The 4.0 Swap was chump change compared to this - Look inside... | Page 37 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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The 4.0 Swap was chump change compared to this - Look inside...

I think he said it was an axle mount.
 



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haha well fender and grill are bit mashed, and I broke a coil retainer on the bottom early in the day, but I trail fixed it with some wire. but the big one was I decided to run the lower half of the trail backwards, I dropped off a rock and it broke the other side coil retainer then came down on the lower link mount at the axle (stock Jeep) and mashed the hell out of it, also bent my tie rod a little bit, I drove the mile or so to the trailhead and then we loaded it on erics trailer and took it back to the house. Our buddy Chad lives right across the street so we left Horton there.

the big thing was how well the rig worked, I walked the first 2 obstacles, the sliders I did made my clearance perfect, the Krawlers I ran at a pretty conservative 13psi and they still performed excellent. The doubler was awesome, there is no way I could wheel without it, I did leak some fluid out when I was on a downwards incline, just need to fix the overflow location. I think when I regear my axles to 5.13 and have a front locker and d44 this rig will be hard to beat, had a great time. I didn't get any pics of myself so ill have to see what other peeps got and then ill post up. ill also post carnage pics of all my breakages.
 






Unfortunately the only pics I got were from when you broke the coil retainer.

Kind of sucks when you have a whole bunch of rigs and Jon was at one end of the pack and I was at the other.

Hope to have some good pics up soon though.

The Bdos really worked well though for the most part small and light enough with enough gearing, like Jon said when he gets locked in the front the only thing that is going to limit him is how much he wants to smash the body.
 






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stupid stock jeep junk, thats not even 1/8" plate I don't think. guess ill build some new ones out of 1/4" and call it good. fender im not worried about, rig wheels great, Eric said the only pics he has of me are when I had the broken retainer. looks like it will be in the shop for another week or 2.
 






Didn't you get a warranty from janderson MFG when you got that axle installed? I think you should give that A-Hole hell!
 






Didn't you get a warranty from janderson MFG when you got that axle installed? I think you should give that A-Hole hell!

seriously what a sumbitch
 






Actually its probably that asshat that you got the axle from. You should hunt that person down and string him up!
 






Yeah that that guy sucks too
 






Seems the hardest part will be just cleaning the axle of that crap. What are you going to do, just get a hole saw of the same dia. as axle and make mounts or order some from Ballistic or other suppliers.
Did you say you have a front 44 waiting to go in?
 






I've got some 1/4" plate laying around, probably just cut a couple brackets out with the plasma cutter. I have the d44 but I'm missing the long side axle shaft and I need a master install kit. also don't really want to put it in until I've got a locker to go with it. the d30 will handle my tire size as long as I leave it open. I realize a lot of people are skeptical of that but it really is the least of my worries. I also want to have some good steering when I build it. so its going to be awhile bk I want to put it together with some quality parts, and now that I think of it id like to gear it down to 5.13 while im at it. looks like its going to be awhile.
 






Sounds like your going to have some good quality time together. Like your way of thinking.
 






Yeah well i got no dinero in the bank and i have tools so it looks like im building the brackets myself. Its a good oppurtunity to take the axle out and do the link mounts, coil retainers and relocate my shocks. Ive had those bypass shocks sitting in the garage for months now.
 






Unfortunately these are the only pics I got of Jon on the trail.

The odd thing about this pic, is whenever Horton is broken on the trail and someone snaps a pic it appears Jon is doing all the hard work.

In this pic it appears Jon is just watching and I am doing all the hard ( dangerous) work.

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Sucks these are the only pics I got.

Hoping to have more pics of the bdos actually doing what it does best, which seems to be impress and amaze here soon.
 






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stupid stock jeep junk, thats not even 1/8" plate I don't think. guess ill build some new ones out of 1/4" and call it good. fender im not worried about, rig wheels great, Eric said the only pics he has of me are when I had the broken retainer. looks like it will be in the shop for another week or 2.

You can't blame that on jeep. It is the bind in your setup. You can weld on some thicker ones and they might last longer though.

Love the pics. Nothing like a chopped up first gen purpose built rig. Looks sweet!
 






Are you assuming its on a bind because you don't think there is enough flex in the flex joint in order for it to take most of the twist?

Or just because we used a bushing? Anytime you use a bushing and your suspension flexes its actually on a bind.

I have no doubt that bushing is on a bind under full flex, Jon has a ton of front flex, no way it can't be.


I have seen those stock Jeep brackets bend with a dead bone stock Jeep. I have probably replaced 15 lower control arm brackets on Jeep axles ranging from stock Jeeps to very, very built ones, that had cut the old brackets off and used them on a 44 or 60.

The stock Jeep brackets are very well known to be weak.

I think you might be able to blame this one on a combination of weak parts, rocks smashing up into stuff (we have rollers that get in the weirdest places) and the fact the lower coil retainers failed and my have overflexed the axle.
 






well thinking back on it I think that the coil had popped out, I dropped the front tire into a wedge right next to that big rock, and it got bound up. Possibly that allowed it to flex the lower link enough to bend the mount? keep in mind I came down hard on that link mount too. there is no doubt in my mind the link mount is week, I shouldn't blame jeep though since they never meant it to take that kind of a beating, and make no mistake I was not going easy on it at all that day. the flex joint isn't rotated all the way through the travel it has either, it has another couple degrees in it.
 






Kirby tell me something I don't know!
 






that made it sound like I already knew, what I meant was explain yourself sir!
 






Of course there's bind in a bushing the instant the radial or lateral movement starts and that's transmitted to the bracket it's attached to, it's the nature of the beast. Just put a bolt through the bushing and clamp down on the bolt ends in a vise and then twist or move laterally the link. Instant bind. the bind starts immediately and increases exponentially as more degrees of twist is implied but you still have rubber to metal contact. Now do the same thing with a Ballistic joint with bearing and there is no bind until it's maxed out and this is where trouble begins, steel on steel.
Even had you used something like those pricey Ballistic joints that let your axle flex like a wet noodle. There's a point where they will bind given enough twist. The problem then is that when they bind, it's steel on steel. Now granted you do have to have a fair amount of rotation on the bearing before it reaches that point, but even if he did, I bet those stamped sheet metal brackets would have still done the same thing with binding ballistic joints but worse.
On my 70 rear axle I went from 1/4 which is on the 8.8 to 3/8" mounting brackets.
But what do I know, I was not there to see just what exactly happened, whether it was a single factor or a combination of.
But congratulations on wheeling it hard none the less. Breaking goes along with the territory especially when using stamped sheet metal stock brackets that were never designed for that kind of flex or abuse.
I'm sure jon was fully aware of those stamped sheet metal brackets before hand.
 
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The radius arm style suspension inherently binds due to design. A four link with non simular length links or non paralell links binds as well. Often poly bushings or rubber bushings are enough to soak it up. I have replaced multiple jeep brackets as well, but always on a suspension kit or design that was binding. On my jeep the four link is in stock config with different arms and it has never stressed or broke thos brackets. Your uppers are short (I am sure due to space constraints) but the shorter they are the more the will bind when one side is stuffed one is drooped. Radius armss change caster through travel. The problem is that the stuffed side changes it one way the drooped side changes it the other way. Remove one of your uppers and the bing will be gone.
 






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