Pre trip checklist (1 Viewer)

[William839]

About to do 100 miles 3 days in Moab, (white rim road )
I usually take my 80 series wheeling , as my FJ is more of the daily , but it’s mildly built with new suspension, tires , sliders and bumper with 9500lb Ironman winch.
Curious what you FJ guys think I should bring as far as trail spares or tools. I’m thinking - spare CV , fuses , tools (35mm socket for CV) and maybe a spare ignition coil. With a pretty abundant tool kit that I put together for my old 80 series… but the FJ I have never had to work on much so it would be nice to plan ahead in the event I need to fix something or have a trail spare… also - 2007 154k miles

 

[BMThiker]

Inner and outer tie rods
Differential side seal for the CV axle
35mm socket for removing axle nut on CV
You may want to invest in a tie rod/ball joint separator tool, cheap at Harbor Freight or Amz, but necessary for removing the outer tie rod when changing a CV (pictured)

If you don't have room for a spare rear propeller shaft, then perhaps u-joints and enough tools to swap one out.

A good quality tire patch kit, like the ARB kit

Your stock lower control arms on rear axle will bend at the mere sight of boulders in Moab. Just be mindful when you are ascending/descending ledges and you might be able to spare them from bending. Carry a spare or reinforce the stock ones with some welded angle iron (quick fix) on the bottom edge. If you plan to wheel this more regularly, then I would consider aftermarket upgrades.

 

[William839]

Any pics of how you reinforced them? Would you consider that being the weakest point ? I worry about the weak rear diff but there’s nothing i can do in two weeks time to remedy that , I don’t wheel super hard but would like to comfortably wheel and not be afraid of destroying it. My buddy is bringing his 2016 stock Tacoma so I’m thinking he would be the first to break something haha..

 

[BMThiker]

basically weld a length of angle iron that has been notched at each end to match the round bushing ends. Edit to add, I did not personally do this, but it's a relatively quick/inexpensive method to beef them up. I ran stock until they bent, then upgraded to Metal-Tech. Now I have recently upgraded those to Summit Machine arms. But there are lots of aftermarket options that will be a huge improvement over the OEM ones.

What is the build date of your FJC? Look at the driver side door jamb sticker. You should see a MO/YR date near top of sticker. If your build date is before 02/07 you may have bad ring/pinion gears. If it's later, you should be good to go.

 

[William839]

basically weld a length of angle iron that has been notched at each end to match the round bushing ends. Edit to add, I did not personally do this, but it's a relatively quick/inexpensive method to beef them up. I ran stock until they bent, then upgraded to Metal-Tech. Now I have recently upgraded those to Summit Machine arms. But there are lots of aftermarket options that will be a huge improvement over the OEM ones.
View attachment 3278497

What is the build date of your FJC? Look at the driver side door jamb sticker. You should see a MO/YR date near top of sticker. If your build date is before 02/07 you may have bad ring/pinion gears. If it's later, you should be good to go.

I’ll check the date when I get a chance, either way it’s too late to do anything about it now… can’t carry a spare third member haha ! And how hard did you have to wheel to bend them?

 

[BMThiker]

Just bad wheel placement and too much speed will do it. It was in the early days of my "wheeling career" and was still learning. It wasn't a fatal bend either, just enough to make me want to upgrade.

Inner tie rods will bend before the outer ones do, so if you had to be selective about what spares you need, that info should help.

On longer cross country trips I also pack a spare diff, rear prop (drive) shaft, spare slip joint (in case just the joint at the tcase breaks, I can just slide this on), two CV assemblies, various seals, linkage bolts, gear oil, spare coilover, and spare rear shock.

 

[William839]

Thanks for the info, I figure with the rear diff, if it hasn’t broken in 150k miles , it’s probably not one of the weak ones .. to my understanding it was becuase they didn’t heat treat the metal on the ring and pinion !

 

[BMThiker]

Thanks for the info, I figure with the rear diff, if it hasn’t broken in 150k miles , it’s probably not one of the weak ones .. to my understanding it was becuase they didn’t heat treat the metal on the ring and pinion !

I think it was the opposite, they were over treated and too brittle under big loads of torque.

 

[mtnbiker4evr13]

Spares:
CV assembly
Inner/outer tie rod
serpentine belt
hard brake line from front caliper to soft line and a couple compression fittings
2 brake caliper bolts
4 drive shaft bolts/nuts
couple quarts of engine oil/brake fluid/brake cleaner/mini grease gun etc..
fuses/tape/zip ties/RTV
Air filter

Tools:
General ones and specialty to install the spares above
ODB2 dongle
voltmeter
High lift and bottle jack

Mine is setup more for east coast weekend trips wheeling/driving, trying to balance being prepared and keeping things light. If I go through my 1 set of spares I should be able to limp to an auto parts store and they have most consumables at the ready since its a popular platform. This weekend I popped the outer on a front CV but being 34 degrees I opted to just drive home with the tcase locked (6MT). Since it left the bell intact and most of the boot was still there it just dropped the balls out and cruised home just fine. Changed it the next day with 57 degree weather on dry concrete

Ooo this reminds me I need to order a new spare cv Your spare coil is a good idea too, I'll have to do that.

Just try to go through what are show stoppers vs. limping. I mostly worry about Alternator (mud) and fuel pump, apparently not enough to carry them yet. But 100mi off grid... yeah I would probably throw an alt in and maybe a starter if yours is an auto.

