LoD Offroad Tire Carrier Bumper Issue

weck

weck

New member
Was having an issue with the Tire Carrier on the LoD signature series bumper being super hard to open. Adding 33 gallons of grease didn't help so decided to pull it off and check it out. It is an older one that has been on the Jeep for quite a while. Pulling it apart shows that the bottom brass bushing is seized to the spindle. According to what I have seen in their instructions from their webpage the bushing should stay with the carrier portion of the assembly. I have emailed LoD but being a Friday night I assume they won't see it until next week so posting here to see if anyone has any ideas. thanks!

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what does the inside of the carrier spindle hinge look like, is there corrosion build up inside of it??

Seems odd with that much grease it doesn't operate freely.
 
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jeeeep said:
what does the inside of the carrier spindle hinge look like, is there corrosion build up inside of it??

Seems odd with that much grease it doesn't operate freely.
Click to expand...

The inside of the tube/hinge looks fine. From what I can tell from the directions on their website (from a slightly new revision of this bumper) these brass bushings are pressed into the hinge and then they spin on the spindle. So my best guess is there is corrosion under this currently seized bushing that caused it to stop turning and thus unpressed it from the hinge portion. At this point this bushing doesn't spin freely like it should. i have been soaking it with penetrating oil but not holding out much hope of not just cutting it off. Wish they would have used some common bearings that were easily replaceable.



if you are really bored - https://lodoffroad.com/assets/pdfs/JBC0753.pdf
 
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FIXED!!

so in case anyone runs into this in the future. here is what I did and it worked.

Get a torch. Heat that brass bushing up until you think your Jeep will burn down. Then heat it for about 5 minutes longer rotating around it. Channel lock it off. Repeat the heating if needed. Let everything cool down. (Make sure you do it on a 90+ degree day to get the full effect)

grab whatever sandpaper is on your workbench and smooth the bushing inside and out as best you can. do the same with the spindle. grease and test fit the bushing on the spindle. clean and repeat the sanding because you probably didn't smooth it good enough and it should turn smoother than it is. Test fit again.

Now that everything moves good tap the bushing into the hinge ( I used a rubber mallet). when it won't go any further grab a piece of wood and draw a pic of your ex-wife/ex-gf/ex-bf whatever on there and beat it till the bushing is all the way in. (hold the wood to the bushing and use a small sledge or big hammer)

Grease everything up like you are gonna wrestle olympic style. slide the entire carrier onto the bumper. make sure it swings nice and freely. mount everything down. Grease the crap out of it. swing it a few times and proudly exclaim how awesome you are. grease it again.

Heft your heavy A$$ tire back up there while sweat gets into your eye. mount it up and swing it a few times. try to add more grease.

Have a beer and tell your dog/cat how awesome you are that you fixed it.....

hopefully this will help someone in the future. if not, it will help me when I have to do it again in like 8.3 years.
 
That was entertaining, thank you. I had a somewhat similar experience with my son-in-law's Jeep last summer except his was a swing arm installed on a factory rear bumper and it was not swinging well at all. Could NOT get that swing arm out of the bumper. Finally had to borrow a garage and some ratchet straps over the rafters to lift it up. The whole rear end of the Jeep was lifting until the swing arm finally broke loose. That was sketchy AF but it worked and we were able to clean it all up and put it all back together and now it works great.

Glad you got yours fixed.
weck said:
FIXED!!

so in case anyone runs into this in the future. here is what I did and it worked.

Get a torch. Heat that brass bushing up until you think your Jeep will burn down. Then heat it for about 5 minutes longer rotating around it. Channel lock it off. Repeat the heating if needed. Let everything cool down. (Make sure you do it on a 90+ degree day to get the full effect)

grab whatever sandpaper is on your workbench and smooth the bushing inside and out as best you can. do the same with the spindle. grease and test fit the bushing on the spindle. clean and repeat the sanding because you probably didn't smooth it good enough and it should turn smoother than it is. Test fit again.

