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Messed up my arm mounts. Need advice

2K views 32 replies 8 participants last post by  widgget 
#1 ·
Stove tha ol gal into a 3' ditch and almost rolled on to its side but stopped just before. Friend pulled her out but now I have to have the wheel turned half way to the right to go straight. The front passenger side got wacked on the axel and bent the **** out of the mount point for the arm that extents rear.

What are my options to fix her? Only vehicle I have on the road right now and money is and bit tight. I am including a photo of the good side too for compairson.

Thanks in advance even if Its not the answer I want to hear :)
 

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#3 ·
Need to fix the lower control arm mount on the passenger side. That's what is all bent up. If it were me I would either cut that one off and weld on a new one, or bang that one straight and weld some reinforcement plates on the outside of it. Once you bend something like that it will only bend easier next time. After that's done, check everything else out closely, and then have it aligned.

- Justin
 
#4 ·
Cut off the bad and weld on new, or install another axle. Around here a good used complete axle is about $100. You can swap an axle with basic hand tools in the driveway.
 
#6 ·
^^ i did see those (someone in the facebook group posted them as a possible solution) but by the time i get them ordered and shipped, my XJ towed to a shop, and the cost of welding them up i might as well just get a stronger axle and wrench it myself. that way i end up spending less, upgrade, and learn a bit more about the jeep in the process (finding out lowered AWD cars are much different then lifted 4x4's and most of what i did on the car was engine / turbo related anyway).

Found a high pinion Dana 30 about 10 minutes from me for $100. Guy got it to upgrade his rig and sold the jeep before installing the new axle.
Headed over to get it right now.

Took Friday off from work to get a jump start on it over the weekend, might start dis assembly tonight and get the new one cleaned up a little (still has steering, shocks, and brakes attached). Hopefully it's as easy of a swap as it sounds. I'm sure i'll be back with questions though!
 
#8 ·
Confirm the gear ratio matches the damaged axle. Strip down the damaged axle and save the parts for spares.
 
#9 ·
yeah, it's the right gearing.

took tomorrow (friday) off to get going on this.
it's a little rough looking and was literally cut at the frame when it was removed so this my plan of attack:

* soaking the bolts in PB blaster and removing all the extras that are attached which i don't need (shocks, old frame, brakes, etc).
* wire brush the whole thing down and spray it with rust inhibitor and then some undercoating.
* replace the pinion ring seal while i have the whole unit out.
* build some riser boxes for my jack / jack stands so i can lift the front end of the jeep up (4" lift so my ol floor jack doesn't reach).
* pull tires, brakes, and all the other connections off the old axle and drop it out of the vehicle.
* install new axle
* install brakes (figure it will be lighter, thus easier to install the axle, if i do this after i get the axle mounted back up).
* slap the tires back on
* drop it off the lift
* take it for an alignment and have them doube check that i didn't turn my baby into a deathtrap by forgetting something important ;)

Am i missing anything (beside the beer of course)?
I've got sockets & box wrenches up to 19mm, will i need anything bigger then that?
 

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#12 ·
Wiggle the input yoke up/down/in/out. If there is no excessive yoke movement, it probably is OK. Open the diff and look at the gear oil, and the condition of the ring and pinion. If you see no sparkly metal in the gear oil, no really weird wear marks on the ring gear, and it spins smoothly, it probably is OK.
 
#11 ·
hmm, guessing i'll need a press for that? is there a easy way to test them without installing the axle first?
Just checked out the process for this and it's going to require some special tools and resetting up the gear spacing and all that i would rather leave to someone that knows what they are doing.
that would set the whole project back until a shop could fit me in and time is of the essence since i am borrowing my fathers daily driver XJ and he needs it back next week.
Might just suck it up and can deal with that if / when it becomes an issue. the seal looks easy enough to get too though, although i don't have a yoke puller ether so thats one challenge.

If it comes to it i might just pull the brakes off my XJ and put them on my wife's which needs brake pads, rotors, and new CV joints to pass inspection. then i can just get the joints done and get it inspected but again, waiting for a shop to do the work and i won't have a way to get to work Monday.
 
#13 ·
First off, HUGE THANK YOU to everyone for the help here. Wouldn't be tackling this with you.

This is what I started with:



Stripped all extra parts off. Wire brushed the he'll out of it and removed any scalling. Two heavy coats of dupi-color rust fix.



