Hey everyone.

I’ve to

rn a hole in one of my steering box Mount points.

No rust at all on car. And I mean no rust. I really want to repair. Has anyone got any ideas? I am thinking weld the hole up, redrill, and reinforce with plates.

Cheers guys

 

Unless this is a right hand drive - for my sake i have to orient this correctly - my apologies


So around the area of your steering box bolt holes there or 2 plates the weld in from the top inside of the unibody and also the bottom. There is nothing that supports or ties the inner unibody to the outer unibody through there. This structure/lack of added by the force from heavier tires and weighted winch bumper, the setup of the track bar mount as a twisting lever against the unibody is why i believe these crack around the area and also the fact the mounting holes aren't sleeved through is why they crack/fail.

Take a look at page 11 of my build thread, there are a couple pictures and details that may help out here if you can weld yourself.
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f46/my...19146/index11/

Ideally i would sleeve all 3 steering box mounts through with tubing. Welding the inner and outer surfaces of the unibody to the tubes and then flap disc them nearly flush with the unibody. A steel spacer between the steering box and unibody and also an outer plate that ties into a minimum of 7 bolt holes are pretty standard especially for winch bumpers and also easily sourced.

 

This^

A steering box brace that connects to the opposite side's unibody rail is also good insurance. There are some pretty sweet braces around these days (Boostwerks and BadDad Fab) that use a pillow-block bearing over the sector shaft of the steering box to brace the steering shaft itself rather than the box. I have BadDad's mount and it braces the sector shaft and also has a brace for the box itself.