Baystate Jeepers

My jeep's frame that is! Right behind the steering box. No significant rust to speak of, I used Eastwood interior frame spray and yet the frame still cracked around the drain hole. Stressed much?

Wow, just wow!

It looks fine to me. Wheel it harder.

Drill a small hole at the end of each crack and weld it up, then fab a bottom plate that runs to each of those factory mount welds. Add a couple of side plates welded to the bottom plate and that should be good. Oh, and drill out some 1/2" holes here and there to add some plug welds.


My guess is that turning side to side caused the cracks. POWER steering.

YIKES!

Why do I think you got a Monday jeep?

ZAEDOCK wrote:Drill a small hole at the end of each crack and weld it up, then fab a bottom plate that runs to each of those factory mount welds. Add a couple of side plates welded to the bottom plate and that should be good. Oh, and drill out some 1/2" holes here and there to add some plug welds.


My guess is that turning side to side caused the cracks. POWER steering.

I'm shocked my weak POS stock box is strong enough to do that!

So far I simply ground a "valley" into each crack and then welded up past the end of each crack. Next step is to reinforce the area. My main concern with a full length bottom plate is welding near the factory track bar mount and weakening it, since those are known to fail. Anyone purchased a reinforcing bar that runs to the frame on the other side? I've seen them for the '02 and prior years but not for an '05.

I've been getting the parts together for Ram assist.

That would take most of the stress off your box/frame. Might be a nice investment.

http://www.virtualjeepclub.com/showthre ... dro-Assist

I've thought about that. There's a nice kit which puts a cylinder in place of the steering stabilizer with the currie setup. Biggest issue is that I would need a new pump and box from psc, and that's big $$$.

Lets hurry back to ROCK CREEK ! FjR68

Baseshakers wrote:I've thought about that. There's a nice kit which puts a cylinder in place of the steering stabilizer with the currie setup. Biggest issue is that I would need a new pump and box from psc, and that's big $$$.

You should be fine using a 1.5" ram with stock components. That's what I'm planning on doing with the buggy, with the only exception of running a tapped Toyota steering box instead of a Saginaw. I'll be using a stock Jeep/Chryco pump.

Frank wrote:Lets hurry back to ROCK CREEK ! FjR68

love rock creek! my jeep on the other hand...

joe, i've been looking at this setup for awhile: http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f9/anoth ... g-1234080/

pretty slick, and a relatively easy install. it will require an aftermarket pump and box however.

Mountain Offroad makes a steering box brace that clamps the steering box and connects to the frame on the opposite side, but the TJ version says it is for '97-'02. Wonder why they don't have a version for later models...

I've got the XJ version and it works well.

JW