A groan from the front.

Hi All

Seeking some wisdom... as usual.

I hope one day I am wise enough to deliver some wisdom as well. Not yet though

I changed my front king pins 2 weeks ago and the jimny is driving great. However, at slow speeds, below 5mph when parking etc I get a small groan from the front passenger side for the first few degrees of movement then it stops. It does this when you turn the steering wheel left or right. I can’t hear this at all when driving, that may be because of cabin noise but I can’t be sure.

It’s definitely coming from the passenger side swivel area.

Is this just a 2006 jimny having a moan and I have OCD or may there be a problem?

When I put the new king pins in, the passenger side actually felt better than the drivers side. Both sides had shims in top and bottom so I put them back as they were.

Any wisdom greatly appreciated thanks.

Leave the wife at home.......

When you rebuilt it with the existing shims, you may have removed all free play but also compressed the bearing.

Shimming bearings is either a very precise and measured job OR guesswork, where you build it and check, sadly the Jimny kingpins are in the second category.

I would suggest taking a single shim out and checking the float again, it wants to be firm but not tight. You should need to use a fair force to turn the hub. There is a wiki article that gives the pull force required.

Good luck with the spanners....

sniper

Snipers correct, the shims are added or removed to get the load on the bearings correct, measured I believe using a spring gauge. It's not just a Jimny thing, old Land Rovers are the same.
It's possible by just refitting the old shims without checking things are a little tight.

Having said that our Jimny groans first thing in the morning as I reverse out which involves a lot of steering input. Can't say I notice it at all for the rest of the day. Ours is shocks moving or suspension bushes, it's not kingpin bearings as they are on my "to do" list.

So as Lambert suggest is it something else ? Maybe worth taking the load off the front wheels and get someone to check below whilst the steering is moved to confirm 100%its source before you take it apart.

Keep smiling.

Thank you all for your suggestions. When the weather breaks I will take a look. If a shim does need to come out to free it up a bit would you recommend the top or bottom one?

Thanks

Hi do you have a steering damper fitted

Cremator1 wrote: Hi do you have a steering damper fitted

I sure do, a jimny bits one. Could that be causing the noise?

The damper completely slipped my mind.

Thanks for the heads up.

It was the Damper.

However when under the car I noticed oil and grease collecting at the bottom of the passenger side swivel as per the wiki. Now the wiki states that this could be a sign of a worn king pin bearing. I know that’s not the case as I changed them. I did the other side and that’s still dry. I did change the seal as well as per the wiki so does anyone have any ideas as to why this oil / grease is collecting.

Thanks