I understand the internal joints are dfferent all to well. A normal Heim Joint that is found on both the FT and Superlift bar has a metalic spherical ball within a metalic casing, where as the TF joint has a metalic spherical ball within a polyurethane casing.

I agree that FT and Superlift use the 'bushing' you're refering to as a spacer to get the correct width on the heim to the axle bracket, but they also machined the large OD into that 'bushing' to distribute the load onto the axle bracket. The bushing on the TF spherical ball is actually machined into the ball, but that bushing has too small of an OD.



It should be machined something like this:

 

no offense, but i dont think you are qualified to give any kind of opinion as to how something should be machined,

if you think that it should be done differently then do it yourself,

there are plenty of pictures and diagrams online showing each trackbar and each joint, so you should have been aware of what you were buying before ordering.


i understand your frustration,

but have you completely eliminated user install error out of the picture???

regardless Tera will take care of you, they are a stand up manufcaturer and always back their products

 

That's funny, I don't take offense to your opinion, everyone has their own.

I'm not going to give you my background on what I do for living either, but I can state my own opinion on how I think something should be machined. This is a public forum.

I'm not trying to talk bad about Teraflex. I'm just trying to bring something to light. Maybe mine is a single instance, but someone else has already chimmed in that they have the same issue. Isn't that what forums are for? If someone has the same issue, then I've helped them. If they haven't, great!

I have bought a lot of Teraflex products, I think most are nice, but nothing is perfect. I've emailed them about this and not heard anything back....? Also, when I talked to them on the phone they didn't show much interest. Maybe I was talking to the wrong guy?

Intall error? I'm not judging you because I don't know you. Are you judging me? Again, I'm not here to defend myself and what I do for a living.

See the thing is, if I'd never pulled the track bar I wouldn't even know there's a problem, until, god forbid, something bad happen. I'm glad I did though, because I'm not leaving it in there like it is. I think most people out there that have the TF bars are the same, why would you ever pull it again?

Another story-

I actually bought all of TF's Control Arms for my JK. After my first time wheeling with the arms installed, my JK was pulling hard to the left. I couldn't figure out why because I didn't hit anything on the underside. This is when I started pulling things apart and noticed the "axle track bar bracket' problem, but it wasn't causing the pulling. I proceeded to pull the arms, when to my suprise one of the lower Heim Joints was as loose as a goose, it happened to be the drivers side, the side my JK was pulling towards. I then called Tera and they admitted they had a bad set of Heims, but thought they had caught all of them before they went out. Obviously they hadn't. They also stated the 'pulling' issue is the symptom of the bad Heim.

Tera is sending me all new Heim Joints. The thing that upsets me about this is, I have to pull every arm back out of my JK, take the time to replace every joint (8 in total), and I had to charge them to my VISA card until I return the old ones. Now, in all fairness they did give me the option of taking every arm out, pulling the joints, sending them back, then waiting for the new ones, so that I wouldn't have to put them on my VISA, but that's ridiculous in my book. So sure, they take care of you when there's a problem, but this kinda sucks too!
Not so much the VISA issue, but my time issue. The arms have only been in there for 1 wheeling trip....

Again, I'm not bashing the company!!! If I were bashing them I would be trying to get all my money back for everything I've bought from them (which is just about every suspension component on my rig) and switch to another vendor. And, I'd be saying they suck, but I'm not!

I hate people that try to hi-jack threads! Do you have any ties to TF? I'm just trying to share a "could be" problem and telling people to check theirs.

~

 

nope not related to any manufacturer at all, i dont have a person to talk to at Tera, i remember i had some issues with some things i installed for my YJ back when, i called Tera and they were very helpful.

I do think the forum is a great way to get manufacturers to answer issues, hopefully someone from Tera will read this and respond, would be interesting to see what they say regarding the joint bushing

if you do get a chance please, post pics of the faulty joint on the track bar, id like to compare as to how mine looks

 

Huskynox,
How long ago did you order your TeraFlex control arms. UPS is delivering my TeraFlex control arms today.

 

Not that long ago. I got the Lower Fronts from Northridge 4x4, so they may have been on their shelf, so who know's how old they were?

That's the thing about companies sending parts to stores for stock, then realizing there's a problem....It's hard to catch all the bad parts. I'm not trying to start a panic, or bash anyone. You could worry yourself to death about any part being good or bad.....

I'd just put them in, if there's a problem with any of them, your JK will start handling weird.

My JK pulled to the left and wondered a bit after wheeling it. Before wheeling it, it drove straight as an arrow. I didn't hit any of the arms or bend anything else, so I started investigating, that is how I found the loose Heim Joint.

~

 

I can understand what is the conceived problem here, but someone correct me if I'm wrong. If everything is tightend the way that it should be, then the track bar is going to rotate in the joint, not between the bracket, therefore, the bracket would not be wearing, correct? I do underrstand if the mating surface was thicker, there would be less of a chance of any wear taking place (more mating surface to distribute the load), however if there is wear there on the bracket surface, it truly sounds to me like that track bar bolt was not torqued to the correct specs as it should have been.

 

You may be on to something here...

 

After reading this post I decided to send a quick note to Rand at Teraflex, who I met at the Drummond Island Jeep Jamboree. I had a few other questions for him, but also forwarded him a link to this thread. I don't know why they haven't gotten back to huskynox, but here was his reply to me:

"I saw the post on the JK Forum and showed my head of engineering. He will make an adjustment to the center sleeve to increase the contact area. We haven’t had any issues during 16,000 miles of long term testing between our 2 JK’s but the fact that one of our customers had an issue tells me we need to address it. I cannot say how soon the change will occur since it will be an in-line change to the product when we run out of current stock. If the bolt is kept tight there should never be any movement in that area. I am not disputing what the web forum post says, I have seen his photos and his CAD drawing suggestion. We always welcome feedback from our customers. It is part of what helped TeraFlex become the company it is today. We cannot possible think of everything, but our customers seem to always have something to offer in the way of product improvement suggestions."

 

Totally agree with BLKRUBI here. I don't have any first hand knowledge of these problems. But with what's been posted, I too feel like I'm grasping the problem, and this just makes sense.