Another cause of Death wobble

[MattAlpha]

I cleaned up the axle and the bracket yesterday.




I aligned the bracket and welded it on a little while ago today.

Here are a few pictures.

My first bead, checking the penetration to verify my settings.









They're not the best looking beads, but I got good penetration and no burn through. I raised the front end about three inches from the axle but it was still very tight to maneuver under there.

It's supposed to get into the forties here tomorrow so I'm going to try to paint then. The EVO bracket should arrive Tuesday.

 

[MarkW13]

They're not the best looking beads, but I got good penetration and no burn through. I raised the front end about three inches from the axle but it was still very tight to maneuver under there.

Please dont take offense. If a weld looks questionable it probably is far weaker than a pretty weld. I've been welding for some time and if you put those welds into a press they are going to come apart. A pretty weld will break the steel before the weld.

Please dont drive your rig until you can get some solid welds on that bracket. The last thing you want is a complete failure. There is almost no steering if the track bar becomes disconnected.

 

[MattAlpha]

Mark,

Thank you for the reply. No feelings hurt on my end. I'm certainly no professional welder. The welds do seem solid to me. I have QA experience in the Navy, but that been inspecting other people's work. I will not be driving around like this though. When I spoke to the sales representative at EVO, he told me that their bracket only uses the OEM bracket for alignment purposes and it is not a strength member.

Anyone who has experience with the EVO trackbar bracket please let me know if this isn't the case.

 

[seanb123]

I've had this happen on my RK bracket not actually tear off but a crack I could see getting bigger and bigger. Go choice in going the evo or really and u bolt style

 

[MarkW13]

Mark,


Anyone who has experience with the EVO trackbar bracket please let me know if this isn't the case.

I havent installed one, but i looked very closely at some photos of an install. The majority of it strength is coming from the tube and sway bar tab. I'd still make sure its welded up good. I bet if you talk to the engineer that designed it some of its strength is coming from that stock bracket. Better safe than sorry.

 

[MattAlpha]

Mark,

Thank you again for looking into this for me. I took my 15lb mallet to the bracket (in a controlled manner). I hit the bracket around all of the welds and then a little harder on the front of the bracket (up and down and then from each side). It was hard enough to start to bend the original stabilizer mount tabs so I stopped "testing" it. Not a true destructive test, but it gave me the confidence that the bracket is firmly on there.

I forgot to post this picture earlier of the passenger side of the bracket after I finished the welds.


My garage is in the low forties right now since its in the 20s outside. So I tented the area around the bracket and axle as best as I could and turned on my small electric space heater. Sanded everything, cleaned it up with paint thinner and primed all of the areas missing paint.




I'm going to leave the heat on medium overnight to ensure the paint can cure. I'll check it in couple of hours to make sure everything is okay. I've left that heater on overnight before in the garage, but I always check it to be on the safe side.

 

[MarkW13]

I love the hammer test. A true measure of durability. I'm still surprised the bracket ripped off in the first place. The EVO bracket looks really strong, you shouldn't have any problems with it.

 

[MattAlpha]

Thanks Mark. I spent a lot of time looking at the bracket with the RK one still welded/bolted to it. I'm pretty sure when I was wheeling last I "dropped" my rig on a few rocks on the trail I was running up in Vermont.

At that time, I thought I bent my tie rod a little bit because I had to steer a little bit to left to drive straight. Strangely it would start to drive straight again (without the counter-steer) after I would hit a bump or turned. If I turned hard the counter steer would come back sometimes. Seemed strange and made me think the tie rod wasn't bent, but maybe my ball joints were starting to go. My tie rod looked fine so this made sense to me until the trackbar bracket completely broke off.

Now I know that (due to the corrosion on the bracket and the axle) when I dropped the front on that rock, it hit the front of the trackbar bracket. That caused the welds on the RK bracket to the axle to break and the bottom portion of the OEM bracket to crack. So over the next 6 weeks I stressed the bracket each time I drove the Jeep by "levering" the bracket back and forth until the cracks spread eventually causing complete failure.

At least that's my theory.

I think I would have seen the cracks (before complete failure) if I needed to change the oil, but I haven't needed to yet.

 

[MattAlpha]

Received my shipment from EVO earlier today.

The new front trackbar mount install has begun.


Time for a quick dinner break with the family.

 

[MattAlpha]

Jeep is back on the road! Drives better than before now that I'm running a forward trackbar mount that is firmly attached to the axle. I'm also running the stock trackbar and the rear OEM sway bar links up forward per the kit instructions.

Here are a few pictures:

EVO bracket assembled, hardware loose for alignment purposes.


U-bolt was about a 1/4 inch too wide, so I used my vise to squeeze it a bit so it would fit.




Bracket fully assembled and hardware torqued down


Drilling the top mount hole for the driver's side sway bar link relocation bracket was a pain. Would have been much easier if I had a 90 degree angle drill adapter.


Drivers side assembled.


Passenger side assembled.


View from above the EVO mount.

Have a good night ladies and gentlemen!