ENGAGE offroad lower arm broke i need your guys opinion on this

yep same here. after looking at the picture of Blackhawk88 the sleeve does look pretty thin. you can tell cause the bushings is in it and od of the sleeve is barely there most likely .120 wall at most and as for material used I'd say mild steel

 

If you had to cut and beat the old ones out like I did you would of greased them like I did. They were welded to the LCA with rust and wouldn't even press out after numerous attempts. They gave me more trouble then the LCA BJ's. Should make the next pair much easier to remove when they aren't welded to the LCA with rust + the grease should keep some moisture out.

I contemplated that when I was installing them. The presence of rust behind the cams led me to clean and lube them + clean/paint/lube the LCA mount. I get the theory of the lube helping them move, but if they are properly torqued I'm not worried. I'm pretty anal with my truck and it's maintenance. If they do move Ill be the first to admit I was wrong, but until then Ill just keep an eye on them like I usually do.

 

No issue with putting some grease on the metal sleeve of the bushing - good for what you are thinking about. I was just saying after the install of the bushings, clean the surface behind the cam and the cam itself to allow the cams to bite into the perches so as to not let the cam slip - some folks weld these pups.

 

My own opinion is that the bumps were not set up correctly on either engage kit that failed. When the LCA was at full stuff and bind the energy has to go somewhere, and there is a lot of leverage focused on those LCA pivots. Obviously quality 4130 material, or .250 USA DOM material and gussets would have prolonged the inevitable but without bumps taking some of that energy away it would still happen eventually. These frames flex far more than most guys think. I noticed my TC arms wear the powdercoating off on that same part of the inside of the pivot, indicating it is a high friction area. Wear from not lubing the bushings enough could also be a contributing factor.

Oh and monkeyproof, cut that xmember in half and sleeve it with some DOM tubing, that's what I ended up doing and it's held up great.

 

Thanks for the tip! Off hand do you remember the OD of the tubing that you used?

Side note... got the xmember today that I ordered but Toyota ordered the wrong one...they ordered the xmember for the flux capacitor instead of the one for the trans

 

1.5"? Dono for sure.

 

This is how mine is set up with JD, all I get is a smashed in bump pad and dented LCA, but with this kit, there isn't much room to deal with it. It's been like this for a long time now too. I could mount it off the UCA spindle bolt but it's really not worth it with a kit like this.

 

When you say JD are you meaning it's a JD fab kit?

 

Lmao this had me blowing milk from Out my nose !!

 

yep the jd fab kit. possibly the best 5 lug tacoma kit out there

 

Used to be, now JD has an extreme kit as well as another company (I have the gen 1 JD kit). Once I finish the ESB kit, I'll have the best 5-lug kit out there no questions asked.

Continue the rage fest....

 

[/QUOTE]

holy shit look at the clearance on that ranger

 

american motorsports has a pretty sick 5 lug kit

 

holy shit look at the clearance on that ranger [/QUOTE]

and he's prolly 20 feet over stock..wide mofo for sure

 

Yeah in 20 years..........

 

haha *when you finish the esb kit....* HEHE how is it coming along alex? make a jig of it, I want a kit too! Also your steering rack will blow up before anything else HAHA so just keep going straight only!

 

I just want to say that I am using the same exact pivots on the PLOW for the last 7 years. It has probably seen more race miles and offroad miles then most or all trucks that will ever leave the shop. My front pivots have never had an issue and have alot more leverage on them as my arms are much longer. Also there is not one race or offroad session that my suspension has ever failed. Only things that have gotten us at races are tires, rear leaf springs, fuel issues, wiring issues. We have finished 9 of our 11 races in the plow and the two DNF was fuel and wiring issue, and leaf spring issues.
We race several trucks with the same kits and same pivots. There is not any harder abuse then racing on the trucks period. They have raced baja, preran baja, raced barstow, placed 2nd in 250 mile race in baja. Engage is not a new shop and has now been around for more then 10 years. We dont in any way use great material on all of our own trucks and then go cheap on customers trucks. We use the same strong metal on all kits since the beginning..

Here is a video to go with the other video in this thread.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaN56c9unCk

 

So maybe the seam on yours wasnt placed out? Fact of the matter is his failed and he doesnt race. Find a blown LCA pivot from Camburg or Total Chaos, I'll be waiting patiently

I also seem to recall a member on here had his front leaf spring hanger ripped off the frame, hmmm who installed that

 

ok.... so if the arms can withstand race conditions why can't they hold up on DD/weekend play trucks?

 

Once again this can go on forever but if you look at most failures you will see rust. There is no way the leaf hanger and front pivot rusted instantly when they broke. That means either a crack or tear was there for an undefined amount of time. Yes tears or cracks will break eventually. But if prepped correctly before each trip then this can be patched up before hand. This could have happened several trips ago for either truck and the failure happened at that time. Who can say otherwise. There is no seam placed outside on the pivot. So it is not a seam that just popped open.
I run the same exact pivots on the PLOW. Proving other companies ripping in the same spot does not mean anything.