Wednesday, June 2, 2021

Spring Has Sprung

  Well, sorta. When I say spring has sprung what I really mean is one of my coil springs on the big ass station wagon broke. I was blocks from work when I heard a loud bang as the right front corner dropped. The coil spring broke and that corner was now supported by a bottomed out strut. Like I said, I was blocks away from work so after a quick examination I just drove it there.


 Initially I was quite upset. Not because the struts would need replacing, I'm sure they are overdue for replacement. I was upset because it looked like the boot on my cv shaft was compromised. I just replaced these shafts last fall and they were definitely not due for more attention. In this next pic you can see the broken spring and I took note of where it broke.


 In the back of my mind I kept wondering what caused the spring to break. After installing a new loaded strut I noticed the spring was hitting a gusset on the Rough Country Suspension supplied upper control arm. This only happens at full droop of the control arms and I don't remember seeing that when I installed the lift kit. I reckon I've been doing enough full droop type of maneuvers to have compromised the spring. 


 

Since I don't plan on changing my driving habits I figured its best I fix the problem. 



 I used a cut-off wheel to adjust the gusset enough for the spring to clear. Yes this is where the old spring broke. Shame on you Rough Country for not foreseeing this potentially dangerous problem. 

 A special shout out to Dan for staying after work and helping me replace both front struts. 


Later.

No comments:

Post a Comment