cracks in the frame around steering box.....

Ok so I have noticed a couple small cracks creeping up the sides of the frame rail and I know its from the stress of the 5 1/2 years and 95,000 miles of riding on 31s and mild wheeling. Anyway I know I need a steering box brace to help stop the cracks but I was wondering if I could get some suggestions on a good one to purchase that isn't too expensive and isn't some crazy install but still strong and will do the job. My XJ is only on 31s and I am going up to 33s soon and thats probably the biggest tire size I will ever get to with this Jeep since it is my daily driver and I do a lot of highway driving going back and forth between home and college.

i got mine from iron rock offroad on ebay. search for cherokee steering support. i think it was around $50 plus shipping

Well, especially if its your daily driver, you are going to want to weld up those cracks. While you are welding it all together, probably the strongest way of fixing it would be to weld on JKS's SBS system.

Begster said:

Well, especially if its your daily driver, you are going to want to weld up those cracks. While you are welding it all together, probably the strongest way of fixing it would be to weld on JKS's SBS system.

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Ben824 said:

Ok so I have noticed a couple small cracks creeping up the sides of the frame rail and I know its from the stress of the 5 1/2 years and 95,000 miles of riding on 31s and mild wheeling. Anyway I know I need a steering box brace to help stop the cracks but I was wondering if I could get some suggestions on a good one to purchase that isn't too expensive and isn't some crazy install but still strong and will do the job. My XJ is only on 31s and I am going up to 33s soon and thats probably the biggest tire size I will ever get to with this Jeep since it is my daily driver and I do a lot of highway driving going back and forth between home and college.

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Hallo, I am very curious, how did you find out? Was there a sound or a movement to see?
Can you make some pics.
I should be very grateful. :wave1:

'92 XJ with 18 years and 260K km of riding on "31 and mild wheeling.

I just put the JKS SBS on mine. Its worth it, even if you have to pay a bit to get it put on. My Jeep steer better, creaks less, and has more powers of awesome than ever before.

Even with braces you can get cracks. When you do your best bet is to drill out the end of the crack, and weld it (I weld it hotter than normal, get a really good pool, and let it cool slow).

My front bumper is improperly mounted using only the stock (3 on each side) mounting holes. (I know, bad idea). I landed pretty hard on my front bumper and it bent the front end of the frame rail and cross member up and creased and cracked the frame rails on each side a bit.

Can anyone recommend a way to bend the ends of the frame rail back down so I can weld on some plates like the JKS SBS? The surface isn't flat becuase of the crease.

i have the c rock inner brace and i made the outer brace. if i were you thats what i would do. and weld the cracks up like the others said and maybe look into the brace the goes to the other side of the frame as well such as this one http://rustysoffroad.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=RS-SB75-XJ&Category_Code=ste or one like it.

ocean_jet said:

My front bumper is improperly mounted using only the stock (3 on each side) mounting holes. (I know, bad idea). I landed pretty hard on my front bumper and it bent the front end of the frame rail and cross member up and creased and cracked the frame rails on each side a bit.

Can anyone recommend a way to bend the ends of the frame rail back down so I can weld on some plates like the JKS SBS? The surface isn't flat becuase of the crease.

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Any thoughts on how to straighten out the front of the frame rails? I beat on the bumper with a sledge hammer, trying to bend it back down. That didn't do much.

Why not get a Good Strong Front Bumper that incorporates a steering box brace? That way you are better protected from a front end collision.

wim hoppenbrouwers said:

Hallo, I am very curious, how did you find out? Was there a sound or a movement to see?
Can you make some pics.
I should be very grateful. :wave1:

'92 XJ with 18 years and 260K km of riding on "31 and mild wheeling.

Click to expand...

I started to notice a creaking noise when I would turn the wheel so I put up a thread here asking what it could be thinking maybe TREs or ball-joints and someone mentioned stock mounting points around the steering box being weak and gettting cracks in the frame rail so I looked around and sure enough there were 2 little cracks creeping up the side of the frame rail one near where the sway bar is mounted and just a few inches back from there is the other one. I have kept an eye on them since then which has been a few months and they haven't seemed to get any worse but I know I need to do something soon.

Ok guys thanks for all the suggestions on fixing this problem but I guess I didn't make this apparent enough when I mentioned I wanted something cheap but good. I am a college student which means I basically have no money so I need something that works but doesn't cost a bunch of money. Second, I can't weld, nor do I know someone who can, nor do I have they money to pay someone to get up in there and go to town fixing it assuming something like that would be $100 atleast to have done.

I did see the Rusty's one but it didn't look all that strong so I wanted to see if there were any others that were similar to that design but better without being that much more expensive than the Rusty's price.

I would love to go out and get the cracks fixed and put on a serious brace and get a bumper and all that but I really just cannot afford that at all. The Jeep just needs to drive and the problem not get any worse than it already is. Later on down the road I will really take care of beefing it all up so it can take anything I throw at it but for now I just want to stop the progression of the cracks.

Put out a feeler thread in your local chapter for someone with a welder who's willing to help out a poor college student. If they have some steel lying around, you might even be able to talk them into making you an inner reinforcement plate.