Yoke feel solid, no play at all. Spins nicely with no free play (hubs turn the second the yoke moves).

I'll crack the diff case now and peek at the gears. Gotta build some jack stands (or boxes for the ones I have). Went from having to drive the audi up on stacked 2x4s to fit a jack, now it doesn't reach LOL. Need a bumper and sliders for my highlift jack :(

Coats of Krylon rust tough enamel for the new one and Disassembly of the jeep tomorrow!

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#14 ·
Diff oil looks ok. Little dark but no metal specks at all. Ran a magnet thru the oil and around the inside of the casing and it didn't pickup anything. No scuffs or odd wear on the teeth that I can see.

Gonna need to pickup some gasket seal tomorrow to close it back up.



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#15 ·
There really is nothing to it. I just completed a couple swaps. One on my '98 XJ one on the '89 Mj and the only differences were the lack of ABS on the MJ and it got a D30 that was equipped.

After doing the rear swaps, however, I had to weld new perches on and saw how much stronger they were than factory. The same goes for your CA mounts up front. They make MUCH stronger mounts that you can tack in place and get professionally installed if you aren't comfortable w/ a structural weld.
 
#17 ·
Got the new one pretty much bolted back in but the trackbar doesn't reach. Looks like it might be bent more then normal on the top side. Do guys agree?

EDIT: since time is of the essence here i went ahead and ordered a JKS OGS125 (reviews seemed way better then rough country, and the RC wasn't available thru Amazon Prime).



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#21 ·
I'll have to me sure that up tonight. The upper and lower arms were lined up without having to pull them one way our the other and it is visually centered. I'll have to measure the hub position in compairson to the fenders tonight.

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#23 ·
Great work man! I just swapped a HP30 out of an XJ in to my ZJ last weekend! Yours looks great, I didn't paint mine, but now I'm wishing I did. Crazy we were doing basically the same project at the same time. I pulled mine from an XJ Thursday and started the swap Friday. Did everything solo with no air tools either.
 
#25 ·
Spent 4 hours trying to get the old frame side bolt out of the mount for the trackbar yesterday, new one is in now though.

New axle doesn't have abs I relized, old one did. Looks like I need to swap the shafts and the bearing carrier (not sure if that's what it's really called, the big C shaped part the hub fit into).

Got a 36mm socket this morning.

Looks simple enough to do, of course the 1/2" 12 point bolts that hold the hub in are pretty rusted, soaking in pb but this is going to be another challenge I feel. Pounding the hubs out should be fun too.

Would say to hell with the abs for now but state inspection next month and I'm assuming if the sensors don't detect the right signal I'm going to have a CEL so I might as well do it now.

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#27 ·
Oh really?

Can I just zip tie the sensors out of the way for now?

Started workong on the old one to remove the shafts before o rip the new one apart. Got the 6 bolts that hold the hub on but the axle nut snapped my 1/2" breaker bar. Friend was on his way over and picking up a new one right now. If I can run with the abs sensors I'm just gonna tq everything down tomorrow and call it good for now. The u joints on the new axle are in better condition then my old ones anyway.

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#28 ·
got it all back in.

was so worried about checking all the bolts under neath i forgot to tighten the lug nuts. went for a test drive and noticed my tire was rolling along side the jeep...... no damage though, just landed on the rotor. Highlift jack made for an easy fix. now that the stupidity is out of the way.....

gotta pull the ABS relays and fuse still to clear the dash lights.

feels like the two front tires are both toe in and fighting each other, but i'm no expert on alignments. going to get it done right now. hope i dont have anything else bent under there.
 

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#30 ·
It was toe out. One of the wheel bearings is on the cusp of being bad so I need to do that. The big problem though according to the alignment guy is that the ball joints are so stiff he couldn't move the wheel at all by hand and said it causes "steering memory" where it doesn't straighten itself out so I'm always having to correct it after turning the wheel. I did notice they were really stiff when installing but thought they would free up a bit.

It's on the road for now though.

Next weekend I'll try to get the hub bolts and axle nuts free before ordering the bearings and ball joints. If they give too much trouble might have a shop do it but I would rather use the cash that I would be paying in labor for my own shop press instead and just do the joints myself (I know it can be done with a hammer but I could use the press for other things too).

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