Let this be a lesson

Kinarfi · October 16, 2012

While out at the dunes, I high centered my Trooper on solid ground so that the right front wheel was off the ground. I put it in 4 X 4 with front and rear lockers and was still stuck, so I tied the winch to a convenient bush and started pulling myself free, but when I tried use power, the left wheel had traction and spun the steering wheel to the right. The first time, I just turned it back to forward, winched some more, applied power and again, the steering wheel, spun to the right, but this time it snapped the pinion shaft off, (I think, I'll know tomorrow)

The lesson is don't let the traction on one tire spin the steering wheel.

Kinarfi

charlie · October 17, 2012

That really sux I'm sorry how did u get back. I got a pinion shaft from Jmc if they don't have any let me know I havnt used it

Kinarfi · October 17, 2012

2012-10-14, DUNES 03.gpxI actually just sat in the middle of the road and my wife sat with the rig while another rig gave me a ride to camp where my son and a few others were preparing to come get me. When we got back to my Trooper, we started to pull it backwards, if you drag a Trooper backwards, the front wheels will turn to the stops on one side or the other, as it turns out, I was almost turned around and while out of lockers, my son was able to turn the wheels and I was able to go a ways before he had to do it again. Then in 4x4 & lockers with banked walls on the road, the trooper will follow the ruts and since I wasn't very far from the pavement it wasn't bad, then I put it on the trailer.

If you down load the attachment, then open google earth, then drag that file onto the map, then click on the map and say ok, you'll see one of my paths, I got stuck at N39 37 56.56 W112 24 38.16 by high centering on a cornice and broke my steering at N39 41 21.56 W112 21 54.60 and put it on the trailer at N39 41 14.54 W112 21 54.75.

Kinarfi · October 18, 2012

Let that be a lesson, don't listen to kinarfi, the u joint just slipped on the splines of pinion. If you did the same dumb thing I did when I bought my power steering and tried to make their u joint with 29 splines work with the Joyner shaft with 31 splines (or vice versa or whatever it really is), you may want to do a preemptive fix. What I did was take the needed half of the Joyner u joint and put it on the needed half of the u joint supplied with the power steering unit. To reuse the u joint bearings, they have to be driven out to inside, so you have to cut the u joint arm off, also had to do a little grinding to get the needed part of the u joint to get it on the X piece and sand the dents that held the bearing in off. Any way, I got it back together, but now I wonder about my power steering unit, I'll work on that tomorrow.

Kinarfi · October 19, 2012

I think my whole problem stems from my OLD Super ATV power steering unit, I think it may have died, when I turn it on, it drives all the way to the stop and then shuts down until I turn all power off to it and let it reset. then it repeats. Has any one else had problems with their Super ATV power steering unit?
Kinarfi

2scoops · October 19, 2012

Let that be a lesson, don't listen to kinarfi, the u joint just slipped on the splines of pinion. If you did the same dumb thing I did when I bought my power steering and tried to make their u joint with 29 splines work with the Joyner shaft with 31 splines (or vice versa or whatever it really is), you may want to do a preemptive fix. What I did was take the needed half of the Joyner u joint and put it on the needed half of the u joint supplied with the power steering unit. To reuse the u joint bearings, they have to be driven out to inside, so you have to cut the u joint arm off, also had to do a little grinding to get the needed part of the u joint to get it on the X piece and sand the dents that held the bearing in off. Any way, I got it back together, but now I wonder about my power steering unit, I'll work on that tomorrow.

I was wondering if you just stripped the splines when I read your post. That is what happened to me in Moab when I had to crawl out of Kanes Creek in front wheel drive. It didn't strip completely. I snugged it down at camp and finished the trip. I knew we were on borrowed time by since the splines different. Since, I have welded my steering shaft to the u-joint. The Joyner stuff is an odd spline. I couldn't find any common u-joints with that spline count.

I haven't had any problems with the power steering except for the one time it shut down when I bottomed out really hard. I would imagine SuperATV will be able to help.

bruhaw · October 19, 2012

I have had no problems with mine at all. No shut down, no other issues. So far so good and quite a few miles on it.

Lenny · October 19, 2012

I have had no problems with mine at all. No shut down, no other issues. So far so good and quite a few miles on it.

And, you don't baby your Trooper either. More like abuse it.

Lenny

Kinarfi · October 20, 2012

I have been working on my power steering, it tested OK on the bench, so I put it back in and eliminated some of the "fancy" connectors I had used and it seems to be working, but it seems like it only has 1/2 power. When I measure the voltage, it only gets up to almost 6 volts. I would like to ask some of you to measure the output voltage on your power steering and see what you get.
Thanks in advance.
Jeff

SUPER ATV LATER REPLACED MY OLD UNIT WITH A NEWER DESIGN AND NO PROBLEMS SINCE.

Kinarfi · November 4, 2012

Here's what I did for my mismatched U-Joints / spline problem to make one out of two, on regular u-joints, you pound on one arm to drive the bearing out of the other arm, on Troopers, this ruins the bearing cup because of the dimples in the arms to hold the bearings in puts a crease in the bearing cup. So to make on out of two, a few sacrifices have to be made, see attached

another note, the diameter of the crosses had a difference of .001, but after assembly, I could not feel any play and everything moved very smoothly.

Later (2013), I had a bearing cap pop out and had to put it back in, so if you do this, dimple around the bearing cap.

charlie · November 4, 2012

Nice job

nocturnalsixer · November 5, 2012

Looks like I'll be doing that to my trooper after i finally get power steering unit

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Kinarfi · November 15, 2012

Looks like I'll be doing that to my trooper after i finally get power steering unit

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When you do your U Joint conversion, please take some photos of each step and post them.

nocturnalsixer · November 16, 2012

When you do your U Joint conversion, please take some photos of each step and post them.

I'll be sure to do that...I'm considering flaming river u joint to match up the mismatched spline count shafts for a kit if I can find one that would work. (Little doubt there due to selections they have) but I also want tilt and maybe mount some multifunction stalk switch on the column too..

I also have been thinking about and debating on if I should use a extra steering column out of a s10 that I have sitting around

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Kinarfi · November 2, 2013

Untitled.pngHere's what I did for my mismatched U-Joints / spline problem to make one out of two, on regular u-joints, you pound on one arm to drive the bearing out of the other arm, on Troopers, this ruins the bearing cup because of the dimples in the arms to hold the bearings in puts a crease in the bearing cup. So to make on out of two, a few sacrifices have to be made, see attached

another note, the diameter of the crosses had a difference of .001, but after assembly, I could not feel any play and everything moved very smoothly.

Update on this procedure, I have been messing around with a different driver for the steering motor of my own own design and using an old SuperATV and it's position sensor which I modified after damaging the original sensor and a larger motor that has a gear reduction unit on it so I have a lot more power to turn the wheels, hopefully enough to turn and hold the wheels while in 4X4 with lockers. While setting up and testing, I ran the unit to the stops for setting max current and in the process, I popped one of the bearing caps off, too much torque I guess. When I get the bearing cap back on, I plan drill and a hole right next to the bearng and put a screw in to hold it in place, like this one shown below.

If you did this for your u joint, you may want to do a preemptive fix.