Bent LCA Bracket, Fix or Replace?

Well, just got off the phone with my buddy, my jeeps been at his house for about 2 weeks now, Ive been ready to work on it daily, he never makes time to do so, I haven't rushed him at all. This morning he calls me saying we gotta do it tomorrow and its gotta be off his familys land, not too thrilled about this but I understand, I wouldn't have took it to his house if it would've been an issue, but now its a rush. So tomorrow we will be just doing the basics, LCA brackets will remain broken, options now aren't too hot. Anyone have experience around here replacing these?

I figure cut em off as close to the axle as possible, then grind down whatevers left until its smooth and all dirt/gunk is out of the way to lay down a weld. I have no welding experience though, so could be interesting lol
 
I would just put a new housing in it. They are a dime a dozzen and its easeyer to reinforce it outthen in. GL hope it all ends up right.
 
Having perches re welded is waaay less work than swapping housings/ resetting the gears, etc! A housing swap for this reason is just ridiculous...

That said, the LCA is still attached as it sits so it won't stop you from moving it off your buddy's land.
 
I know, I drove it around the other day. My buddy is just being a pain in the ass, now he doesn't want to help at all or let me use his tools, says he is too busy. Which would have been fine if he said that last week. I could have gotten it knocked out in my apartment parking lot with hand tools by now. I spent 3 full days last week helping him with the 2 engine swaps, and taking lots of junk to the scrap yard, and he isn't willing to spend 2-3 hours (shouldnt take near that long) to help me replace my shocks and my pinion wedges.
 
This aint a hard problem to solve... hell if the other side isn't bent, just measure off that one and flip it left for right before welding.

The factory metal is like 1/8 thick if that, I would be perfectly comfortable using 3/16 with a gusset to the tube. A gusset to the tube and making it all out of 1/8 or 3/16 will make things many times stronger than simply going overboard and using 1/4 or 3/8 plate to make the brackets.

Also, it can be done under the jeep easily, no reason to pull the housing or reset the gears. You're making a mountain out of a molehill.
 
Wow holy old thread batman!
 
Yikes. I didn't even notice :eyes: (at least I didn't do the necromancing...)

bmikes, you pretty much just line it up in the right spot, tack it on, then weld. Too much personal preference involved (welding up or down? which side first? etc) to really do a writeup.
 
kastein said:
Yikes. I didn't even notice :eyes: (at least I didn't do the necromancing...)

bmikes, you pretty much just line it up in the right spot, tack it on, then weld. Too much personal preference involved (welding up or down? which side first? etc) to really do a writeup.
Click to expand...

I was hoping it was going to be that easy! Just wanted to get some input before I cut the old bracket off, thank you!
 
Make sure you get it clocked the same and spaced the same as the one on the other side. Tape measure to the inner knuckle for spacing along tube, angle finder to make sure the hole is at the same angle around the tube.
 
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