D44 Ball Joint and Knuckle upgrade questions.

Lperdue

Lperdue

Active Member
Does anyone have experience or recommend with the Reid Racing Jeep JL/JT Heavy duty steering Knuckles?

Also as for ball joints are Dynatrac's ball joints worth as much as they are asking or would you go with synergies instead?
(Figured I might as well pull and replace the ball joints at the same time I change out the steering knuckles)
 
Lperdue said:
Does anyone have experience or recommend with the Reid Racing Jeep JL/JT Heavy duty steering Knuckles?

Also as for ball joints are Dynatrac's ball joints worth as much as they are asking or would you go with synergies instead?
(Figured I might as well pull and replace the ball joints at the same time I change out the steering knuckles)
Click to expand...
Not sure if there's really been an issue with the JT aluminum knuckles. I've got 27k on mine with 35 inch tires with no issue yet. On the JK, the Reid knuckles had a couple bells and whistles but far from necessary.

As far as ball joints, if I needed some now, I would go with Synergy over Dynatrac. Eddie and Cindy made a video not too long ago on replacing them too.

 
The only reason I would get the Reid knuckles is because I'm no fan of the factory aluminum knuckles. Of course, I'd be just as happy with iron ones made by Dana.

As far as ball joints go, the Dynatrac ones are nice and I've run them on 3 of my Jeeps. However, the idea that you can rebuild them on your Jeep is simply laughable. You literally need to do 90% of the same work AND THEN you STILL need to take the time to take them apart and rebuild them. I can literally do a full ball joint replacement on both sides in about the same time as it takes to rebuild just one side of a Dynatrac. Of course, this is to say nothing about the cost of the rebuild kits being about as much as new replacement.
 
WJCO said:
Not sure if there's really been an issue with the JT aluminum knuckles. I've got 27k on mine with 35 inch tires with no issue yet. On the JK, the Reid knuckles had a couple bells and whistles but far from necessary.

As far as ball joints, if I needed some now, I would go with Synergy over Dynatrac. Eddie and Cindy made a video not too long ago on replacing them too.

Click to expand...
Thanks for the advice, I saw Eddie's video a while back which was one of the reasons I was considering synergy. Plus this saves me a few bucks in the long run.
 
wayoflife said:
The only reason I would get the Reid knuckles is because I'm no fan of the factory aluminum knuckles. Of course, I'd be just as happy with iron ones made by Dana.

As far as ball joints go, the Dynatrac ones are nice and I've run them on 3 of my Jeeps. However, the idea that you can rebuild them on your Jeep is simply laughable. You literally need to do 90% of the same work AND THEN you STILL need to take the time to take them apart and rebuild them. I can literally do a full ball joint replacement on both sides in about the same time as it takes to rebuild just one side of a Dynatrac. Of course, this is to say nothing about the cost of the rebuild kits being about as much as new replacement.
Click to expand...
Thanks for clearing up the "Rebuildable" part of their marketing plus I hadn't factored in price of rebuild kits plus the time it takes to rebuild them. Synergy can definitely take my money 😂

I was also looking at Dana's version. Is there any benefit for Dana's iron version vs the Steel one Made by Reid?
 
Lperdue said:
Thanks for clearing up the "Rebuildable" part of their marketing plus I hadn't factored in price of rebuild kits plus the time it takes to rebuild them. Synergy can definitely take my money 😂

I was also looking at Dana's version. Is there any benefit for Dana's iron version vs the Steel one Made by Reid?
Click to expand...
Unless I'm mistaken, Reid whole thing is about making knuckles that raise the tie rod up a tad. If anything, it'll have a slight benefit over Dana.
 
wayoflife said:
Unless I'm mistaken, Reid whole thing is about making knuckles that raise the tie rod up a tad. If anything, it'll have a slight benefit over Dana.
Click to expand...
Thanks I saw that they offered a version with a flipped tapper for the drag link. I never new that they also raised the tie rod as well, definitely worth looking into getting a set.
 
Lperdue said:
Does anyone have experience or recommend with the Reid Racing Jeep JL/JT Heavy duty steering Knuckles?

