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Rusty's Track Bar Frame Mount - Broken!!

rbarton

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Acworth, GA
Has anyone had an issue with Rusty's track bar frame mount breaking? As you may recall, I mentioned last month about my problem with his track bar breaking (and him overnighting a replacement unit to my campsite). I mentioned to him then that the paint around the frame mount nuts in the wheel well looking as if it had shifted. He told me that if it had, it must have already been loose. I looked and didn't see any signs of further damage, but I was wrong! Turning left across traffic after church yesterday, I heard and felt a "pop" at which point my steering went whacko. I was able to get across the intersection without being hit (thank God...literally!) and pulled off to look for the trouble. My first thought was "oh no, not ANOTHER track bar break" but it didn't feel quite as bad and I did have a little bit of steering control. Anyway, checking the track bar, and other steering/suspension components as my wife moved the wheel back and forth, showed nothing. I started to crawl out from under the XJ to look at the steering box from above when I just happened to glance into the wheel well and noticed that the frame mount was sitting about 1.5 inches off the outside of the frame rail area when my wife turned the steering wheel. I had he hold it and looked back up towards the inside of the frame rail and found that the mount had broken clean in two! Except for about 1/2 inch of broken surface, it appeared to have been like that for a little while due to the amount of dirt and oil/greasy goo that had worked it's way into the crack. The metal looked very brittle and like "pot metal" in the way the surface of the break was. My guess is that when the track bar broke last month, it hit either the ground or the axle and jacked the other end into the frame mount...which is WHY I saw the broken paint around the nuts on the outside of the frame rail. The bushing in the track bar end on the frame side is no longer round, which further indicates a "kick" in that direction. I actually remembered to take pics this time so you can see what happened. I faxed Rusty yesterda and told him what happened. He left a message last night and said he'd call me today. I'll let you know what the outcome is. Again, as with the track bar, it scares the bejeebies out of me to think what would have happened if we had been at highway speed, or in a curve when this thing broke.

Never posted pics here before, so if they don't work, look here under "broken parts":

http://community.webshots.com/user/rictbarton


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thank god nothing happen to you and your wife... as for the track bar mount...


as for the trackbar mount, if I where you I would return his broken cr@p back, and kindly ask for the refund.


then go get yourself a RE trackbar mount.
 
RE mounts break too, I've seen two fail. Whatever you do, brace the trackbar mount next time around. RE and Rusty both offer trackbar braces.
 
That didn't break at a weld, so I don't believe it was due to failty workmanship. I would think you had some loose bolts to allow it to break like that without bending the other bolt through portion still on the bracket.
BTW, I've been running that bracket and trackbar for a few years now and have had no problems.
 
I spoke to Rusty a few moments ago. He is sending out a replacement and asked for this one to be returned for examination. He indicated that this was not the first break he has had reported with his frame mount. He also said that mine was one of the first he produced and that the design had been changed. He then implied that it was possibly due to "overdrooping" of the track bar, allowing it to make contact with the axle track bar mount and binding. No marks on the bar though and the first time the track bar broke, I was only at 4.5 inches with 31x10.50 tires.

To "JnJ", thanks for the comments, but I don't believe I said it was faulty workmanship. As I recall, I said it looked like "pot metal" as it appeared to be very brittle. My digital camera can't zone in that close or I'd have given a microscopic view of the broken edge. As for loose bolts, not likely. Considering what it took to get them off. After the impact the entire assembly took when the track bar broke and hit whatever it hit to jam the sleeve on the frame mount side as it did, I checked all the bolts and all were still tight. My next door neighbor is a commercial welder and has been for about 35 years. He looked at the break and said the steel did not look like it was very good quality. Not sure I understand your point about the loose bolts. It seems to me that if a bolt(s) was loose enough to allow a completely clean and "bendless" break like this, the front end would have been rattling, banging and wandering all over the road? The hole in the track bar bushing on the frame side was enlongated, although tough to tell in the in the picture. That seems to me to further indicate a blow from the broken side hitting against a solid object. Anything's possible, but it really looks like impact damage from the initial track bar break.
 
How think is that metal?

Is it 1/4" or 3/16th?
 
I don't see how it didn't bend - with the qty=2 bolts that were left in the wheel well a left-turn should'a loaded that long-side of the bracket with enough load to easily bend it...

Any chance that the remining bolts were over-torqued crushing that portion of the uniframe so that the two lower bolts were holding all of the load in shear?? A crushed uniframe may not afford those upper bolts enough support allowing for a little motion "in/out" - which could/may translate into metal fatigue about where that thing broke ?? (a thought?) ??

Really, the reason I read this thread is that I had that same mount tear the welds (VERY COLD welds) years ago - I got a replacement and haven't had a lick of trouble since... (Rusty assured me that they had changed processes after that one bad batch! - mine works)
 
From my previous post...."He (Rusty) indicated that this was not the first break he has had reported with his frame mount. He also said that mine was one of the first he produced and that the design had been changed."

As far as "over-torquing" the bolts, anything's possible. Rusty provided the torque specs when I bought the mount and that's what the bolts/nuts were installed at...along with blue Loc-Tite. I'll look at the mouting points again when I get home, but nothing looked out of the ordinary when I dropped the reamaining parts of the bracket.

Maybe mine was one of that "bad batch" too?
 
Can't see how you could over torque the bolts. I've never, in 8 years, been able to keep mine tight. I tighten them as tight as I can get them with a breaker bar on the outside, and two end wrenches hooked together on the inner bolts. I finally just welded the mount to the frame.......which is going to make it more difficult to get mine off now that it's totally trashed.

It's amazing how much force that track bar mount takes.
 
Maybe we should clean the heck out of em and use RED Loc-Tite? Of course, that might make for a heck of a rough day when something breaks again and it has to come off :-(
 
Thankfully you're all ok again. By looking at the pics it's difficult to guess what might have lead to the break. It probably was a result of the TB breaking, as you said, and has most likely been a crack that spread & finally let go. This area would be tough to spot in any typical inspection. That design looks a little iffy and I'm sure that's why he changed it, it's easy to see that the top welded area could allow flex that would let the bkt lift a little away from the bottom of the frame. I hope the new design is better. Good luck.
 
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