On the left you can see my front passenger lower shock bracket. This is after I bent it back into shape. It was compressing my shock an inch and a half or more than it should be at rest. That meant I had uneven pressure on each side of the axle and I could feel it in the handling when I hit a bump in the road. So I used a five foot spud bar and a sledge hammer to get it back into place. Longer term, I'll get some heavy duty shock mounts to weld in their place. That and the steering bracket are about the only thing under there that hasn't been beefed up or protected yet 🤪
On the right is a good example how something tiny can make a big different… This is the passenger side, rear, lower control arm rear joint (yes, that means there are 16 of these on my Jeep, two ends for each upper and lower control arm on each side for both the front and rear! Of course, that doesn't count the track bars, sway bars, drag link, tie rod or the 8 u-joints! haha.) The purple distance is supposed to be half of what you see here. The snap ring ear (red circle) broke off and let the retainer (blue circle) pop out. This let the arm shift on the rubber bushing (the rubber is meant to allow some flex, but keep it controlled) so it was squirting out the side, and not controlling the handling properly. I could feel it since it caused a little lane wandering. Luckily, my off-road shop had a spare and they warrantied the replacement and the labor.
Now I am back to the proper handling and all ready for my big trip to the hardest trails of Windrock in February!
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