So back in August (I think) I took Patches to Black Mountain OHV in Harlan Kentucky. Other than a quick test run at my local off-road park, this was the first serious wheeling trip since changing the front suspension.
Had a blast and beat the piss outta my Jeep, but had issues from the start. On the very first trail of the first day I smashed the drag link into a rock rather forcefully and bent it back into the steering stabilizer bracket. That's actually the second time I've done this...
Completely lost the ability to turn to the right. We took a hammer and punch and deformed the steering stabilizer bracket enough that I could steer enough to get back to camp, but that ended my day. Sundowner (who ride b seat with me) and I pulled the drag link back at camp and used the winch on my rollback to put the proper bend back in the drag link. Don't try this at home kids, it was sketchy.
With that "fixed," we got it put back together and ready for day 2. However, even with the drag link clearing everything I still didn't have full steering to the right, and there was now a large dead spot in my steering. We later determined that I twisted the sector shaft, and that's why it wasn't steering fully. We decided to adjust the drag link to where I could get full steering again, and I would take it easy on the trails and hope it held up for the rest of the trip.
Yeah, like I'm gonna take it easy. I tortured patches on day 3, taking it through some trails that a rig on 37s probably shouldn't be anywhere near. I was following around buggies on 42" tires though, probably shouldn't have done that.
At the end of day 3 I noticed that the antirock links on the front were sitting at a weird angle. At the time I thought maybe the Jeep was just unlevel or something, and didn't think anything else about it. Day 4 rolls around and we wake up early to head home. About halfway home we stop at a truck stop for fuel and I'm looking at Patches on the truck, and the swaybar links caught my eye again. They were still sitting weird, and now I knew something was wrong. I quickly found the problem. Ripped the trackbar mount loose from the frame, and that shifted the axle over. Crap. No clue how or when that happened, but I'm glad it didn't completely fail out in the woods.
Oh, and I switched the 35" KM2s for 37" Creepy Crawlers on 15" alloys with inner air locks. Don't remember if I ever mentioned that.
Trail pics next, and then the trackbar/steering fix.