 

[William839]

These are all good lists , yeah like you said it’s a fine line between overkill (could always have my buddies pull me back to civilization vs being prepared and having extra parts / bolts. But I think at the minimum I should have a few things in this list. I think the starter would show symptoms first and click a few times, and fuel pump is extreme in my opinion and would rather just do that as PM later on .. spare heater hoses, serpentine , oil , water for rad / leaky water pump.. I don’t wanna overload the FJ with extra parts and not have any room for camping gear like I said I won’t be solo so it’s not as bad … I’ve fixed my diesel 80 on the side of the highway when the alt blew up… bypassed with duct tape and limped to the next town !

 

[BMThiker]

FYI my fuel pump lasted to about 280K.

 

[mtnbiker4evr13]

FYI my fuel pump lasted to about 280K.

I didn't say it was a reasonable fear... I just know I can't strap a fuel can to the roof like my carbureted rigs and rock on I'm a carbureted man in a fuel injected world

 

[Coupedncal]

What is with the consistent reminder for CV. Is that really that big of an issue? Is the concern the rocks and ledges will be in close proximity and there is a concern of physical hit? Or is CV a weak link in general and is likely to fail during extreme rock crawling?

 

[William839]

What is with the consistent reminder for CV. Is that really that big of an issue? Is the concern the rocks and ledges will be in close proximity and there is a concern of physical hit? Or is CV a weak link in general and is likely to fail during extreme rock crawling?

CVs are pretty solid , IFS isn’t bad , but I’m used to wheeling solid axle , so if you’re careless or forgetful with IFS vehicles and make a mistake you can pretty easily snap one.. as to why solid axles are usually preferred..

 

[BMThiker]

I've worn out CVs and I've catastrophically exorcized them The only time I had a OEM axle really blow was when I was doing stupid stuff on big rocks. Speed kills... well, speed and then sudden traction kills CVs. If you are truly crawling, you shouldn't have any issues. The only other scenario I can think of is if you really have a front wheel bound up and you give it too much gas, instead of backing out of the situation and realigning to find a better route.

This was after participating in a rock race at Golden Mtn. My wheel caught some air and was spinning pretty good when it came back down. The ball bearings shot out at the spectators and the cage was found in a couple pieces. The star is now my tcase shifter.

We swapped this one on the trail in about 30 minutes. This one, THIS ONE was the last time I bought an aftermarket cheap axle (Napa I think). It was brand new when it gave up in a mud hole. Never again will I buy a cheap CV axle. We put an old OEM one back on and I kept it on until I got a new one from Toyota.

The reason they are often carried as backups is that they are reasonably easy to change, even on the trail. You certainly don't want to be driving with a broken one any more than necessary as it could flop around and take out other components like shocks, brake lines, tie rods...

If you wanted a smaller alternative to get you off the trail, you could disassemble a CV axle and just carry the splined hub section and the splined bell that goes in the diff side. I did this with my wife's 4Runner for about a year, since she didn't use 4wd up to that point. It allows you to keep the hub assembly tightened back up and the diff from exposure and draining all the fluid out.

 

[William839]

I've worn out CVs and I've catastrophically exorcized them The only time I had one really blow was when I was doing stupid stuff on big rocks. Speed kills... well speed and then sudden traction kills CVs. If you are truly crawling, you shouldn't have any issues. The only other scenario I can think of is if you really have a front wheel bound up and you give it too much gas, instead of backing out of the situation and realigning to find a better route.

We swapped this one on the trail in about 30 minutes. This one, THIS ONE was the last time I bought an aftermarket cheap axle (Napa I think). It was brand new when it gave up in a mud hole. Never again will I buy a cheap CV axle. We put an old OEM one back on and I kept it on until I got a new one from Toyota.
View attachment 3278762

The reason they are often carried as backups is that they are reasonably easy to change, even on the trail. You certainly don't want to be driving with a broken one any more than necessary as it could flop around and take out other components like shocks, brake lines, tie rods...

If you wanted a smaller alternative to get you off the trail, you could disassemble a CV axle and just carry the splined hub section and the splined bell that goes in the diff side. I did this with my wife's 4Runner for about a year, since she didn't use 4wd up to that point. It allows you to keep the hub assembly tightened back up and the diff from exposure and draining all the fluid out.

OEM CV axles are pushing 400 dollars , surely there has to be a different option , I read that the Napa ones aren’t bad now you have me rethinking…

 

[BMThiker]

OEM CV axles are pushing 400 dollars , surely there has to be a different option , I read that the Napa ones aren’t bad now you have me rethinking…

You need to befriend your local dealer parts counter staff

The most recent one I purchased was from CVJ Reman and they use OEM parts with upgraded boots. I have yet to install it though, so I can't honestly rate them yet. But it does look like a decent option.

I'd trust the Napa one to get me home if it wasn't a 4x4 situation. Keep in mind there are a lot of FJC owners that don't use their rigs offroad that will say Napa is just fine.

 

[mtnbiker4evr13]

I'd trust the Napa one to get me home if it wasn't a 4x4 situation. Keep in mind there are a lot of FJC owners that don't use their rigs offroad that will say Napa is just fine.

Napa ones were the go when they were $80 Cardone HDs, now you pay $140 for what is a $38 Trakmotiv cv on rockauto.

Mine that popped this weekend in a mud hole was likely hurt already or worn but likely cheap parts store to begin with. OEMs have the superior articulating trilobe setup to not bind at full droop. While I hate driveline "fuses", replacing a CV is much preferred to a busted front diff.

As to why they come up, probably highest probability of driveline failure and easy to carry/replace.

 

[William839]

Trackmotive is more expensive than Cardone?

 

[mtnbiker4evr13]

Apparently you don't get the cheap cheap one haha. But yeah O'Reillys and napa both use the same non HD # on their website.