Broken Rear Shocks

[DFoley]

Have an 87 MJ with a Rough Country 6" lift.

Was installed by the PO and just noticed both back shocks have broken right above the lower mount point.

 

I haven't done any extreme offroading any idea why they both would have broken in the exact same spot??

 

Looks like everything was part of a kit, just got me thinking they were the wrong size or something.

Before I just replace them with the same thing...

 

Thanks,Dave...

[AMC86Kid]

is it rusty ?

rust will cause all kinds of cracks to happen for no reason 

[1989 comanche mj]

One of mine was broken, I have a spring over lift.  I moved the shock mounts on the axle up and used shorter shocks and it seems fine.

[gogmorgo]

Does the lift use the factory spring plates with the single-shear shock mounts on them? Always seemed a little bizarre to me, that single-shear. It looks beefy enough, but over the years the fatigue from cycling will slowly wear them down and crack them. One of mine is cracked as well.

[Airborne Janitor]

Pictures would be helpful. Whenever you buy a modified vehicle from someone you don't know you always get some type of hack-together crap holding it together. Dealing with that myself.

[DFoley]

Thanks everyone, yes we live up north, lots of salt on winter roads and this vehicle sat for quite a while, fair amount of rust had to be dealt with.

I'll try and post some pictures...

[DFoley]

So just to be clear I have added a picture. It is the shock that broke not the mount.

This is the bottom mount portion of the shock still attached to the axle mount       

[Airborne Janitor]

Check the length of your shocks fully extended, and compare it with the distance from the upper and lower shock mounts The shocks may not be long enough for the amount of suspension lift/flex required. If so one decent offroad trip will tear the eyelet right off the shock body. I did that in Moab in my XJ. It kind of looks like that axle is an XJ axle, or has XJ-style shock mounts on it.

 

Edited to add: improper size/lack of bumpstops can also contribute to this type of failure.