Worked on my neighbor’s dodge today, which was a new brake booster and master cylinder job. Not fun, not terrible. It went well enough that after the fact, I felt motivated to bleed the brakes on the YJ, so I drove it into the neighbor’s garage and had him help just as if it was a continuation of working on his truck.
Afterwards, the pedal felt better, but still not right. I could stop with some enthusiasm finally, but it definitely still was nowhere near where it needs to be.
I learned that my brake booster pushrod adjustment tool is junk. It’s the type that you butt up to the MC, set depth, then put it on the booster and adjust booster pushrod until it fits the tool setting. Problem is, the center adjustment piece is too long, which is inevitably making the booster pushrod adjusted too far inwards.
This leads to lots of pedal free play and wastes precious pedal travel. Set up this way, the pedal didn’t do anything at all for over an inch of travel.
I didn’t like my painted master cylinder…the paint was proving to be a mess. I should have known better since brake fluid is at a high risk of running down the sides during service, but I painted it anyways. Wanted that out of my life and so I bought another MC from AutoZone, and bench bled it and installed. Now, my neighbor and I will bleed it again, maybe tomorrow. The pedal seems a lot more firm now with the engine off than it was before. Maybe now I’m finally in business, once the wheel brakes are bled? We will see.
One other thing new is that I learned the TJ pitman arm I’ve been using is actually not the correct height. It has about 1/2” less drop than the YJ model, so it was holding the drag link up a bit. Dug my factory pitman arm out of the bucket of old parts and reinstalled it. I don’t remember why I even am using a TJ arm, I think because at one point when I deleted the lift, I needed a new stock one and couldn’t find mine anymore. Well, now I found it and so that is swapped back. Drag link is nearly 100% flat now…nice. Matches the front track bar perfectly.
The drag link is part of the linkage that came on this front axle I bought, which the guy had installed a 4.5” Rubicon Express lift. So, the drag link is too long. I think that is part of the poor handling, because when the steering gear is not in the “steering-wheel-straight” position, it wants to provide assist. I’ll try to adjust that tomorrow, hopefully that helps tremendously with poor handling feel. Which again, isn’t too bad, but it still doesn’t feel right. I really don’t think I’m expecting too much. Mainly, it’s still a bit of a handful to drive, and I haven’t even taken it up to decent speeds yet, so I feel it’s reasonable to say it’s still not right.
I am hyper sensitive to poor steering…it is my number one complaint over all the years. The initial lift is what started it all, years ago. Getting back a normal steering feel is a huge part of why I’m going back to stock, and doing so with very little leniency. I’m really hopeful all the little things truly make the difference and bring this thing back to life and not be a handful to drive.
