Hit a curb pretty bad

Was raining like hell today and driving to my friend's house on roads I haven't been on much. Got off an exit on the highway which went up on a crest and came back down about 15 feet and made a hard right. The 20mph turn sign was conveniently placed after the crest.

Needless to say I locked up the brakes in the rain and slid into the curb at about 25 mph. There's now a death wobble from 45 to 55 mph. The front driver side rim took the most impact from what it seems. The worst part of the damage is the LCA axle mount is bent to the passenger's side. My steering wheel is also off center to the right. Also some faint squealing at low speeds. I plan on investing in a junkyard D30 now.

Should I inspect the trackbar angle with the drag link? The off center steering wheel makes me feel like the axle is pushed in towards the passenger side. The death wobble has me thinking it's related to the tie rods and/or trackbar and drag link. Balljoints might have also taken a hit but I didn't get a good look at everything. I have no idea what the squealing would be related to. Maybe wheel bearings? Thoughts? This is for a 5 speed 98 XJ.

i would replace that LCA, and have someone wiggle the wheel back and forth while you look for movement in every tierod end, both ends of the tracbar, wheel bearings, and at your balljoints. also, jack it up and wiggle both front wheels to check for play in the bearings. replace what you need to, then get an alignment. you might have bent that rim, as well. maybe put your spare on and see if it gets better.

That is similar to what happened to me a few weeks ago. I hit the center wall on the freeway after hydroplaning, at at least 35 mph, and the bottom of the drivers' side wheel took basically all of the impact due to the flare at the bottom of the concrete barrier. It broke the wheel (cracked it right across one of the spokes), bent the drivers' side lower control arm and axle bracket, popped the front U-joint off at the pinion yoke, breaking the cast-in tabs on the yoke in the process. I'm also pretty sure it screwed up the lower ball joint and/or wheel bearing, but it could be that they were just old and worn out anyways.

That is all stuff you'd want to look at.

The pull to the right could be that the control arm brackets, or the arms themselves, bent so that the axle makes a different angle relative to the vehicle frame. (Probably got pushed back on the drivers side, making it want to turn left- now you have to steer to the right to keep it straight). The drag link or tie-rod could also be bent, although they weren't in my case.

I would bet that the ball joints and wheel bearing on the drivers side need replacing. The wheel bearing could cause the squealing. Check all of the tie-rod ends as well.

Also might want to check the front driveline; pinion bearings, U-joints- see if there is any play when you pull on the yoke after removing the front drive shaft. That kind of an impact pushes the axle back into the drive shaft and could cause problems. If the axle was in good shape before the wreck, and unless something in the differential or pinion is broken or loose now, I doubt you'll need to junk the axle. You'll just will need to weld on new LCA mounts and probably get new drivers' side control arms.

I bet you need a new wheel too. That could cause the vibrations. And I wouldn't drive it around much until you check it out thoroughly.

Good luck-

I just checked almost everything thoroughly. The wheel is most likely bust. I rotated the tire and the tire tread was moving in and out. I checked the ball joints, tie rod ends, tie rod, and both driveshaft and axle U-joints. Everything seems to check out externally. The axle LCA mount is joggled. I don't know how I'm gonna straighten those out. The LCA looks like it needs replacing as well. One of the edges seem to be tearing. One thing I noticed is the bumpstop and spring angle. Seems the castor is off to the back on the driver side. Everything on the body seems straight. Most of the damage is on the wheel and axle. I haven't figured out the squealing yet. It sounds like it's coming from the brakes but I'm not sure. I replaced the wheel with the spare and it rotates fine now. I haven't driven it to be sure yet. Rob did your accident cause the knuckles to bend?

If the LCA is bent at all that will affect your caster. The difference in length between the upper and lower arms determines caster. Are you looking at this with the wheels off and the frame suported by jackstands, axle at full droop? If so, realize that as the axle droops, it rotates due to the geometry of the control arms, and that's normal (and also why people get adjustable LCAs when they lift it beyond a certain point). So, caster can only be accurately judged at your normal ride height.

But if the LCA mount is bent, I would guess the arm itself is, too. A new LCA with bushings already installed runs about $40 from Quadratec. Quadratec seels the axle brackets too (~$45 I think, per side, much beefier than stock brackets). The stock brackets can be beat back into shape with a hammer, or with a c-clamp or something, but I wouldn't trust it at that point due to concerns about metal fatigue. Depends on how bent they are I guess. If you can drive to a 4x4 shop or somewhere that can do welding, getting new brackets welded on shouldn't run you too much (I had to take the whole axle assembly out, and some welders at my work were nice enough to weld them on).

As for steering knuckles, mine weren't obviously bent. My theory is that between the wheel breaking, LCA/bracket bending a lot of the impact was absorbed and kept other stuff from breaking. You could take the wheels and brakes off and closely inspect the drivers side knuckle and inner-C with the passenger side. I think that if any of that stuff bent much, the knuckle would bind up as it rotated (pull the TRE and see how the knuckle feels when it pivots).

If nothing feels loose or broken with the balljoints and wheel bearings, then your #1 priority is getting all of the control arms straight and true. Those arms plus the track bar ensure the axle is properly aligned with the vehicle. Once that is done and you have a new wheel/tire, I would be very careful driving it at first, and I would take it to a parking lot somewhere and do lots of turns with my head out the window, listening for noises and feeling for vibrations. Have an alignment done and see whats in/out of spec. If it feels/sounds normal and tracks straight, then I guess you are fine. You want to be very careful about this, obviously, due to the consequences of failure of these parts.

Good luck.

Very good info Rob. Thanks.

I dismounted the tire from the wheel and inspected it. The wheel is bent in. The tire is salvageable. So I bought a junkyard wheel and mounted and balanced it to keep as a spare. The original spare solved the death wobble instantly. The Jeep drives straight and true. I checked around the knuckles, camber, and caster while the Jeep was on the ground and other than the caster, everything else looks good in my opinion. I've driven it numerous times already and it drives fine though the steering wheel is still off center. I'll have to bend the LCA mounts back and weld on skidplates for reinforcement. I still haven't figured out what the squealing is though I'm 85% sure it's brakes since it goes away when they're depressed. Another noise I've noticed is the this mix of grinding/popping when accelerating. My guess is U joints though an initial inspection didn't reveal anything. I'll have to pull the front driveshaft and do a more thorough check.