What have some of you guys done to brace the rear trackbar bracket on a tj. I have seen tri-county gear's brace and don't really like it (because of clearance issues with a gas tank skid).
Has anyone welded gussets to the bracket and have pics of it?

Thanks,
Ben



:bounce2:

I've never heard of one cracking...i've cracked my rear driver side upper arm mount at the frame and snapped the front track bar bolt off, but ....damn! now i've got to go out and check mine for cracks:flipoff2:

oh yea....:flipoff2: :flipoff2: :flipoff2: newbie:flipoff2:

Well be enlightened! :eek:
http://www.off-road.com/jeep/tech/tjdraglink/1DSC00231.jpg

This is what happens when wheeling Off Road
:flipoff2:


Ben

WOW!!!:eek: :eek:

i dont have pics but i just took some 3/16" flat stock and cut it into about 3 inch peices and laid it sideways next to the bracket ont the axletub where it would fit well and welded it all up...also i welded my rubicon express brakcet to the axle
and bolted it....i dont think it is going anywhere

I've had the welds on my rear t-bar bracket (stock + relocation bracket) break, but the bracket never broke completely off. I welded on triangular piece of 1/4" flat stock as a vertical brace from the axle tube to the left side of the t-bar bracket. It worked for a while but now that is even bending (don't ask me how). I do like the looks of tri-country's reinforcement bracket, but I understand about the clearence issues. If you reall wanted to beef the bracket up, you could run 1/4" flat stock from the diff housing to the t-bar bracket on the right side and add the triangular 1/4" flat stock to the left side.

yep, mine has a few cracks in her, im gonna tempoarily fix it... not sure exactly how im gonna do it yet.... quick and simple fo sho, its all commin off in a year or so... :D

ohh as for gas tank clearance..... gas tanks are over rated :flipoff2: just put the fawker in the bed, she fits like she belonged there.... :D

Originally posted by mtnfver
Well be enlightened! :eek:
http://www.off-road.com/jeep/tech/tjdraglink/1DSC00231.jpg

This is what happens when wheeling Off Road
:flipoff2:


Ben

Well now, I never figured anyone read my articles. You have no idea how pleased I am!:D Yes, I am the proud owner of that busted bracket! As the write up says, I just fixed it by using some Rubicon Express brackets and the Tri County brace, and a tera trac bar. I havn't had any problems since. I have been pretty hard on the current set up and have yet to have anything crack or whatever. It seams strong enough for me.
On another note: don't ask me why the article is called drag link fix, because I don't honestly know. It was suposed to be a track bar bracket fix but my editor didn't agree. :rolleyes: It bugs the hell out of me though!

hmmmmmmmmmm....... maybe.... I'll look

Originally posted by mfg4rox
On another note: don't ask me why the article is called drag link fix, because I don't honestly know. It was suposed to be a track bar bracket fix but my editor didn't agree. :rolleyes: It bugs the hell out of me though!

I thought it might just be a bad link, but it was still a great artical.
Do you have an aftermarket gas tank skid (4xdoc, or Kilby). I know that they were having problems with the trackbar clearance and I didn't think it would clear.

In another post I saw that you now have a bracket that mounts the joint sideways. Is that RE H/D weld on bracket?

Thanks for all the info,
Ben

When the death wobble sets in :nuke: it!

hmmmm maybe thats why I sway some as I stop.... hmmmmmm

I wonder too about gas skid plate clearance? Shit.... I have rubbed a hole in my 44's pan with my skid. Got a new one at the moment... not sure what to do about this yet.

God Bless It ! Every time I read one of thease threds I got to go crawl under the ol girl to look ? :rolleyes: :eek: :flipoff2: :) ;)


:jeep: __(OIIIIIO)__rOkOn:usa:

Well rather than brace it, I set out to fix the problem outright.

I had mine rip completely off the axle almost 2 years ago. A buddy who is an Mechanical Engineer (and my welder) helped me fix it. We determined that the problem came from the rotation of the diff when I added the SYE. The relocation bracked added a long moment arm and when the axle was rotated, the trackbar was putting a foward force on that arm causing the bracket to rip off the axle from the rear foward. We also found every weld on the stock bracket was cracked and rewelded them

We took the relocation bracket and bent it so it leaned more foward and then welded it directly to the stock bracket. I also added an adjustable trackbar to help with some of the twist introduced by tilting the bracket (I used the Tera trackbar, but looking back on it, the RE would probably work better).

Been wheeling it for 2 years now and checking the bracket every few months. No problems yet.

Robert

Here's mine (I plated it with 1/4" and then bolted and welded the RE extension on it):
http://jeep-club.irtech.com/phils_mods/TrackBarBox1.jpg

http://jeep-club.irtech.com/phils_mods/TrackBarBox2.jpg

Welded the plates to the HUGE Corp 14 tubes :D

HTH,
Phil

dude is yo shit sapose to look like that :flipoff2:

Originally posted by Dust Puppy
dude is yo shit sapose to look like that :flipoff2:

Huh?

Phil

Originally posted by mtnfver


I thought it might just be a bad link, but it was still a great artical.
Do you have an aftermarket gas tank skid (4xdoc, or Kilby). I know that they were having problems with the trackbar clearance and I didn't think it would clear.

In another post I saw that you now have a bracket that mounts the joint sideways. Is that RE H/D weld on bracket?

Thanks for all the info,
Ben

When the death wobble sets in :nuke: it!

I have not had any real problems with the trac bar clearing and I do have the stock skid. I found that with the adjustable trac bar the axle torques a little more, so I need to point my pinion down some cuz its high pinioning when I give it gas now. The other solution would be to clock the trac bar mount at the axle twords the center of the jeep like others have disscussed on here already. I am only running a 4 inch tera lift though, so that may be some of the reason for the trac bar not hitting the skid.

In the other post I was disscussing the new RE brackets for your front end trac bar. It mounts on the frame where your current iron mount is and this new bracket rotates the hiem 90 degress for long arm kits. Helps reduce some of the binding in the front end for a little more flex.

Alex

It will break. It it is cracked do a full repair. even if your are going to replace it in a year. This was a pain to get back home.

http://home.off-road.com/~dkf/ConC/DCP_1494.JPG

Exactly kodak. I found out that I had busted mine while I was driving down the freeway. Everytime I gave the TJ gas it twisted as opposed to kinda squating the rear. I have heard of people who caught this problem a little further down the road than I did and the next thing that seams to go is your upper mounts on the frame. Those are even harder to repair. Not to mention you're risking life and limb at that point. The key here is to fix it up before it becomes a problem.
I found that my factory bracket had only been welded on the out side, if you are good with a mig or arc welder you may be ok if you just weld the inside up nice a tight and get some sort of brace to keep those thin brackets from flexing. When my bracket went, it tore because of a 2 inch section of welds that managed to hold, which ment it just plain flex itself off. Bracing helps prevent that.:D

Originally posted by mfg4rox
......... the next thing that seams to go is your upper mounts on the frame. Those are even harder to repair. Not to mention you're risking life and limb at that point. The key here is to fix it up before it becomes a problem. ........:D

What upper mounts are u refering too?

Originally posted by coachgeo


What upper mounts are u refering too?

The frame mount for your rear upper links. It appears that the passenger side is the only one that goes though.

Alex

Originally posted by mfg4rox


The frame mount for your rear upper links. It appears that the passenger side is the only one that goes though.

Alex

the upper Controll arm links? .... ok... ill look... I live in the rust belt now... all cracks become rust attracters as well so I gotta stay on top of them.

No rocks here either.... :crybaby2:bwaaaaaahhhhhhh