Camber change on a Cherokee is almost always bad news...
You guys still finished, right? Pretty awesome that you could fix it or had spare parts to keep going.
The world's first IFS XJ
Got any pics of it while it was airborne?
wow, that sucks but it's awesome at the same time. Glad you finished - keeping the old housing to hang on the wall at the shop?Yep. BITD official pulled us up out of the quarry to a place where our team could get a welder in. The official sat and watched to make sure that only the 3 banded people worked on the car or even touched any tools or parts. We pulled the housing out and got it aligned the best we could and I used a stick welder on it. I had to fill a lot of gap. Then I welded some angle and other scrap over it. Personally I didn't think it would make it the 15 miles back to main pit...but it did! It took out our front shocks so we had to use our spares, busted 1 front brake line, and a lower control arm.
We had also been having fuel delivery issues all day and the motor quit about a mile from the pit in that big nasty silt bed. The fuel filter was totally plugged with foam from the cell. Fixed that, did a lot of digging to get unstuck, and got it back to main pit. Did a little more welding and we went back out and finished. I cannot believe the repair went 150 miles. We will take the finish. I think we were the last finishing Jeepspeed.
Car was working awesome too. Started 17th and we had passed everyone and were running in the front when it happened.
Might just be me, and I might be talking out my ass, but it looks like the crack is right where the end of that UCA mount gusset lands. Any chance it was weaker there due to hardening from the welding resulting in a weak spot that could start a stress crack?It wasn't anything major. Spectators said maybe 2-3 feet in the air. And it was soft gravel so there was no big impact. We bent that housing at the MORE race in December and I think it was fatigued. It was straightened and checked for cracks, but... There was no reason it should have broken at that spot on the course.
wow, that sucks but it's awesome at the same time. Glad you finished - keeping the old housing to hang on the wall at the shop?
Might just be me, and I might be talking out my ass, but it looks like the crack is right where the end of that UCA mount gusset lands. Any chance it was weaker there due to hardening from the welding resulting in a weak spot that could start a stress crack?
IFS is illegal in Jeepspeed and we plan to protest your finish points.