xravn

hell i just i am always glad to be the ginnea pig!

wayoflife

Not that I'm doubting you, I just find it so hard to believe that your factory mount would just break like that if everything was installed correctly. I wonder if there's a possibility that some damage or cracks had occured the first time you experience death wobble, prior to you installing the last bolt.

As far as the rear goes, the FT kit relocation bracket is attached to the frame mount and there is no steering tied into it so I really doubt you will have any problems with it.

xravn

well i can't confirm that i had no stress cracks now from the first wobble. but i didn't notice any indications of such when i installed the last bolt. that would have raised a flag for me. the only thing i can figure is what 07rubijk said about me drilling the hole to make it fit... and that it left enough play in the bracket for it to still wobble and cause me to continiue the "death wobble" till it tore it clean off.

that is why i am convinced now if your bracket doesn't fit exactly perfect i wouldn't risk it! unless you can be absolutely sure that won't have play or anything, just get an adjustible. i for one will never use a relocator bracket again. and i hope this is surely and isolated instance but unfortunatly it has left a bad taste in my mouth.

*edit* "installed correctly" would have to asume all parts where correct. and aligned correctly so all bolts could be installed correctly as intended. in my case it was not so, even in the one you installed it did not correctly align and some modification was required. now once you start cutting and drilling parts to fit that modification now strays from the original fitment or intension. ether way it was not correct and had to moddified. so by following directions you would not be able to "correctly" install. and that raises the arguement that oh you modified that part so the warrianty is void. if something as trival as 1/8 or 1/4 of an inch can cause wobble and damage then that 1/8 or 1/4 that the hole is off would make it not correct from the get go.

wayoflife

Yeah, I hear where you're coming from and that sounds plausible.

Again, I hear where you're coming from but contrary to what you might think, most of the lift kits I have installed in the past on TJ's from a variety of manufacturers have all had parts that needed to be modified a bit in one way or another in order to get them to install. So, when I say "correctly" I mean that all the bolts have been installed - period. And, if a part were to break that I had to modify a bit in order to install properly, I would expect nothing less than the maufacturer to warranty the broken part. Likewise, I hope that you get taken care of and if you want, I can try to make a few calls for you to see if anything can be done for you. Please know, I am just trying to help provide information to others so that they can prevent any problems they may experience with their lift and that's all.

Northridge4x4

If "wobbles" or death wobble cause brackets to weaken then there is a big problem.

xravn

thanks alot wayoflife, i appreciate the help. i too just want to make all others aware of my experiance. i have stated over and over i hope this is an isolated instance, and unforturnatly not everyone is a experianced jeep expert. to find these faults in the manufactures kits and parts and know how to modify and bypass those errors to install the lift correctly. so this is a knowledge base for all to get better at just that.

also david over at northridge4x4 immediately gave me a call to inquire what was going on after my email to him. so i am happy with the level of customer service northridge has provided. i have just took some pictures with my cell phone of the repairs made to re-weld the bracket back on and emailed them to him as he requested. he was suprized to hear a wobble causing a bracket to rip off. i am not familiar with these things either way being new to jeeps. is this common? rare? normal? either way i hope everything is handled professionaly and correctly.

ITS a JEEP THING AFTERALL

just hate that my first carnage isn't even OFF_ROAD!

pics of repairs

Jake_Blues

The fact that it broke at the welds might indicate that the welds themselves were bad. Usually, due to the extra metal from the weld forming a gusset, the welded joint should be the strongest part of the bracket. Maybe yours was welded on Friday afternoon?

Sorry you are having problems with this thing though. Hopefully it gets squared away ASAP.

-E

xravn

well i'm not a pro at welding but some of the bracket was left on the axle not lots but there where shards left on the axle in some places where it tore off. maybe it was a combination of poor welds? but that ripping off sure looks bad to me either way, it was sheared off pretty bad! so i don't know where the part failed but i am sure that that wobble caused it. that same force that shook my front end side to side and made my tires shreak and chirp had to do a number on that bracket.

Northridge4x4

That may be true but i doubt it. If that is the case how is the stock trackbar mount going to handle the forces of 37" tires and extreme traction like in moab? Or all of the flexing that normal wheeling handes it.

What i think happened his buy not having that bolt in there the FT bracket was moving back and forth cuasing the stock bracket to fatigue over time. That bolt that was not in there is there to make sure the brakcet does not rotate.

xravn

i don't see how it would rotate with just one bolt not in. but either way it was just without the bolt for 2days and of that i drove maybe 10-15miles. i'm not arguing just don't see that logic.
the relocator bracket has 2 large holes and 2 small holes. the first large hole is for a bolt where the track bar used to be, the second is for where the track bar now will be. now if i leave it like that i can see it rotating, although not very much as where it sits doesn't allow much movement. but it has 2 more bolts one was always in and tight. thats 3 bolts in a triangle, i don't see how it can "rotate"? that 3rd bolt prevents it from rotating. the 4th bolt would just reinforce it, and utilize the 2 holes that JEEP has there pre-stamped.

now i don't know if you have expericanced this wobble but i have no doubt that it tore this off. i don't see how a 4rd bolt could have prevented this as it doesn't even go to the axle or anthing to reinforce the bracket just the other side of the bracket.

maybe i am just dumb about this and i don't mean to be rude or anything. but wow i just know: bracket no fit=jeep wobble=bracket rip off. i don't know how to explain further. and in the end of the poor little bracket it had that poor 4th bolt anyway, not that it helped or PREVENTED that last fatal wobble.

about the 37s? well only thing i can say about that is weight and stress are different from ramming force. its like a jack hammer sitting on the part with all its weight and maybe more. it may eventually weaken it probably not. but turn that hammer on and rip. that wobble represents some repeated excessive brutal ramming force that i don't beleive that part was ment to handle.
and i'm sure if you had 37's and had that wobble it would have snaped in half the time. remember that wobbles force went side to side violently. not just extra weight or stress slowly.

and maybe it is something we need to look at with these jks they are new anyway. angles change geometry change. things may not take as loosely as they did in the past. or as i said before its a isolate fluke we are all tring to figure out i just hope no one else has to experiance.