Ownership Verified: A Jeep joins the family! Welcome to the Bearokee!

How many yards did you order?

Was going to order 5 yards, but it was actually cheaper to order 6 because of the way the shipping worked out.
 
Was going to order 5 yards, but it was actually cheaper to order 6 because of the way the shipping worked out.

Cool, thanks :).
 
Welp, adding another one to the count of MA (or former-MA) based FGers with broken cars.

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Currently stranded in Dubois, PA. Spoke with a 24/7 on-call big rig mechanic and based on the symptoms he thinks its combination u-joint and wheelhub. Joy of joys. Hes coming out to look at it around 6:30am, then going to get it towed to a shop that can hopefully take care of that in a day.
 
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Geez, man, and you weren't even that close to either end of your destination. Hope it's fixed quickly.
 
Geez, man, and you weren't even that close to either end of your destination. Hope it's fixed quickly.

Pretty much half way. Total trip is 780 miles, I'm 330 miles away from my apartment.
 
Sumbitch. Good news is that pulling the half-shaft is a relatively quick job. Obviously this is just a picture-based e-diagnosis but it just looks like the Ujoint is boned, doesn't look like it did anything to the unit bearing - usually a D30 will chew up yoke ears before it hurts the hub. If the hub is OK you can do a trail repair by splitting the axle, reinstalling the outer stub shaft in the unit bearing, and stuffing a rag in the axle tube - but I suspect you don't have a 36mm socket and a 13mm 12-point onboard.

Probably a good indicator it's time to have a look in the junkyards for a set of 297x axles, yours look like the smaller 260x joints.
 
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Just had my first look at it in daylight. Ouch.

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Tow truck is on its way to take me to a local shop to make it roadworthy again.
 
Progress report! Just drove the Bearokee back to the hotel! Packing my stuff and getting back on the road!

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Keeping that old bearing as a souvenir. If anyone is ever stranded in this part of PA again, I highly recommend Doverspike Auto Repair. They were really good and got me in and out really fast and worked really hard. Was standing around talking with the shop owner while the tech worked on the Jeep and he was very meticulous to make sure to get everything done right and to the correct torque. They told me this was the 2nd worst wheel bearing they've ever seen - the worst was off the owner's nephew's S10 that ended up having its wheel catch fire as it pulled into their lot.

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Getting it back to Michigan, and probably getting the other side taken care of as a precaution.
 
Holy crap on a cracker, that wheel bearing had been eating itself for a long, long time. :blink:

If you're going to DIY the other side, get a Timken unit bearing off of Amazon or Rockauto. They're by far the best bearings available for the D30 and pretty reasonably priced.
 
Made it!

At work now catching up on what I missed.
 
I think the wheel bearing opened the floodgates for more problems....

She started overheating on the way to work today. Cabin got really got and the coolant temp gauge creeped past 210 about a mile from work. Turning the heat off seamed to have be a temporary fix, but something started rattling as I pulled into the work parking lot. Going to check the coolant in the radiator and overflow before leaving work today. Hopefully she won't leave me stranded again.

On second though, I have access to company cars, maybe I should drove one of those home tonight.
 
If turning off the heat fixes it, your heater core may be plugged.

Slightly altered my Google search terms and have been finding this:

#1 cause of "temp creep" at idle is a failing fan clutch.
A very common cause of overheating at idle is a bad fan clutch.
Install a new electric fan, the old one is worn out and vibrates. Service the rest of the cooling system and maintain or replace parts as needed.
Creeping temperatures at idle are almost always a sign of viscous fan clutch failure.
Stop and go traffic issue , main suspect would be fan clutch.

I think I know what to aim for first. Logically a struggling fan would also put strain on the electrical system so that would explain the voltage drop.
 
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Fan clutch and e-fan would be my first check, but definitely try to track down the rattle either way. I doubt a plugged heater core would cause overheating, especially since your heater seems to function correctly - a plugged HC generally gives little to no cabin heat and the HC isn't in the main coolant loop anyway.

Have a gander at this post for a host of potential overheating causes.

http://www.jeepsunlimited.com/forum...J-overheating-issues-explained-NOOB-s-welcome
 
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Just got a call from my mechanic. Fan clutch is fine, but e-fan looks like its about to disintegrate. Getting a new one in today.

EDIT: Got the fan in, idled for 30 minutes in his back lot and it didn't temperature creep at all. Can't pick it up until Wednesday though due to work being crazy hectic with meetings and whatnot.
 
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