Track bar bracket bracing

well, i was under the jeep the other day and noticed a nice crack forming on my rusty's HD track bar bracket. i dont blame the peice itself, but rather the bolts always loosening up and me not running a brace with 35's. ive looked at the RE bracket & brace but have some ideas of my own. i was thinkin of gettin another rusty's HD bracket. then, since all XJ's have holes drilled for a RHD track bar bracket, build my own bracket on the passenger side to mirror the rustys one. heres where i get different:

instead of a fully welded peice that bolts in, im thinkin of addind heims on each end of the brace. this way i can fine tune the brace to fit and when i add TMR plates someday, i can easily lengthen the brace by adjusting the heims. any reasons this wouldnt work as well as a fixed brace? i beleive it should control the side to side movement of the brace and bracket just the same.

Why not do the TMR plates, like, now, then do the whole brace thing later?

Rework sucks.

i dont need the plates to make it driveable, but i do need a track bar bracket that wont fail


heres a quick MSpaint version

yellow = heims
red = new brace bracket
green = DOM

Does your crack look like this one?



Just found that on my Rusty's bracket the other day.

I wouldnt want any joint in there,kinda defeats some of the purpose.

vetteboy, your air bump thread being fresh in my mind is what made me check mine. sure enough thats the same thing that happened, execpt mines still bolted on only. i can see how a rubber/poly bushing would defeat the purpose, but i figured a good quality heim should have no sloop or give.

I wouldn't use heims, I used a piece of 1" x .250" wall dom and a 1/2" bolt and some .250" plate tabs for my brace.

Skullver said:

I wouldn't use heims, I used a piece of 1" x .250" wall dom and a 1/2" bolt and some .250" plate tabs for my brace.

Click to expand...

I knew i had someone's in mind but i forgot who it was. i couldnt remember were i had seen the disscusion about this til i just went threw ur thread on pirate. im about to build shorter track bar so i was gunna use the bends my old one has to clear the pan. im pretty much aiming for the setup u have