bushings, but will fit these if the drag link doesn't solve the steering issues.

Cheers!

 

Thanks for your post. I have also had some Fox 2.0 shocks supplied by Jack Overlanding. Interestingly, my shocks did come with a metal busing so I wont have your 'gummy-bear' issue. My question relates to the bottom of the front shocks which are significantly different to the OE on my W463 (photos attached). I am interested to see whether that was the same with yor set and whether that caused any issues.

 

Hey DVR,

Yes, the bottom mount of the front shocks from my kit were the same as you pictured. I did not have any issues with mounting up or anything. I did use some anti-seize between the bottom of the black metal flange and the frame mount to prevent any corrosion issues there. I did add stainless steel flat washers everywhere I could though to spread out the bolt load. Found those at my local hardware store for maybe $0.25 each.

Any chance you can take a picture of the metal sleeve for the top of the front shock? I purchased parts to make my own but curious to what Eurowise has come up with.

Thanks!

 

Refer attached photos. Metal bush is approx 1.5mm thick. Micrometer measurements are (i) inside the metal bush, and ii) inside the rubber bush . regards David

 

Awesome! Thanks DVR. This completely makes sense and will fix all the gummy bear issues I was having. Can you post the P/Ns of the shocks you got for front and rear? P/Ns are located on the dust cap where the shock shaft meets the shock body. Should be clearly visible in white.

Mine are:
Fronts (used with supplied bracket) - FOX 985-26-016 - Jeep Wrangler JK 2007-2018 REAR
Rears - FOX 985-26-015 - Jeep Wrangler JK 2007-2018 FRONT

 

Shiann. Front shocks only have serial numbers and do not reference a model of car. Front shock: 985-26-016 on one side and 591600 on the other side of the shock shaft. Rear shock: 985-26-015 and then numbers 3520 and 598439 on the other side of the shaft. I have attached photos for your reference.

 

Thanks DVR! Those are the same P/Ns as mine from Fox, I looked up their designed application in the Fox catalog.

Looks like they updated this part some time since last year (maybe because of my grumbling) which is a great thing. Which springs are you paring with these?

 

ORC's. The trouble I have been having in Australia is getting someone to fit them. It is beyond my tool kit and workshop and because you need to do some fender cutting on the front, fitters here have been unwilling to do it. We are still having issues with Covid lockdowns. Melb just overtook Buenos Aires as the world's most locked down city. Fortunately I have been travelling around the rest of the coubntry in the G. 22,000km over 4 months. Now that I am back I am keen to get the springs and shocks installed.

 

22k km in 4 months??!!! That's crazy! Averaging 800 miles per week, considering the times. I bet you stopped looking at your gas bill pretty early on! Good luck finding someone to install. The job of installing shocks and springs seems easy, but in practice it's anything but. Lots of time with stuck bolts, compressing the springs, jacking the truck up, trying not to tear off the brake/diff lines, more stuck bolts, etc.

 

Was driving like normal today, trip to home depot and my gas pedal broke!



The plastic connector between the pedal and the throttle linkage broke. Scared me for a second, but I pulled over and saw what happened. Limped home stabbing at the throttle linkage.

Tried to super glue, but it wasn't strong enough. So zip tied the crap out of it for now. I'll replace the pedal assembly with an updated throttle pedal assembly. Has anyone done the update before and can report back with what I need to purchase?


It's not pretty but will work for now until I can get a new pedal assembly.