Also as for ball joints are Dynatrac's ball joints worth as much as they are asking or would you go with synergies instead?
(Figured I might as well pull and replace the ball joints at the same time I change out the steering knuckles)
Click to expand...
I have the Reid Racing knuckles. I have had multiple ball joint failures, and the aluminum knuckles will get knarled up. IMO the Reid Racing knuckles with American Iron Offroad bj deletes is probably the strongest most reliable set up for the D44. Ball joints are a cheap, antiquated design, that is why the manuf's use them.
 
BlueRubicon said:
I have the Reid Racing knuckles. I have had multiple ball joint failures, and the aluminum knuckles will get knarled up. IMO the Reid Racing knuckles with American Iron Offroad bj deletes is probably the strongest most reliable set up for the D44. Ball joints are a cheap, antiquated design, that is why the manuf's use them.
Click to expand...
I remember reading about/looking at American Iron BJ deletes but never heard of anyone running them. Due to this I wanted to wait a while and see how the offroad community responded to them over time. Especially since it seems like they are a newer company (I may be wrong in my assumption) but I can't seem to find anything on them more than a few years old. Again it seems like a good product just needs more time/reviews/testing IMO.

That being said how do you like them, any pros or cons?
 
Lperdue said:
I remember reading about/looking at American Iron BJ deletes but never heard of anyone running them. Due to this I wanted to wait a while and see how the offroad community responded to them over time. Especially since it seems like they are a newer company (I may be wrong in my assumption) but I can't seem to find anything on them more than a few years old. Again it seems like a good product just needs more time/reviews/testing IMO.

That being said how do you like them, any pros or cons?
Click to expand...
Will never go back to bj's. Once you press in the rebuildable race with the teflon bearing, you never have to press again. When the bearing wears out, you replace them without the need to press anything. Whenever you press into something you are removing 'meat' from the hole. Meaning holes gets bigger. I have beaten the hell out of em and they are rock solid. My steering is never off like it used to be after a day of wheeling. I have video out there somewhere with camera mounted so you can see knuckle in action.
 
BlueRubicon said:
Will never go back to bj's. Once you press in the rebuildable race with the teflon bearing, you never have to press again. When the bearing wears out, you replace them without the need to press anything. Whenever you press into something you are removing 'meat' from the hole. Meaning holes gets bigger. I have beaten the hell out of em and they are rock solid. My steering is never off like it used to be after a day of wheeling. I have video out there somewhere with camera mounted so you can see knuckle in action.
Click to expand...
My buddy was telling me about the Ball Joint delete... My first reaction was there must be something negative about it... or everyone would be running them. I never looked into it.
 
BlueRubicon said:
Will never go back to bj's. Once you press in the rebuildable race with the teflon bearing, you never have to press again. When the bearing wears out, you replace them without the need to press anything. Whenever you press into something you are removing 'meat' from the hole. Meaning holes gets bigger. I have beaten the hell out of em and they are rock solid. My steering is never off like it used to be after a day of wheeling. I have video out there somewhere with camera mounted so you can see knuckle in action.
Click to expand...
I understand that which is why I stay away from knurled ball joints to help prevent any wallowing out of the cylinder due to pressing them in and out. Plus I can always start using knurled ones once wallowing starts to occur.

But they seem to be solid from what your saying, I'll try giving them a second look.
 
BlueRubicon said:
I have the Reid Racing knuckles. I have had multiple ball joint failures, and the aluminum knuckles will get knarled up. IMO the Reid Racing knuckles with American Iron Offroad bj deletes is probably the strongest most reliable set up for the D44. Ball joints are a cheap, antiquated design, that is why the manuf's use them.
Click to expand...
LOL - I must be doing something wrong as my ball joints always seem to hold up pretty well. Even my OE ball joints had 60k miles on them before I replaced them with Synergy. Granted, I am just a mall crawler.
 
BlueRubicon said:
Will never go back to bj's. Whenever you press into something you are removing 'meat' from the hole. Meaning holes gets bigger. I have beaten the hell out of em and they are rock solid.
Click to expand...
The hole does appear larger after removing the meat but it never seems to wear out no matter how many times I press something into it and even when I beat the hell out of it... But I still like BJ's too
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom