Bent Shock Tower

[Wiskey]

Hello all!!! I posted this on another board I belong to, and they suggested that I come ask you guys about it.

Long story short, I brought my Jeep up to the Pismo sand dunes - and accidentally jumped it way higher than I ever intended. When it came down I broke my front axle housing in half, snapped a shock in two, (I can fix that no problem) but what is a problem is the shock tower.

When it landed it hit the front bumpstops in the middle of the springs HARD and bent the passenger side one forward a few inches, almost to the swaybar.

Is there a way to fix this? How would you do it?

I do have a wire feed welder, and other basic tools - and I'm not afraid to get dirty - but I don't know where to start on this one.

Thanks for your help!
Whiskey

 

[xcm]

if you bend it back, like a lot of people do, it will bend back now that it's weakened. time for hydraulic bumpstops!

welcome!
like this http://www.4wheeloffroad.com/techarticles/suspension/131_0605_hydraulic_bumpstops/index.html

 

[DieselSJ]

Once they bend, they are never the same again. They will keep bending, even with hydro bumps (ask me how we know!). That is why the Jeepspeed guys tie the tops of the coil bucket into their cage.

We went to some extremes with our new chassis and went way beyond what any other teams have done. Unfortunately the rest of the team won't give me permission to post pics of what we did.

If you don't reinforce it, here is what will happen next - look where the spring pocket meets the inner fender.

 

[Wiskey]

Once they bend, they are never the same again. They will keep bending, even with hydro bumps (ask me how we know!). That is why the Jeepspeed guys tie the tops of the coil bucket into their cage.

We went to some extremes with our new chassis and went way beyond what any other teams have done. Unfortunately the rest of the team won't give me permission to post pics of what we did.

If you don't reinforce it, here is what will happen next - look where the spring pocket meets the inner fender.

Yikes,.. that is scary.

Keep in mind though,.. that I don't intend to jump this jeep too much - it's a multipurpose vehicle, that is mainly used for light rock crawling.

Do you think I'll still have problems with it re-bending? I could re-enforce the top of it.

Thanks!
Whiskey

 

[Wiskey]

if you bend it back, like a lot of people do, it will bend back now that it's weakened. time for hydraulic bumpstops!

welcome!
like this http://www.4wheeloffroad.com/techarticles/suspension/131_0605_hydraulic_bumpstops/index.html

Thanks for the welcome!

Do you think that a kit like that would be useful for someone with a multipurpose vehicle? Or is that mainly for people who jump regularly?

Thanks!
Whiskey

 

[DieselSJ]

if you bend it back, like a lot of people do, it will bend back now that it's weakened. time for hydraulic bumpstops!

welcome!
like this http://www.4wheeloffroad.com/techarticles/suspension/131_0605_hydraulic_bumpstops/index.html

We had our old chassis reinforced like that. That would be sufficient on a play rig, but not nearly enough if you really want to pound it.

Thanks for the welcome!

Do you think that a kit like that would be useful for someone with a multipurpose vehicle? Or is that mainly for people who jump regularly?

Thanks!
Whiskey

Hydo bumps would work well for nearly everyone.

 

[Wiskey]

Progress!

Here's where I'm at right now

I welded a piece of scrap square tube onto my bent shock tower to give me a little more leverage - and used a 2 ton comealong hooked onto my slider to straighten my shock tower as best I could.

This did a great job of straightening the body portion of the vehicle.

Then I took out my trusty dremel tool, and carefully cut through the stitch welds holding the bump stop tower to the body, removed the bump stop, and used a grinder to smooth out the body side - after using a sledge hammer to do the final straitening.

After inspecting the bump stop tower, I don't think it would be wise to re-use it = So, I'm going to make a new one, using 1/4 inch plate as the base, and some thicker round tube I'm hoping to find at the metal shop in their scrap section today. My design is going to be much like the picture posted earlier with the ripped inner section.

After I get the pieces however, I will have to hold off on welding it all together, because I will need to ensure that I get the angles correct - and I will need a new axle to make those measurements. (Unless anyone has any great ideas on how to estimate it, if so I'm all ears )

I don't normally jump - so I think that with the reinforced bump stop I will be okay - either way, I don't have a cage to tie it into.

Is anyone interested in pictures? I could take some, though I imagine you have all done this to your own rigs lol

Whiskey

 

[dgrigorenko]

dude, everyone is always interested in pictures

 

[bdiamond]

Would it be feasibleto ditch the long metal tube part all together and only rebuild enough to locate and secure the top of the spring. Then use those really long squishy urethane bumpstops that so many people talk highly about? I think prothane ones? The long tube looks like it would multiply any impact the bumpstop sees and then transfer it into the unibody.

