Just found out my old Jeep's track bar bracket was cracked for like 3 years before I noticed

I was under there last weekend swapping out a rusty shock mount and spotted a hairline crack running clean through the bracket on the passenger side, been wheeling that thing in Moab twice and never knew it was about to let go, has anyone else run into hidden damage like this that just sits there waiting to snap?

2 comments

2 Comments

lilychen5d ago

Holy crap, that's wild! Honestly I bet half the rigs out there have something similar going on if people actually dug deep enough. Its not always the big obvious stuff that gets you, sometimes its just the metal slowly giving up. I wonder how many of those bracket cracks start from people over-torquing bolts at some point, like a shop or a previous owner just cranked it down too hard and stressed the metal, then vibration does the rest over years. Glad you caught it before that thing let go on the trail.

blair_green865d ago

Moab trips hide a lot of sins, man. That crack was probably flexing just a little more each time you hit a ledge. Vibration and stress are brutal on brackets, especially if the bolts were ever torqued wrong or the metal had a weak spot from the factory. Most people never think to check the little things like track bar brackets until something clunks or snaps. Catching it before a trip is a total save. Props for crawling under there and spotting it.