Now that everything moves good tap the bushing into the hinge ( I used a rubber mallet). when it won't go any further grab a piece of wood and draw a pic of your ex-wife/ex-gf/ex-bf whatever on there and beat it till the bushing is all the way in. (hold the wood to the bushing and use a small sledge or big hammer)

Grease everything up like you are gonna wrestle olympic style. slide the entire carrier onto the bumper. make sure it swings nice and freely. mount everything down. Grease the crap out of it. swing it a few times and proudly exclaim how awesome you are. grease it again.

Heft your heavy A$$ tire back up there while sweat gets into your eye. mount it up and swing it a few times. try to add more grease.

Have a beer and tell your dog/cat how awesome you are that you fixed it.....

hopefully this will help someone in the future. if not, it will help me when I have to do it again in like 8.3 years.
Click to expand...

Sent from my SM-G960U using WAYALIFE mobile app
 
red84cj7 said:
That was entertaining, thank you. I had a somewhat similar experience with my son-in-law's Jeep last summer except his was a swing arm installed on a factory rear bumper and it was not swinging well at all. Could NOT get that swing arm out of the bumper. Finally had to borrow a garage and some ratchet straps over the rafters to lift it up. The whole rear end of the Jeep was lifting until the swing arm finally broke loose. That was sketchy AF but it worked and we were able to clean it all up and put it all back together and now it works great.

Glad you got yours fixed.

Sent from my SM-G960U using WAYALIFE mobile app
Click to expand...

Ratchet straps sounds even better than the 6 foot long persuader bar I used to get it off. When mine popped off it was quite the spectacle. Lucky I didn't have an audience.
 
weck said:
FIXED!!

so in case anyone runs into this in the future. here is what I did and it worked.

Get a torch. Heat that brass bushing up until you think your Jeep will burn down. Then heat it for about 5 minutes longer rotating around it. Channel lock it off. Repeat the heating if needed. Let everything cool down. (Make sure you do it on a 90+ degree day to get the full effect)

grab whatever sandpaper is on your workbench and smooth the bushing inside and out as best you can. do the same with the spindle. grease and test fit the bushing on the spindle. clean and repeat the sanding because you probably didn't smooth it good enough and it should turn smoother than it is. Test fit again.

Now that everything moves good tap the bushing into the hinge ( I used a rubber mallet). when it won't go any further grab a piece of wood and draw a pic of your ex-wife/ex-gf/ex-bf whatever on there and beat it till the bushing is all the way in. (hold the wood to the bushing and use a small sledge or big hammer)

Grease everything up like you are gonna wrestle olympic style. slide the entire carrier onto the bumper. make sure it swings nice and freely. mount everything down. Grease the crap out of it. swing it a few times and proudly exclaim how awesome you are. grease it again.

Heft your heavy A$$ tire back up there while sweat gets into your eye. mount it up and swing it a few times. try to add more grease.

Have a beer and tell your dog/cat how awesome you are that you fixed it.....

hopefully this will help someone in the future. if not, it will help me when I have to do it again in like 8.3 years.
Click to expand...

LOL, that's a good recap :beer:

I use Green Grease on stuff like this, seems to handle the extremes better.
 
jeeeep said:
LOL, that's a good recap :beer:

I use Green Grease on stuff like this, seems to handle the extremes better.
Click to expand...


Basically pumped a 55 gallon drum of the green grease in there at this point. swings with 2 fingers now. :beer:
 
just an addition, LoD never did reply to my email inquiry if that is important to anyone. I never called as I started this on a Friday night and had it fixed by Sunday night. But I had emailed their support. Just my experience. take it for what it's worth, about 33 cents and some pocket lint.
 
weck said:
just an addition, LoD never did reply to my email inquiry if that is important to anyone. I never called as I started this on a Friday night and had it fixed by Sunday night. But I had emailed their support. Just my experience. take it for what it's worth, about 33 cents and some pocket lint.
Click to expand...
I've always had good luck with calling. Never emailed them though.

Sent from my SM-G973U using WAYALIFE mobile app
 
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