Wrenchin' for Ouray

Getting ready for Ouray, the Jeep has been making a funny noise... 

Gathering at the (in)famous 2002 Ouray FSJ Invasion

Ok, not just one noise. There's never just one noise with these rigs. But the one worrying me lately sounds like a bearing going out, or maybe diff problems. Uh oh...

One lunch hour, I inspected the rear diff for fluid. It was full and clear as the day I put it in. So the rear is probably ok. I also filled up the transfer case which was low by 1.5 qt. Mostly because the 'case leaks like a sieve. The noise remained.

Couple days later, again during lunch, I inspected my front hubs and wheel bearings only to discover the front brake pads looking mighty thin. And passenger bearings scored.

That night, I ordered pads, caliper hardware and a bearing set online. My wife took the rotors in the next morning, got the parts, but was told they don't turn rotors at that store. A trip to O'Reilly later that evening revealed the rotors were too thin to turn.

I didn't want to further delay by getting rotors that would require a machine shop to install. But nobody seemed to have rotor/hub assemblies in stock. One place could get them the next day, though.

Notice how the time is just sliding away. A day here, day there. Pretty soon, there's only a week left!

The parts came in on time, thankfully. The races were already installed in the hubs saving time and cussing. By Saturday night I had everything back together. I rotated tires at lunch today. I'm crossing my fingers for the test drive.