Track bar

rob92xj

Member
Joined
May 8, 2005
Location
fayetteville, nc
A friend of a friend gave me a RE track bar to replace my Rusty's bar which keeps breaking like my Rusty's bar it is too short for my XJ what is the best way to lengthen it? I'm thinking of cutting it in the center and welding some 1" solid bar in it then cut a section of 1.5 .250 in half then weld it over the gap where the bar is.
 
Where is it breaking? I have a rustys and have had it break on the adjustable part where it's threaded multiple times.
 
I had mine break at the threaded bushing. They sent another mild steel piece of shit bushing/shank after a couple conversations back and forth on the phone so I cut the threaded part off and welded a g8 bolt to it as well as a gusseted around the bushing body to the threaded shank. No problems yet and I've jumped it pretty hard.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, screw rusty's.
 
MichaelT said:
Where is it breaking? I have a rustys and have had it break on the adjustable part where it's threaded multiple times.
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braxton357 said:
I had mine break at the threaded bushing. They sent another mild steel piece of shit bushing after a couple conversations back and forth on the phone so I cut the threaded part off and welded a g8 bolt to it as well as a gussed around the bushing body to the threaded shank. No problems yet and I've jumped it pretty hard.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, screw rusty's.
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First time it broke
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I then replaced it with a Moog part and it still broke after about 5 or 6 times breaking the whole time I was thinking I'm overflexing it I ordered the HD track bar mount and bushing end that one had lasted long enough for me to run Daniel then about 50 or so yards on Rocky Mount loop.

I've had it with Rusty's there springs are good but so are RE and Rough Country's.
 
If It were me I would get rid of the tie rod end joint like they did in the red rock bar. TRE's have very little travel and if you are lifted more than the bar your using is designed for then the bar will allow you to drop the pass front out even less. Whats happening is the TRE is not horizontal with the ground at ride height. That joint probably has like 15 to 20 degrees of travel and your maxing it out as soon as our pass tire drops just a few inches. It just happens to be the threaded shaft is the weak point that breaks first. I dont think making it longer would help you any. You either need to raise the mount on the axle end of the bar which will cause you to have bump steer, or you need to change the TRE pivot point from vertical to horizontal. Thats why many of the good aftermarket bars have a heim with the bolt going through it horizontally so it pivots on the bold instead of trying to get travel out of the joint itself. Thats just my 2 cents I hope it helps.
 
MarsFab said:
If It were me I would get rid of the tie rod end joint like they did in the red rock bar. TRE's have very little travel and if you are lifted more than the bar your using is designed for then the bar will allow you to drop the pass front out even less. Whats happening is the TRE is not horizontal with the ground at ride height. That joint probably has like 15 to 20 degrees of travel and your maxing it out as soon as our pass tire drops just a few inches. It just happens to be the threaded shaft is the weak point that breaks first. I dont think making it longer would help you any. You either need to raise the mount on the axle end of the bar which will cause you to have bump steer, or you need to change the TRE pivot point from vertical to horizontal. Thats why many of the good aftermarket bars have a heim with the bolt going through it horizontally so it pivots on the bold instead of trying to get travel out of the joint itself. Thats just my 2 cents I hope it helps.
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I replaced the factory track bar mount with the Rusty's HD mount which is a double shear mount and I broke the new end on the first trip out with it.

This is what I had installed and it still broke at the threads.
tbm150_01.jpg
 
what I did is take a stock 78-79 bronco trackbar, cut the bent part out, sleeved it with 1" IDx.25" thick tube-plug welded and around the seam, tube adapter-heim-BAM! adjustable trackbar.
 
Ahh I see I misunderstood. Well I can't see that breakind that easy. In the picture it appears that the shaft on the joint is a hex head bolt welded to it. What is the diameter of that bolt? I'm assuming that it's a 3/4 which should be big enough. My only guess whould be use a high quality chromo heim. maybe even go with a 3/4" or 7/8" they have an extremely high shear strength. I run 3/4" chromo's on both ends of my sas s10 blazer track bar and have had no problems bashing the crap out of it.

Ok I have one more idea. How much lift are you running and are you using short arms. If you are lifted high on short arms its possible that your axle is pulling back so far that the joint binds at droop. A poly bushing works well in that situation for up and down but forward and back it cant give much. Which might bind it enough to break.
 
Yep still on short arms, need to plate my frame rails before I start on my long arms and still have more materials to purchase.

The threaded part is 5/8" just like a stock Jeep tie rod.

I got a RE track bar with super flex joints on both ends but it is still 5" too short. What I'm doing is I had some 1" DOM that I slid into the track bar after cutting it, then I have some 1.5" .250 DOM that I'm cutting in half then I'm going to weld it on like an outer sleeve, clam shell sort of.
 
Thats crazy that its 5" too short. How much lift do you have? Are you saying that your front axle is 5" offset to the drivers side at ride height.
 
MarsFab said:
Thats crazy that its 5" too short. How much lift do you have? Are you saying that your front axle is 5" offset to the drivers side at ride height.
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I have 6" of lift, but the track bar I got from a friends friend, is for a YJ or a TJ with 3" of lift so with how long my old track bar was when measured up to the length of this one it is 5" too short my Rusty's bar was about 2" too short.
My old bar where my front tires were centered was 32" long the RE bar is 27" long.
 
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