adj. track bar broken???

I'm not sure how i did it. i wish i had done it wheelin hard, but no. i put the track bar on about a month ago and havnt had it on dirt since. i was turning out of the drivway and snap!!! when i installed it, i couldnt get the hole to clear for the cotter pin, so i used a washer, turned the castle nut upside down, then checked it alot to see if i could tighten it more or not. it never loosened up. that is the only trouble i had with the bar.

did i do something wrong when i installed it???

another thing, since this is tie rod end related. when i tightened down the tie rods today, i did the whole front end steering. why is it, when i tightened down the tie rod ends to 55 foot pounds, one of them didnt screw on enough to put the cotter pin in. thats exactly what the track bar did as well. also it sure doesnt seem like 55 foot pounds if very tight.

uh...you have this bolt on the tie rod end, which isn't exactly identical to any other bolt as the thread starts at a different location, and this nut, which doesn't have the exact same starting location for the threads as any other nut. so, couple that, and you come up with 55 ft. lbs being a "give-or-take" measurement. keep going until you can get the cotter pin in

uh...you have this bolt on the tie rod end, which isn't exactly identical to any other bolt as the thread starts at a different location, and this nut, which doesn't have the exact same starting location for the threads as any other nut. so, couple that, and you come up with 55 ft. lbs being a "give-or-take" measurement. keep going until you can get the cotter pin in

yeeeaaa, sarcasm is just what i need when i can't drive my truck til i spend more money ;)

What brand is that trackbar? :eek:

What brand is that trackbar? :eek:

got it from rustys along with the adj control arms. i wonder what thier warranty is?

lol, I thought I was being constructive...

that is the concept basically, so a bit tighter should have gotten the pin in

lol, I thought I was being constructive...

 

that is the concept basically, so a bit tighter should have gotten the pin in

the thing is, i can barley see the start of the hole, id need to go three or four more full revolutions to get the pin in. is it ok to tighten it that tight?

Sorry to say that you can now ad your self to the LONG LIST of people who bought Rusty's junk and found out its mostly CRAP!!!!

Sorry to say, but you need a new track bar. Just accept that your going to have to buy another TB. This time, buy a more REPUTABLE BRAND!!

I have had a bunch of different adjustable track bars and feel JKS makes the best. I have a reg JKS on my TJ and a Kevin's conversion JKS on the MJ. No they are not the cheapest, but as your learning. Cheapest ain't the best. There are others out there that are also well made, JKS is my choice. This is first hand experience, not hearsay or derived from something someone else wrote.

Good luck,

CW

yea I'm not surprised to find out thats a rustys bar...i would NEVER buy one...i got my RockKrawler adj. bar and HD bracket for about $125..i suggest looking into a new bar and sell that rustys one

talked to rustys this morning. they said it happened because the jamb nut was loose. i kept trying to tighten the dam thing. but the instructions say to use lock tight, and i didnt. so I'm out on that one.

What does that failure have to do with the track bar? Looks like the TRE shaft broke. Is there some reason you can't just get a new TRE for $20 and reinstall?

What does that failure have to do with the track bar? Looks like the TRE shaft broke. Is there some reason you can't just get a new TRE for $20 and reinstall?

yea, i could do that, i think what i will do though is upgrade to a heavier duty frame mount.

ive had the hardest time trying to get the castle nut to go on enough to get a cotter pin through the hole. i think my frame bracket i have now is bad or something.

Everything I'm seeing about this is wrong.

First, the TRE broke where it goes into the track bar. A loose castle nut canNOT cause that. But having the TRE bind up because you flexed it beyond its range of motion. How much lift do you have and were you flexing it out when it broke?

What's this about having to put on three or four more turns to line up the castle nut with the hole? A castle nut has six slots. If the hole is already visible, the most you should need to turn it as about 1/12 of a revolution.

Everything I'm seeing about this is wrong.

 

First, the TRE broke where it goes into the track bar. A loose castle nut canNOT cause that. But having the TRE bind up because you flexed it beyond its range of motion. How much lift do you have and were you flexing it out when it broke?

 

What's this about having to put on three or four more turns to line up the castle nut with the hole? A castle nut has six slots. If the hole is already visible, the most you should need to turn it as about 1/12 of a revolution.

he's saying the hole is not visible yet.

and he was just driving into his driveway I think.

but yeah, sounds to me like maybe the trackbar wasn't made properly for the quantity of lift on there...it should angle up and then level out at the top if it's going to work properly

Everything I'm seeing about this is wrong.

 

First, the TRE broke where it goes into the track bar. A loose castle nut canNOT cause that. But having the TRE bind up because you flexed it beyond its range of motion. How much lift do you have and were you flexing it out when it broke?

 

What's this about having to put on three or four more turns to line up the castle nut with the hole? A castle nut has six slots. If the hole is already visible, the most you should need to turn it as about 1/12 of a revolution.

there were two concerns, first was the broken bar TRE, the lock nut for the track bar to the TRE kept coming loose and that is why rustys said it broke,they say i should have used lock tit on the lock nut. i was not flexing it at all, it was in the driveway as jeepcomj said. i havnt had it off road since the lift. i lifted it about 5 1/2" in the front. and soa in the rear.

the second concern was the castle nut. i couldnt see the hole at all yet. so i would have to have turned the castle nut alot more. this was a secondary concern that i thought may have contributed to the breakage. but sounds like it wasnt.

