So I broke my rear shock mount crossmember last night. The thing is completely dicked. The passenger side shock is loose and holding itself in place by a chunk of metal from what is left of the crossmember.

Anybody else ever broken this Mickey Mouse piece of recycled pie plate before? Clearly not too impressed with the engineering "quality" on this section of XJ...



Going to mimic this build for the rear crossmember:
http://www.off-camber.com/forum/topi...s-98-xj-build/

 

Yikes I'm sorry to hear that buddy. Good luck fixing it. I think iron rock offroad makes an actual setup like that. ...but it bolts to the original bolt holes so you would need to modify it anyway

 

I'll see if I can't upload a picture or two of the breakage.
I'm just waiting to get a Monotube playing peek-a-boo with my floorboards...

 

Dependomg on your tire size you might get away without having shocks at all. I have 30s and I did a 4.5 lift on mine and had the shock bolts snap. So I drove it for a few weeks on just the springs until I could get the shocks on. Kinda bouncy but worked for me. I didn't have bump stops either

 

That is the worst thing I have ever heard of.

 

Well I never said it was the best idea. It's my dd and I had no other option.

 

Its jks that makes it http://jksmfg.com/i-9052792-cherokee...ock-mount.html

 

I was looking into the JKS mount but it mounts into the stock shock locations in the broken crossmember so....

Great idea but its still not the answer. I have a welder lined up for the weekend so I'll snap lots of pictures of the progress and upload them on Monday. The only thing that concerns me is that I drive 70+km each day and this is my DD. It has to survive until the weekend so can strip it down and get it fixed properly. This crossmember is where the exhaust is supported as well as it holds in the front of the fuel tank. It's a pretty critical component.

 

get some pics!! i always thought the shock mount crossmember looked weak.. but it cant be that bad because i actually ripped the shock mount off my 8.25 before, i would of thought the crossmember would have failed long before that would.

 

So I never had a chance to get out and buy the steel required to rebuild/manufacture a new crossmember for this as I got called into work for a full shift on Saturday and nowhere reasonable is open on Sundays.

I'm not payng $40 for the same chunk of steel that I can pay $20 for down the road - but are closed on Sundays!
Yay. Go me.

I ended up tearing the rear of the Jeep interior out to just the steel unibody and floor pan.
Seats, carpet, plastic interior panels and even the seat belts themselves.

For the temporary repair job to get me through the week, I just drilled out all the broken spot welds and replaced them with 1/4" Gr5 hardware but it still clunks and bangs like a tin can full of rocks. Gotta love shattered steel.

Updates to come as work progresses

 

Here is the progress as of Tuesday night. We made a lot more progress Wednesday night but I did not take pictures as I got home late and did not have much time to stop and take photos. Between Jeep fixing and coyote calling. Got one right up to the house... Might have to show it the old Carbon Express one night...

 

factory parts cut and removed




crack and missing pieces repair




the factory chunk




This is just the spine of the crossmember






most of the new part

its going to weigh over 3x what the old part weighed!




broke a brake line in the process by dropping a bog old chunk of steel on it




connecting the dots of the broken crossmember




I had to bolt the broken pieces back together to limp the Jeep back and forth to work for a week.
Now I have lots of holes to fill..




Had some time to install my winch between running out of parts and welding

 

I did manage to find a picture on my phone of the completed shock mounts. Still need to figure out the exhaust though.

 

Makes me jealous.

 

Don't be jealous, its WWWAAAAYYYYY more hassle than its worth