Front Lower Control Arm Bracket Woes =(
 

I recently was driving down the road and hit my brakes and heard a loud crack. I pulled over and found that my front passenger side lower control arm had broken off the bracket, and in getting my car out of the middle of the road the driver side bracket had been pretty severely twisted.

Here's a diagram of a random jeep's front suspension (the outlined in orange is the lower control arm and bracket):
http://www.quadratec.com/Assets/Know...teering(1).jpg

I was wondering if its possible for me to get new brackets welded onto the differential or if i have to get the whole thing replaced... as if its option #2 im just gonna junk my jeep as its not really worth the money at this point.

Any response would be greatly appreciated guys,
Mike

you can easily weld up new brackets or have someone else do it for you if you cant
I think RE sells some for your jeep

is it safe (and common place to weld) without replacing the differential?

I believe I do have a place that could weld up new ones for me it's just 40miles away or so

why would you need to change out the differential? its welded right next to the diff, not on it. just cut off the old ones, grind it down, make sure you have them placed properly so that your suspension isnt jacked and weld em back up, make sure not to put too much heat on the tubes all at once so nothing will warp-hope this helps

trick for placing the new brackets right-before you take off your old ones, get a scribe and make circles on your axle tube where each bracket is, get a scribe or something to mark it so that once everything is grinded down you still have the right placement for them

ahhh, thankyou so much for your replies. I googled around and someone else had the same problem and they were quoted 1400dollars (!!!) because the shop wanted to replace everything

#$^% that dude, alright so lets see what your working with here, is this thing stock?

if so all the parts you will need is some new brackets, get some new bushings for both sides of the control arms, and new/used control arms honestly man if you shop around you could easily get this stuff for about 125-150 bucks, if you just want new stuff then its gonna cost you right around 450-500 plus a welders time and however much labor if you dont do anything yourself

Yea it's straight up stock, I also said to hell with 1400bucks when I saw that.

So brackets, bushings, and new control arms, you think that the arms themselves are probably screwed now?

I'll definately shop around and see what I can do as I can spend a week or two looking before I go to get it fixed.

well Im guessing you would want to, I just prefer to replace everything and not worry or wonder about it later, you might be able to use the ones you have, see if they look bent or twisted in any way, if not you could try them

what you can do is go to any metal works place grab some dom tubing for the control arms, then go to amazon and order sum chro moly heim joints, 3/4 inch(17.99 a piece) and take it to a buddy or anywhere where ther's a welder and have the nuts welded to the tubes and then put em on. by the way this will raise the value of ur jeep by 6 or 7 hundred dollars. why put stock back in when u can go the extra mile and get ever lasting custom control arms made.

6 or 7 hundred dollars? lol I doubt it would raise the value one dollar. Thats like saying because I have a lift, mud tires, and removable doors, that mine is worth 5 grand.