Ok, so I just went to put on my new RE 1660 track bar w/ the hd bracket. I took a quick look and saw that the axle side mount looked funny. Took a look at my other jeep and yeah it's goofy. Turns out the PO welded on one of those skyjacker axle side relocation mounts.

Does anyone know if the RE track bar will work with this left on our should I attempt to hack it off?

 

youll be good

 

Should be good, as long as it holds strong it shouldn't really matter. By the way, AWESOME Choice of Track bar setup. I saw that beefy monster setup and I had to buy them for mine to replace my old school Adjustable tie rod end version. Extremely good setup and cheap if you buy them on amazon :P

 

Yeah I got mine from 4 wheel parts (just down the street from me) for a decent price. Between the hd bracket and the actual track bar, I was surprised at how much better built it is than stock.

Now I have another problem. I can't get the bushing side into the axle bracket. I get the bolt started through the bushing, but it will not line up on the rear bolt hole. The bolt hits about a 1/8th of a low and I can't force it in.

 

Sounds like his handy work was not designed to work well with precision, have you tried tapping the track bar just a little bit up with the bolt in to see if it will grab the hole? if Yes, you may actually need to bust out the metric fits all and grab hold of the side that is technically a flap and push it outwards to try and align from there. Worse case you might have to wallow the hole out and then put a big washer in and then once you have it where it goes in smooth just tack the washer to the mount and a new hole is reinforced.

 

Yeah, I can use a slightly smaller bolt and it fits in fine, but then that leaves play in the bushing sleeve. If I could get into the back side of the bracket I'd use a drive pin to line it up, but there's no room.

 

Well you can always try good ol' BFH (Big F***ing Hammer) on the side that is opposite of the axle and see if you can get it close to the right alignment. I know with alot of stuff I mess with my BFH is always near by just in case of need of convincing.

 

That's what I'm heading out to try right now lol. Nothing else... I can wallow out the forward hole, bend the tab out, set the track bar in, and crank it back down right. This should allow me to have some wiggle room with the bolt and then form the bracket around the TB when I wrench it back down.

 

don't wallow out the hole and be carefull with a hammer, you don't want to destroy the threads on the bolt.

Use a ratchet strap or a helper to pull the jeep to one side compared to the axle and your bolts holes should line up.

 

It's not the axle that doesn't line up. It's the back hole of axle bracket/mount that doesn't line up.

 

Well...I got it in. Got creative with a pipe wrench and a bottle jack to press it up in and rotate the track bar. How does it look to you guys?



The second pic is of the bracket the PO welded on.

 

It looks sexy! I'm going to get mine in when I put my long arm in.

 

Just drove it 40 miles, feels much better. No loud pops out of the front end, bump steer is minimal and it didn't want to wander all over the road going down the highway. Now to tackle the rear end. Shackles are resting on the relocation boxes and have some rear end vibes going on.

 

To eliminate the bump-steer, the track bar needs to be returned to stock location. That relocation/drop bracket causes misalignment between the drag-link and trackbar, inducing bumpsteer.


This can cause deathwobble. Next time, install axle end of track bar first and move the bar around to get bolt through bushing sleeve.

 

That's what I did. Regardless, still had too open the holes a little as the new bolts I used wouldn't fit what I had (holes were just a tad too small). I then used a washer and tack welded it in place on the forward tab once I had the bolt fed all the way thru but not quite tightened down yet. Think it should hold.

As for the aftermarket bracket, that'll be a project for another day. This is my daily driver so it had to be done asap. Think my best bet is to cut off the factory one and weld a new one on. What you can't see in the picture is the welds and goobers on both sides.