Ruminations after first drive with new axles and gears

First time out with the "new" HP D30 with and Ford 8.8 with the 4.10s.

Things I noticed:

1. Little shimmy between 25 and 35 MPH
2. Settles down when I hit 40 (backroads today...topped at 50 mph)
3. Felt some body roll, realized I didn't reattach my swaybar. Try again tomorrow!
4. Steering feels really loose. Every bump fought me. Do know I need a new steering stabilizer. Have one on the workbench. Try to get it in soon. Also know I need one new TRE.
5. Smelled something funny. Looked under the front. I am losing gear oil out of the front passenger side axle tube. It is dripping off my axle and actually coating the inside of my tire.
6. Need to get the thing aligned and the steering wheel straight. It is about 75-80* off right now. Have no idea how fast I am going becuase the steering wheel "cross bar" with the cruise control on it is straight up and covering the speedo.
7. Wonder how much effect having the stock street tires on it instead of my 31" MTs (3.5" lift) is having.

Overall I think it will be a good mod. Look forward to getting some of the bugs out of it and getting it on the road and the trail. Still need spacers for the back wheels (less than 1/4" of clearance on the MTs against the leaf springs). I think the Fall Flog is out for me.

Another big thanks to PacificEd, High2By, and Wingnutooa for helping with the install a couple Saturdays ago.

Well hopefully you get everything worked out. But I wanted to thank you for teaching me a new word today "rumination."

rweaver138 said:

I wanted to thank you for teaching me a new word today "rumination."

Click to expand...

Yeah, every once in awhile I get a little academic!!

Item 4 in your list regarding Steering feeling really loose sounds like your caster is not correct. Try this for doing your own alignment: http://go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoAlignment.htm

Not having the sway bar makes mine feel like the steering is loose. If you had the shafts out when the diff is full then the gear oil just ran over the seals I wouldn't worry. Check the diff a few times to be sure. As long as its not losing any your fine.

It sounds like many of the issues you described may be eliminated after doing a good alignment and replacing that bad TRE. Heck, might be time to replace the rest of the TREs for good measure. Let us know how the thing drives after you get those things taken care of. Hope it works out for the better!

Yeah, we were going to replace the TRE when we had it apart, but it was stuck GOOD. None of us could break it loose. There is a V8 ZJ in the PNP with good TREs on it. For $15 I'll proably just go fetch that one. I did change the TRE on the drag link at the pitman arm, so I know that one is good.

Started the steering stabilizer replacement today. Can't get the bolt out at the top. Think there is a little rust. I'll just bang on it with a hammer, some PB Blaster, and maybe a pickle fork if I can get a good angle.

Good feedback y'all.