Well after beating the crap outta my rig since 04 I finally had the offroading trip I have been dreading. Myself and some guys from work went out to the Dry Lake bed in Joshua Tree (again) and just before we were going to call it a day we decided to try this one last hill for laughs. Only one truck made it up (thank God at least one made it up there) and for the life of all of us, we can't figure out how he made it? Anyway, I gave it a go... mind you I'm lifted, locked, MT's Probably should have made it up but I got to bouncing around in the holes the previous trucks made for me and next thing I know I'm sideways, about to roll down the hill, my O-ring was quite puckered, and one of the ground guides was asking me why I was turning the way I was? I said I wasn't turning that way and he said wait... oh sh!t. My left tire was turned all the way right and my right tire was turned all the way left.

Damnit

So after MANY hours of trying to right the X to face up hill (it wasn't going to be pretty to try and take it down hill) Then getting the X down the other side of the hill by having 3 guys manually force one of my tires in the direction it needed. We were only able to get it about half way down before we had to stop for fear of falling off of a cliff. We called all of the parts stores for 100 miles and no one had what we needed on hand. I rreally didn't WANT to leave the X out in the middle of the desert overnight. I have seen smoldering piles of metal out here where local bastards torch rigs left unattended. So one of my friends says he has a car dolly so we went to grab that from his house. While we were out we stopped by Home Depot to try and get parts to fabricate something to hold pieces of tie rods together. Yeah that didn't really work we would find out soon ehough but whatever, it was a try at something. So we get the dolly back out and we have to take it off of the truck and drag it by hand up the nearest trail to get it to the X. Unfortunately, this was a very sandy trail. So bad that noone could get UP to the X (hence having to take the dolly by hand) <--- this freakin SUX!!! Got the truck that DID make it up to squeeze between me and the cliff, almost blowing another O-ring, and hook the trailer up. Got the X on the dolly and headed down the trail. I had to rid in the X for quite some time to give it gas so we both didn't get stuck in the sand. I know this wasn't the safest thing to do, nor the best thing to do to the X but it was the only way. Needless to say it was well after dark by this time. Gave the X a once over the next morning and I find a broken lower ball joint, beat to sh!t LCA, one tie rod that looks like a paper clip, one tie rod is snapped in half, at least one broken motor mount... my stick shifts are noticably shifted to the right (so bad that it is very hard to put it in 5th/reverse) I'm sure there is more that I just haven't seen, I just didn't have the time before work to get more in depth.

I kinda knew the tie rods would go sometime, or at least get bent. It just sux that it happened. So now I guess I'm in the market for new steering and motor mounts at least. I don't know how bad the LCA is but either way I gotta get lower balljoints. This blows...

So what are some opinions on upgraded steering? Calmini, AC, TC, seriously doubt I can find SLR or L&P stuff? Did I forget anyone? Has anyone ever made their own tierods? Doesn't seem like they would be that hard to make?

What about motor mounts? I hear there are some nice ones being made by some guys @ RONIN, Ben and Alex I believe? I haven't really looked into this or other options. One problem at a time.

Sorry so long, here's some pics to make it better


Motor mount


Home Depot fix that didn't work well


Bent tie rod, also same side with broken ball joint and beat up LCA


OUCH


Finally

Whole album

I have many more pics to upload someday (my internet SUX)

Thanks all

Glad to see that you got it home.

I have the Calmini steering, easy to set up and grease. The grease is the key to long bushing life. Get a pnumatic grease gun, It is the only way to get high pressure grease into the bushings, a hand pump one just does not have the ass to do it.

A welder is about the only thing outside of new adjusters and ends that would have worked to keep everything together.

Was your front end bouncing when the adjuster went.

What normally happens is the centerlink rotates up into the frame and the tire turns into it. The power sreering is strong enough to bend the factory adjusters.

You can also use a short section of chain as a limiting strap on a factory motor mount.