Unibody contol arm mount broke away

[vt98xj]

Went offroad yesterday at the Cliffs Insane Terrain in Illinois and ended up breaking the unibody Control arm mount away from the unidbody channel. I know of one person having this issue before (revden). how common is it and does it repeat once it happens?

pics for clicks
Happened on this trail somewhere, but I think I was weakening it all day. It is called Carnage (trail #9)

One of the issues is, right behind the mount is crushed so it is almost touching the floor so I would have to rebuild the channel so it was square again. I am going to get Stiffeners and *maybe* longarms to get rid of this weak spot.

 

[rockclimber]

you need to deal with the rust in there. cut out as much of it as you can, make sure you get anything rotten.

stiffeners are a good idea, but you may be better served by cutting out the section of uniframe and replacing it with some 3x3" box tube. .188 wall should be sufficient. also, build a stiffener that ties in the new section to the rest of the unibody.

replace the mount with this
http://www.ruffstuffspecialties.com/catalog/CHLB.html

I would recommend doing both sides, if the one side is that bad, the other is probably in similar condition.

 

[Vanimal]

damn dude, strong work! yea, stiffeners and a 3 link ftw.

 

[99SJ_Ex]

Wow, I wish I had your rig... I took a hour or so to cut mine off with a torch... Yours done fell right off!

If the chassis steel is good, just cut away the old welds and weld on the new mount, shouldn't take more than a couple hours to do all that...

 

[vt98xj]

There was a local jeeper there that welded it up for me so I could drive it home.

Here are some better pics of the damage. temp fix

 

[whitexj98]

I would recommend a different set of control arms that have a flex joint of some type. Factory arms were designed flimsy for a reason so they can twist in the mounts a bit.

Aftermarket arms that have HD tubes and poly bushings are constantly fighting the mounts under flex....

Not saying that was the main problem but I bet it didn’t help the situation!

 

[rockclimber]

I would recommend a different set of control arms that have a flex joint of some type. Factory arms were designed flimsy for a reason so they can twist in the mounts a bit.

Aftermarket arms that have HD tubes and poly bushings are constantly fighting the mounts under flex....

Not saying that was the main problem but I bet it didn’t help the situation!

X2, poly bushings are CA mount killers.

the axle side mounts will be next unless they are beefed up.

 

[cjsxj87]

I had a parts XJ that was so rotted the mount rotted off along with the whole bottom of the "frame rail" but never seen it wheeling

 

[vt98xj]

The axle mount was the root cause it was bent (on a rock) and then I probably flexed breaking the unibody mount off. We actually had to bend the axle mount back straight

 

[Nealio240z]

Time for a upgrade- long arm!!!

 

[vt98xj]

Just order full stiffeners to aide in the repair. Yes, bI am in search on a used long arm upgrade. Figured it was better then trying to fix the short arm brackets for a continued shitty ride. This just got expensive

 

[ehall]

There was a local jeeper there that welded it up for me so I could drive it home.

[size=+2]drive it home[/size]

alright

 

[vt98xj]

alright

so what are you saying?

 

[chris420]

I would run a long arm kit and weld up that area and plate it. I do not think it would be a good idea to use that area to fix and remount your lower controll arms that area is to week now and you need to relocate futher back on the unibody using a long arm kit.

 

[Smash Hole]

Ouch, Carnage will do that to ya..

I'd plate over and just do a long arm kit. You'll have $200 easy into new mounts and bushings/control arms all the way around and then you're still running the stock uppers and have to figure out all the geometry with fixed length control arms.