New tires today, broke rear axle mount

Eleanor

Eleanor

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Not the best day… just got four(4) new tires and on my way home my rear axle mount(please correct me if I’m wrong) appears to have broke. It looks like it was barely attached by a sliver for some time.

I’m in East San Diego County. Any recommendations for a shop that does good work? Does this look repairable? Lost my new tire when I flew off the road and shock mount ate it, but I bought the warranty on that 👍🏻

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Eleanor said:
Not the best day… just got four(4) new tires and on my way home my rear axle mount(please correct me if I’m wrong) appears to have broke. It looks like it was barely attached by a sliver for some time.

I’m in East San Diego County. Any recommendations for a shop that does good work? Does this look repairable? Lost my new tire when I flew off the road and shock mount ate it, but I bought the warranty on that 👍🏻

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That’s a crazy breakage for sure. That’s the upper control arm and track bar mount. Something tells me one of those two or both aren’t adjusted properly and causing undue stress on the mount which is what cause the break.

A new mount and a decent welder could fix that. Could possibly fix it with the current mount but not what I’d do.

I’d have to assume due to the way it broke, that it’s the upper control arm that was the main culprit.
 
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Tires were just installed by 4wp. It couldn’t be something they did could it? I wouldn’t think so, to me it looks like it was fucked for some time. Only a little shiney sliver showing from a fresh break. Glad I bought the tire warranty though 😂
 
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Eleanor said:
Tires were just installed by 4wp. It couldn’t be something they did could it? I wouldn’t think so, to me it looks like it was fucked for some time. Only a little shiney sliver showing from a fresh break. Glad I bought the tire warranty though 😂
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It’s been cracked for a while. Today was the day it decided to let go. No way 4WP really could have influenced it.
 
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I have a crack right along the same line I just found on my LJ last week. My track bar may be hitting the upper crossmember on the passenger side, I know it was I clearanced the crossmember but the crack may of started by then. My plan is to weld the crack up and tie a small gusset over to the lower spring perch. I need to get a better look at the inside of the bracket. Might want to check track bar clearance.
 
NskLJ said:
I have a crack right along the same line I just found on my LJ last week. My track bar may be hitting the upper crossmember on the passenger side, I know it was I clearanced the crossmember but the crack may of started by then. My plan is to weld the crack up and tie a small gusset over to the lower spring perch. I need to get a better look at the inside of the bracket. Might want to check track bar clearance.
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Are you running the rubicon express long arms as well?
 
I had basically the same thing happen 300 miles from home-

That mount does double duty- And when the vehicle is flexed hard it really gets stressed-

In my opinion you have to drop the rear axle to do a good repair job-

In all the cases that I’ve seen this happen the jeep goes off road and it usually has a track bar relocation bracket - And you can imagine trying to shake a fence post at the top versus at the ground.

There have been some reinforcement devices made that counteract the side force- But you don’t see them a lot.

You need to pay attention to the hard brake line it runs really close to that.

Ruffdawg is where I got mine.
 
Eleanor said:
Not the best day… just got four(4) new tires and on my way home my rear axle mount(please correct me if I’m wrong) appears to have broke. It looks like it was barely attached by a sliver for some time.

I’m in East San Diego County. Any recommendations for a shop that does good work? Does this look repairable? Lost my new tire when I flew off the road and shock mount ate it, but I bought the warranty on that 👍🏻

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I am not 100%, but I thought that @mrblaine Has his shop near there, but I don’t know it well.

I would trust his work.
 
L J said:
Ruffdawg or RuffStuff Specialties?
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You got it right- It is the one you named-

It is really strong and it has three mount holes-

It is also possible for a relocation bracket to raise the bar enough that when you flex it gets into some of the hoses at the tank filler- Relocation brackets may be great and in some cases they may be essential but every TJ that I build from here forward I’m going to try to avoid them.

Also a rear track bar that has a centering collar like your drag link does makes it massively easier to center the the axle.

If you will use the search feature you’re going to see some threads not too far back where some guys ran into this and you’ll see some really good truss work they did.

I had to strap mine together with ratchet straps to get home- It was crazy.
 
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Eleanor said:
Not the best day… just got four(4) new tires and on my way home my rear axle mount(please correct me if I’m wrong) appears to have broke. It looks like it was barely attached by a sliver for some time.

I’m in East San Diego County. Any recommendations for a shop that does good work? Does this look repairable? Lost my new tire when I flew off the road and shock mount ate it, but I bought the warranty on that 👍🏻

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yikes.

If in East SD County... See Jeff at MIT Drivetrain in El Cajon.
 
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Eleanor said:
Are you running the rubicon express long arms as well?
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I have a terraflex short arm with a terraflex track bar.
The crack on mine is running right above the weld so it is lower than where yours broke
 
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cpwolf said:
I am not 100%, but I thought that @mrblaine Has his shop near there, but I don’t know it well.

I would trust his work.
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I'm not open to the public. I don't have a "shop". That said, MIT in that area down there can do that repair easily. It doesn't really need a new mount, repair it, put the extended mount back on, and this time either replace it with the one from Rock Jock that welds to the axle along with bolts or, brace the one that is there since the added leverage is what caused the failure.
 
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mrblaine said:
I'm not open to the public. I don't have a "shop". That said, MIT in that area down there can do that repair easily. It doesn't really need a new mount, repair it, put the extended mount back on, and this time either replace it with the one from Rock Jock that welds to the axle along with bolts or, brace the one that is there since the added leverage is what caused the failure.
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Apologies, as I stated, I didn’t know, which probably means shouldn’t comment, ha.
 
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mrblaine said:
I'm not open to the public. I don't have a "shop". That said, MIT in that area down there can do that repair easily. It doesn't really need a new mount, repair it, put the extended mount back on, and this time either replace it with the one from Rock Jock that welds to the axle along with bolts or, brace the one that is there since the added leverage is what caused the failure.
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It's not hard to make but Currie used to sell the CE-91200RBB bracket which made their track bar bracket better than others. Of course, you had to be able to weld which is why the most likely stopped selling it to the bolt on crowd.

CE-9120RBB.png
 
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mrblaine said:
I'm not open to the public. I don't have a "shop". That said, MIT in that area down there can do that repair easily. It doesn't really need a new mount, repair it, put the extended mount back on, and this time either replace it with the one from Rock Jock that welds to the axle along with bolts or, brace the one that is there since the added leverage is what caused the failure.
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So weld the existing mount back together and then replace the extension with something more substantial?

It was a fun break, was going down the backroad to my house (Japatul Valley Road if you know the area) and bending a corner at about 45-50mph when it let go. As I left the road and entered my neighbors yard I honestly thought, “these new KM3’s really suck on the road” 😂

I drove it three miles or so home from there and that little bracket is responsible for ALOT. I have never had a vehicle break at that spot and it is definitely scary. But I did get lucky that I was so close to home. To be honest, the jeep has been really good that way. Last time my fuel pump died as I came into the property too. This is an ok place to breakdown imo. My jeep is very responsible.
 
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Went to M.I.T. Drivetrain Specialists in El Cajon and worked with Jeff. Good guy and seems to know his stuff! Had the new beefy bracket in stock.

Pricing was very reasonable.

4wp honored their warranty and will give me a new tire no charge whatsoever. Left out funny part, didn’t want it to get noticed by someone’s boss
 
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