 

[Wiskey]

Would it be feasibleto ditch the long metal tube part all together and only rebuild enough to locate and secure the top of the spring. Then use those really long squishy urethane bumpstops that so many people talk highly about? I think prothane ones? The long tube looks like it would multiply any impact the bumpstop sees and then transfer it into the unibody.

This is certainly something I could do - the only purpose of the bumpstops for me is keeping my tires out of my fenders during full articulation when I'm rock crawling. But would long squishy bumpstops be enough to stop the tire when I come up agenst it? Rather than it squishing out the side of the spring or something?

What bumpstops are you referring to? Do you have a link?

Thanks,
Whiskey

 

[Wiskey]

dude, everyone is always interested in pictures

Right on,.. I took some of my progress,.. I'll post them as I get a little further on.

Whiskey

 

[Wiskey]

I'm making some progress on this

First thing I did was weld a peice of steel onto the old bump tower to give me more leverage, and use a comealong to get it relatively straight,.. the most important thing was this made the body side fairly straight. After inspection I decided that the old bump tower was too damaged to use.

So I cut the stitch welds with a Dremel, and removed it,.. then I cleaned up the body side, removing paint and undercoating, as well as using a sledge hammer to straighten it out more.

Then I made this plate to strengthen the body side and prevent it from crushing in again out of 1/4" Plate - I plasma cut the holes into it so that I could weld it that way, but later decided it would be far stronger to weld both there, and around the edge, getting rid of the bends in the shock tower and preventing further bending there.

I then measured the angles on the other side, and did my best to copy them on this side with the plate,.. it angles about 2 degrees out, and about 10 degrees forward.

Now I wait on the axle before I can make the measurements about what angle the bump tower should sit at.

Whiskey

 

[DieselSJ]

I'm making some progress on this

First thing I did was weld a peice of steel onto the old bump tower to give me more leverage, and use a comealong to get it relatively straight,.. the most important thing was this made the body side fairly straight. After inspection I decided that the old bump tower was too damaged to use.

So I cut the stitch welds with a Dremel, and removed it,.. then I cleaned up the body side, removing paint and undercoating, as well as using a sledge hammer to straighten it out more.

Then I made this plate to strengthen the body side and prevent it from crushing in again out of 1/4" Plate - I plasma cut the holes into it so that I could weld it that way, but later decided it would be far stronger to weld both there, and around the edge, getting rid of the bends in the shock tower and preventing further bending there.

I then measured the angles on the other side, and did my best to copy them on this side with the plate,.. it angles about 2 degrees out, and about 10 degrees forward.

Now I wait on the axle before I can make the measurements about what angle the bump tower should sit at.

Whiskey

Good start! If you can extend the tubes into the engine compartment and then tie the tubes to the inner fender (like they did in that article) it adds a lot of rigidity to the towers. Without extending it through and tying the tops, they will bend again even with those big plates you are putting on there.

 

[Wiskey]

Wait,.. those bumpstop towers go straight through the part that the spring itself rests on?

Oh! I see what you mean,.. I thought they just did that because their hydrolic towers were so tall and they had to. I can certainly do that,.. but there's only one problem. My coolant resivwar goes there.

Thanks for the tip! I will try to make that work.

Whiskey

 

[Wiskey]

More progress!

Taking DesilSJ's advise into account - I drilled a hole in my shiny new plate:

Then I cut this piece of tube for my new bumpstop,.. if that bends, my jeep has already turned into a taco.

Then I spot welded this bolt onto a cap that I made:

My new bumpstop!

With the cup:

Now I just need to wait for the axle to line everything up

Whiskey

 

[xcm]

nice repair work! looks better than stock!

 

[Wiskey]

nice repair work! looks better than stock!

Thank you XCM!
If it holds up, and all my angles are right when I go to put all this back together I will be a happy man

Whiskey

 

[Wiskey]

Me and my friend went to the junkyard today, and we picked up a greasy Dana 30 for $200!!! I was very happy that one of the XJ's there happened to be 4 wheel drive.

This means I got to set my angles, and weld the bumpstops up. I spotwelded it, then flexed the axle every which way to make sure it would land on the bumpstop pads.

Then I made the weld more perminate:

The bumpstop extends into the engine compartment so that I can brace it there too:

That's where I stopped for today,.. This is an awful lot of work!

Whiskey

 

[jeep pox]

is your new Dana 30 geared? or stock?

 

[Wiskey]

My Dana 30 is just stock for now. I'm on 33's,.. and I want to Re-gear, but I still have the Dana 35 out back, and I don't think re-gearing it would be a wise use of my money. I will be going to a Ford 8.8 out back at some point, and that already comes with 4.10's, so my plan is to go to 4.10's in the front at the same time.

Whiskey