It is a known issue with the Rusty's tracbar to break at that exact point. Rusty IS aware of this as I can dig up several threads on other forums where the people have contacted him and sent him pics. So my advice is to contact Rusty (talk with him directly) and don't take less than a full refund. He typically will only offer you a store credit but like I said DO NOT take less than a full refund in $ form from him. He'll do it after you threaten him as he has for others.

If he won't budge on it, threaten to contact the BBB. I'm typically not this way with vendors, but they owe me over $200 still over failed parts and I won't ever give them another dime of my money. I've went as far as contacting the BBB and unfortantly they (Rusty's) lied about it all...

-Lead_"still bitter about my Rusty's transaction"_Follow

So what in the world causes it to break there? It's an off the shelf TRE, and there doesn't appear to be any damage to the actual track bar.

Wow.. I can't believe they would even sell you that track bar for a 5.5" lift. Anything over 3 really needs a double sheer setup. As pointed out buy quality.. RE is my personal choice... but I know quite a few ppl runninf Kevin's and JKS.. and I have never seen a problem happen.

If bought on a Credit card.. you can always use their product protection. Most card companies quarantee the product you buy for a certain amount of time.

I had the castle nut issue with my TB (Rusty's) too. Ended up tightening it down, driving to work, tightening it down, driving to the trail, tightening it down, doing a mile of trail, tightening it down, and then putting the pin in.

Just wouldn't seat.

As for the break, looks like I should prepare myself and get another TB ready...

wow....

I've been decidedly quiet on the whole Rusty's debate, both here and on NAXJA.....up 'till now. That ain't right.

Was that TB for a stock application, or spec'd for the lift you have? I can understand if it was stock length, but if it wasn't and that's what happened?

:roll:

Jeff

So what in the world causes it to break there? It's an off the shelf TRE, and there doesn't appear to be any damage to the actual track bar.

Rusty uses the cheapest Chinese TRE he can lay his hands on, that's why they break. To get the truck back on the road, just buy a replacement TRE from an auto parts store and stick it in there.

Does the driveway have an approach angle? Were you turning in when it broke, or going straight? It's quite possible to flex out a suspension turning into a steep driveway. The TRE shouldn't break ... but with cheap Chinese parts, anything is possible (except good performance).

When you install a new one, be sure to check the tapered hole in the frame bracket. If there's any crud in the hole, it can prevent seating the TRE in the bracket, and that could be one reason for not being able to tighten the castle nut far enough to insert the cotter pin. FWIW, I would never drive a vehicle w/o the cotter pin. Loc-tite is good stuff, but I'm not brave enough to use it as a replacement for a mechanical safety like a cotter pin.

FWIW, when Pat and I did my MJ, I bribed him out of his old RE adj trackbar and mount with some beer, $$$, and swap parts. Here's what I'm running (double shear). It ain't all shiny and new, but it's functional :D

(jam nut was not tightened in that pic.....that's right after install ;) )

Jeff

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wow....

 

I've been decidedly quiet on the whole Rusty's debate, both here and on NAXJA.....up 'till now. That ain't right.

 

Was that TB for a stock application, or spec'd for the lift you have? I can understand if it was stock length, but if it wasn't and that's what happened?

 

:roll:

 

Jeff

it was for my 5 1/2" lift. i did talk to them when i ordered it and they said it would be ok.

So what in the world causes it to break there? It's an off the shelf TRE, and there doesn't appear to be any damage to the actual track bar.

Rusty uses the cheapest Chinese TRE he can lay his hands on, that's why they break. To get the truck back on the road, just buy a replacement TRE from an auto parts store and stick it in there.

 

Does the driveway have an approach angle? Were you turning in when it broke, or going straight? It's quite possible to flex out a suspension turning into a steep driveway. The TRE shouldn't break ... but with cheap Chinese parts, anything is possible (except good performance).

 

When you install a new one, be sure to check the tapered hole in the frame bracket. If there's any crud in the hole, it can prevent seating the TRE in the bracket, and that could be one reason for not being able to tighten the castle nut far enough to insert the cotter pin. FWIW, I would never drive a vehicle w/o the cotter pin. Loc-tite is good stuff, but I'm not brave enough to use it as a replacement for a mechanical safety like a cotter pin.

drive way was flat, i was turning, backing out into the alley. thanks for the heads up for the TRE locally, don't know why i didnt think of it. I'm still stuck on post lift stuff, can't wait to go wheeling!!!!!

Here we are back at the track bar debate again. Most of the bars on the market are junk. They almost all require some re-engineering to fit and function properly depending on your lift. I have never used the rusty's or the jks but after all that I have read and that I have looked at in this forum and others my money is going for the jks when I replace the my skycracker bar. I would sell my bar now but I have found it necessary to cut reshape relocate and weld the bracket to my front axle. I could have made brackets and retained the stock bar if I had known that the aftermarket bars were like this.

Oh it works properly now with the correct geomtry but out of the box it sucks. It interfered with their steering stablizer.