a few questions

[Wrangler]

firstly, steering knuckles... open or closed... what's the difference? and why are open knuckles better?
secondly, my emergency drive... when the emergency drive is NOT engaged, I hear a "whistling" that sounds just like a vacuum leak... rather loud. when the e drive is engaged, the sound goes away. should it do this? or is my switch not fully locking out and causing a vacuum leak?
thirdly, my brakes seem rather "squishy" with the petal going nearly to the floor (not quite, but close) and my stopping power seems weak. is this a normal thing for a truck this old? or is there another possible problem? ps, the truck does stop ok, just not as well as I'd think it should and certainly not as well as any of my newer vehicles.
fourthly, steering play... I have about an inch of play in the steering wheel but once I get to the end of that play, the tires turn rapidly, often making it "jump" from side to side... I'm sure there are some warn parts in the steering that are causing the play, but is there a way to reduce the sudden wheel turn once I get to the end of the play?
on a side note, perhaps unrelated, when I hit the brakes, I will sometimes turn sharply to one side or the other, it doesn't do it all the time, and seems to do it equaly to both sides, so I don't think it's just one brake not work... any ideas?
thanks

[J10Mike]

the differerence can be observed by taking a look at your knuckles. if they appear to have a half ball shape, those are closed knuckles. the open knuckles are...well, open...and, you can see the axle ujoints. generally, the open knuckle front axles have a better turning radius and usually come with disk brakes as far as fsjs are concerned.

[Wrangler]

I suppose it would help to provide a bit more info on my truck... it's a '75 J-20 with the 360/th400/qtrack, hd44 front disk, d60 rear drum the low range unit was either taken off of a newer tc, or the low range pull lever was switched out for the linkage under the driver's seat, I don't recall what the po said he'd done only that he'd changed it to the floor shift due to the cable breaking or otherwise not working. and to clarify, the e drive DOES engage and disengage, just when it's disengaged, I hear the "whistling" which I'm assuming is a vacuum leak.

[bigun]

Your front will be an open knuckle I am running the same year J20 axles in my Hibred. If you pump them does your petal get any firmer? It sounds like they need to be bled steering get somebody to turn the wheel back and forth while you watch all the components it sounds like you have some thing loose. From the sounds of it I would drive it till you get these problems fixed!!!

[ March 12, 2006, 12:07 AM: Message edited by: bigun ]

[mudslider]

for the side jerk when brakes apply, i had to buy new calipers to get that outta there on mine. its just a caliper issue or at least it was on mine. it did it pretty bad on mine.