Well, that explains it. Is it just the bolt that's bent, or the bracket?
We are talking about the frame-side bracket, right?
Thanks, Rob. Explains it, sort of. I didn't see it happen, but the only person other than me who's had a jack under the vehicle for years is the guy who did the last inspection, and it wasn't bent before. It was inspected almost a year ago so it's too late to go back and have a conversation about it.
So, yes, it's the frame-side bracket. Not the bracket on the frame, but the bracket that slips inside that. And it's just one of the bolts that's bent, not the bracket itself. Googling this turns up some pretty tough pictures of vehicles that must have landed on a rock and bent the whole bracket, including the frame-mounted bracket.
The FSM doesn't even mention replacing the inner bracket/mount. It mentions adding shims to adjust caster, and refers to this part for R&Ring the LCA. Probably because it's hard to imagine needing to replace it.
Honestly, I think it's just a cosmetic issue (as long as I don't need to adjust caster) but it bugs me.
The TeamCherokee part is $12. The Parts.com part is $41. The price difference makes me wonder about the quality of the TC part. This part doesn't seem like it does anything more than hold the shims in place, but still...
To R&R the bracket, it seems like removing the rear LCA bolt and dropping the LCA should allow you to loosen the two rear bracket bolts and take the bracket and shims out of the frame bracket frontwards. But if anyone's ever done this and has any tips, I'm all ears.