So, was driving home late last night and had to swerve to avoid hitting a deer. It was a pretty good swerve and had to counter steer to regain control and in the process my control control arms look to have been bent. Everything is shifted to the left now, my front driver's side tire is about 2-3 inches out more than usual and the passenger side is in 2-3 inches. I did hit a wall due to the fact that I couldn't turn left to regain control but it wasnt too hard and only seemed to have suffer body damage. Basically, I guess what I'm wondering is what kind of opinions you all might have one what kind of damage I've done, cost and difficulty of fixing it? Jeep starts, runs fine. Nothing seems to be leaking, I can turn right, but due to everything being shifted to the left, I can't take left turns. Am I going to have to replace the control arms? They don't look to be damaged, just bent, would you reccommend just taking them off and banging them back into place?
Is your jeep stock? If so stock parts are easy to come by and can be real cheap or free. Can you take some picture to post on here so we can see all the components up front?
Pics would help. I'd definitely look into replacing the arms, especailly if they are stock as they are flimsy as is and don't need any extra weakening. As mentioned, you can probalbly find some cheap. Be sure to check both LCAs and UCAs. I'd also look at your track bar to make sure it's not damaged and check out the steering just to make sure everything looks in order once you've got things centered again.
The stock control arms are not the best, so any damage done to them I'd say just get rid of them. Once that metal is twisted like that it weakens it's structural integrity. Spend the extra money and get new ones or look for someone who just put a lift on there jeep and get there old ones!!
In the pics the Control Arms do not look bent, they look fine.
What does look bent are the control arm brackets. big time twisted. You can see the caster washer actually twisted and raised of the bracket in one of the pics.
5th pic down:
Passenger side Lower Control Arm axle bracket is bent and the CA looks fine.
8th pic down:
Passenger side Lower Control Arm axle bracket is bent and the CA looks fine.
Yep, I agree with snwchris. The brackets are relatively cheap plus you'll get heavy duty after market ones so it won't happen again. I believe Rubicon Express or Rusty's has them Then a body shop or a good friend/ you need to grind off the old ones and weld on the new ones.
Guess thats pretty good news, I'm no expert but from what I could tell I thought the arms themselves were relatively undamaged but the brackets were definitely tweaked. I obviously look back now and can see it probably would have been better to just smash bambi but oh well. The wheels are 31x10.5 and I have 1.25" lug adapter/spacers so I think the added wheel base w/ the stock suspension kept me from rolling over but in turn put a lot more stress on the arms. Looks like I'll be stuck in CT for a few days til I can get new ones welded on.
I looked again and your right sway bar is broken. I would just invest in some disconnects. They are about the same price and you'll be able to disconnect the sway bar when you go wheeling next. On the 6th picture down it looks like your upper control arm is bent. They should be pretty easy to find laying around from someone.
Can you get a picture of the track bar? There is no way that it isn't bent. I have one laying around for you, but I just need to see a full picture of it.
Yea, the passenger's side disconnect popped out my last trip to the trails. Didn't get a chance to disconnect or reconnect both before the trip down. I'll get a pic of the TB up in a little bit.
That angle of the bend looks really steep. Someone else will have to chime in on that, I don't have a stock track bar and wont be near my garage to look at it till tomorrow.
get new mounts and have them burned inplace of the old. new control arms and swaybar likks and your good to go. did it all in my driveway in about 12 hrs.
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