FrankNBrew said:
I had the same issue with Rusty's standard track bar. I replaced the tie rod every couple of months. The bracket was fine. You could see the rod end move up and down on the ball when cranking the steering back and forth. I eventually switched to the heavy duty bracket with rubber bushing, and it was fine.
It is amazing that so many people have this problem, I just discovered last Sunday. Due to our twins and my limited time, I hadn't taken my XJ for off-roading a lot, the last few months, since I had Rusty's lift installed.
Last Friday, I finally managed to find some free time, and have the rear shackles replaced, and the front bushings of the rear springs replaced. Admitedly Rusty had send me those parts to compensate for problems I had with the initial spring setup. So, I was very happy and took my wife for a brief off-road trip on a hill next to our house. We stopped somewhere for her to look at the view, and I moved the wheel a bit to allow the truck to start on a better path. I heard a noise coming from underneath my feet. I got out and ask her to move the wheel as I was looking under the truck. Imagine my horror when I saw that the heim joint was so loose that you could see the upper part move in its lower part.
Now, please consider that I had that lift installed last October, so it is less than 6 months old. I also had clarified with Rusty, that I prefer to pay more money than have to change parts again and again. Living in Athens Greece, has its shortcomings when shopping for our favorite truck.
I am really pissed off with Rusty. I asked him to replace the heim end and the mount with its heavy duty ones. He denied, saying that if I had upgraded at purchase time, I would have paid the additional 89$. However, at the time of purchase, I didn't know that the heim joint will fail after six months (with almost no off-road time), nor did I know that this is a common problem. I even suggested that we split the cost of the upgrade, since I didn't want to have to replace another heim joint (which he was willing to send me for free) after another 6 months. He also denied that too.
This is probably the last he will see of my business.
Rgds