Its been a year long journey on again off again figuring out why my steering wheel went catawampus on me. I thought maybe my EzSteer universal joint(s) jump a tooth, bent tie rod (not) or worse EzSteer slipped or rack slipped???? NOT steering universal joints....after a lot of cussing checking them...not the issue at all. So the other day after the steering wheel went even more catawampus I set out to find the real issue. After getting Betto's front end up in the air and a very powerful LED flashlight, there it was shining thru the mud...busted left front upper A-arm mounting tower...pulled away from the tubing, breaking crappy welds from tubing. It had done this previous to my owning it and shoddily repaired by the previous owner. So I took it upon myself to fix it right.
I first removed the A-Arm bolts and ball joint and zip tied them out of the way. Then cut off the bent A-Arm tower and straightened it out. I took a piece of 7/8 or so tubing cut it to the proper length and then cut it in half length wise and fish-plated it over the original tubing and mig welded it up. Then after careful and time consuming fitting of the original A-Arm mounting Tower, welded it to the fish-plated tubing and reassembled. By the way all bolts slipped right in and the gap between both control arm bushings are the same...which means I built it right....I think. Set toe-in 1/16" with less than one turn of the tie rod and Betto is back in the game big time. Oh yea I also welded an angle iron gusset to the back of the A-Arm tower(s) and the frame (both sides) to hopefully alleviate this ever happening again.
12+ hours non-stop for repair! WHEW! I'm getting to old for this cheet!
I first removed the A-Arm bolts and ball joint and zip tied them out of the way. Then cut off the bent A-Arm tower and straightened it out. I took a piece of 7/8 or so tubing cut it to the proper length and then cut it in half length wise and fish-plated it over the original tubing and mig welded it up. Then after careful and time consuming fitting of the original A-Arm mounting Tower, welded it to the fish-plated tubing and reassembled. By the way all bolts slipped right in and the gap between both control arm bushings are the same...which means I built it right....I think. Set toe-in 1/16" with less than one turn of the tie rod and Betto is back in the game big time. Oh yea I also welded an angle iron gusset to the back of the A-Arm tower(s) and the frame (both sides) to hopefully alleviate this ever happening again.
12+ hours non-stop for repair! WHEW! I'm getting to old for this cheet!
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