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so the torq arm weld broke were it welds to the big ass polley bushing? not the actual brackets or anney thing? i have this kit and am currious if i need to make a new upper arm. have you run it to the problum of the upper arm is to long even when at its shortest to get caster and camber spot on?
When my track bar broke, it happened on the bushing end just outside of the welds. Bassically what it comes down to is the heat required to burn the thin bushing end onto the heavy rod causes the thin metal to get weak. I think a somewhat better solution to fix this before it happens would br to "strap" the bushing ends with more metal and weld it further up on the arm. My torque arm bracket ripped off the axle mount because of the same type of situation. Bracket was heavy material, factory coil seat/shock mount was thinner material. What RK fails to tell people is that serious reinforcing should be done when using their kits.
Not to make this a RK bash, but we recently intalled the kit in a TJ and the first time out the lower control arm ripped right off! Bent the axle housing, broke both shocks, and when the axle came back it pushed the driveshaft so far into the case it cracked the transfer case housing. Yes they had no problem fixing the problem but they failed to tell us that they have a upgrade mount to weld on to prevent this from happing. They never once said anything about it when he bought the kit. I'm really starting to think about leafs myself!
as for my $.o2...coils willl give you more flex, that's a fact.....they are lined up vertical, wheras leafs are horizontal. you may have a good point about stability. Maybe some disconnects could solve your problem? I got sent here by a guy named dave. Red jeep in a-town. Said you might have some info on clubs up here. I ain't got the biggest rig but I love to drive. Any info would be appreciated. [email protected]. Thanks, look forward to some rides.
-Hank
Properly setup leafs will flex just as well as coils unless you're running over a 14" long shock? Doubt it. As to the mount breaking, any numbnuts hack like myself would question welding 1" solid stock to anything thinner. I mean if you're not burning through the smaller stuff then you're not penetrating the 1" solid bar........ I would send all the RK crap back & let them do their own R & D.
I have the RK 6.5" kit...with ACOS in the front for about 9.5". Mine also feels a little unstable, but I'm upgrading to 8" Skyjacker coils to try and stiffen it up.
As for the welds...they hold great! My trac bar broke into 4 peices on the Golden Crack...and not a single weld broke, just the weld pulled out of the metal. It looked crazy! I had Moab Off Road do a little welding work to the scraps and it looks tougher than ever. RK was going to send a new one, but wanted the old one back..I kept the old one!
Does this type of thing happen to other brands...or does RK need to revamp the way they weld this stuff??
-Mike
I will have to agree with Vintage, If the weld itself stayed intact on one of the two components, then it had not properly penetrated the other component and created a "good weld". It is far easier to create a "good looking weld". One does'nt neccesarily imply the other!
Woodkrawler I had the tourqe arm bracket rip off after I first had the kit installed due to my hiring an incompetent welder. I was doing 55 and nearly ran over a little old lady before winding up in a ditch. I uderstand completly why you want to ditch the kit and have more points of attachment to the axle and frame.
In every picture of every failure I have seen where a bushing sleeve riped in a RK kit it was in the host metal of the sleeve with no damage to the weld. If I'm undrstanding what you are saying the sleeve ripped in half not the whole sleeve ripping away from the bar stock. Correct? So it ripped in the weakest part of the arm.
The bar stock is actually 1 1/4".
I'm converting my xj back to a 5 link and modifying the RK LCA's. I'm sleeving my LCAs with DOM tubing and replacing the bushing ends with RE superflex joints. I'm having a set of UCA drop brackets built that weld onto the uniframe where the factory LCA mounts were and will be running JKS uppers(if they ever get off of backorder) with curries axle mouted JJ's. Iv'e already replaced the RK track bar with RE's HD track bar bracket and TB brace.
i hear ya man about that torque arm!! very scary!!!!!!!! im just fortunate that i was in the parking lot....God was definately looking out for me on that one! anyways a 5 link is great i was just wanting to do something different so i chose the leaf path. so far i love the leafs...they are great, im still trying to dial them in just right, but you know its a jeep so its always something...haha. anyways good luck with the 5 link..
