How many of you have that crack under the rear seat by the latch? I have a pretty big one there, about 3 inches long. What would be a good fix for that? I think that welding along the crack is a no no. I'm also curious as to how common that crack is. I don't have any noticeable cracks at the steering box or frame rails. I'm thinking maybe this crack happened when I bottomed out my hitch.
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How to repair unibody crack at rear seat latch
- Thread starter Desert4x4
- Start date
xcm
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Southern Oregon
Stop drill, wire weld.
Theyre common on prerunner or jeepspeed style cherokees... and somewhat, ultimately, unavoidable under enough abuse. Ive found 4" long gashes across the trans tunnel, to the left of your hand in the pic above. You should see what happens to the rear shock crossmember/stamped steel upper mount area after running stiff shocks!
Theyre common on prerunner or jeepspeed style cherokees... and somewhat, ultimately, unavoidable under enough abuse. Ive found 4" long gashes across the trans tunnel, to the left of your hand in the pic above. You should see what happens to the rear shock crossmember/stamped steel upper mount area after running stiff shocks!
- Location
- San Diego
xcm
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Southern Oregon
- Location
- San Diego
1/8" should do it.
You can weld a plate over if you want to, if you can't get one on. There I wouldn't worry too hard about it.
xcm
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Southern Oregon
x2 on the 1/8th stop drills, youve gotta be able to fill those holes back in with weld too...
As far as adding a reinforcement plate... it couldnt hurt, and nobody would ever see it... Probably not NEEDED, but it will make it easier to weld. If not, tack tack tack is your friend on jobs like this, just make sure your getting good penetration. You could also backup the weld with a peice of copper plate while welding.
As far as adding a reinforcement plate... it couldnt hurt, and nobody would ever see it... Probably not NEEDED, but it will make it easier to weld. If not, tack tack tack is your friend on jobs like this, just make sure your getting good penetration. You could also backup the weld with a peice of copper plate while welding.
robert2008
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Herndon, VA
You should be golden after you weld it. :thumbup:
Boostwerks.com
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Colorado
Looks good!
So this area cracked again. This time around the welds. Not bad for lasting 3 years and 42,000 miles. Now my Jeep has 220,020 miles. I was wondering if possibly the cracking is from heavy weight on the rear seat, but probably just from the body flex. I've since added some frame stiffeners. Any ideas?
arto_wa
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- S.W. Washington State
The problem with welding a spot like that is in that the metal surrounding the weld shrinks due to the heat from the welding and creates lot of stress when it cools down.
There are ways to reduce the stress, for example by preheating the surrounding area with oxy/acet torch immediately before welding it, but it's still a challenge.
That spot probably had already lot of stress from the factory when new.
Just saying.
:cheers:
There are ways to reduce the stress, for example by preheating the surrounding area with oxy/acet torch immediately before welding it, but it's still a challenge.
That spot probably had already lot of stress from the factory when new.
Just saying.
:cheers:
denverd1
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Dallas, TX
How far back are your stiffeners? May be good to put a set on the back half or extend them somehow. Obviously, not under my jeep right now...
Any cracks elsewhere?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
Any cracks elsewhere?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
Black1990jeep
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- california
I have a simular crack under my rear seat
See photo here...
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/cracking-floor-pan-near-rear-seat-267206/#post3683134
I wonder how your repair has held up?
A question for the experts... How can this crack be prevented from reoccurring?
I had been rock crawling a few years, and more recently added center frame stiffeners. I wonder if by stiffening the center has directed more stress and bending to this area under the rear seat?
The crack grew over the last weekend off road trip, (have since drilled stop holes)
Never saw this crack before I had installed center stiffeners. I did plenty of crawling prior to adding the center stiffener, no crack then.
I am trying to picture what motion can cause this crack. I am thinking flex of the rear end of jeep up and down might do this. Prior to adding the center stiffener, that kind of bending might have been absorbed over the full wheel base, but with the center stiffeners installed, well the center dont flex much now, cant absorb the stress by flexing, so all the stress now is getting concentrated behind the rear end of the center stiffeners, which is under the rear seat.
I got 33x 12.5 tires 5.5 inch lift, 4.11 transfercase low range, Ford 9 inch rear.
Now if I do rear frame stiffeners and tie them in well with the center stiffener, then this area should see a lot less bending from up and down motion. However if this crack is from a twisting force (as in one rear wheel up, other rear wheel down) then rear stiffeners may not be solution, rather some sort of cross member to withstand the twist maybe needed.
What say you all?
See photo here...
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/cracking-floor-pan-near-rear-seat-267206/#post3683134
I wonder how your repair has held up?
A question for the experts... How can this crack be prevented from reoccurring?
I had been rock crawling a few years, and more recently added center frame stiffeners. I wonder if by stiffening the center has directed more stress and bending to this area under the rear seat?
The crack grew over the last weekend off road trip, (have since drilled stop holes)
Never saw this crack before I had installed center stiffeners. I did plenty of crawling prior to adding the center stiffener, no crack then.
I am trying to picture what motion can cause this crack. I am thinking flex of the rear end of jeep up and down might do this. Prior to adding the center stiffener, that kind of bending might have been absorbed over the full wheel base, but with the center stiffeners installed, well the center dont flex much now, cant absorb the stress by flexing, so all the stress now is getting concentrated behind the rear end of the center stiffeners, which is under the rear seat.
I got 33x 12.5 tires 5.5 inch lift, 4.11 transfercase low range, Ford 9 inch rear.
Now if I do rear frame stiffeners and tie them in well with the center stiffener, then this area should see a lot less bending from up and down motion. However if this crack is from a twisting force (as in one rear wheel up, other rear wheel down) then rear stiffeners may not be solution, rather some sort of cross member to withstand the twist maybe needed.
What say you all?
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