carnage photo's

[Dirt Wag]

If you're like me, you love to see OTHER PEOPLES broken Jeeps so I'm posting this for your enjoyment.:)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh139/6j7lmOZK/bent%20springs/bentsprings003.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh139/6j7lmOZK/bent%20springs/bentsprings001.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh139/6j7lmOZK/bent%20springs/bentsprings004.jpg

I went into a water filled sloppy mud hole which was a little deeper than expected and had a bank at the exit - didn't look too bad but half the bank was under water/mud so it was 4' but looked like 2'. It started to come up in front but couldn't quite make the climb. I could back up some but not all the way out so I tried a couple more times to go out forward until I was stuck. The waterline was above the taillight on one side. We tried snatching it out but on the third try something popped. I think the spring shackles were being pushed into the bank and along with the torque on the axle (axle wrap?) it was too much for the springs so the axle moved back bending the springs and compressing and causing too much angle on the driveshaft. Three of the u-joint strap bolts snapped off.

Everybody pitched in and winched/dragged me out of the hole then popped the spring shackles back down (one was folded all the way up against the frame) and pulled them with winches to unbend the springs as much as possible. Amazingly it drove fine. The steering wheel was a quarter turn off center - that was the only difference. I drove it home at 75 mph on the interstate with no problems. Funny thing is if I had just bent one side it might have been undriveable but since both sides were bent about the same it drove fine.

The driveshaft is OK. The differential yoke is scarred up some so I might have to replace that, and the u-joint of course. Good time to switch to u-bolt type yoke I guess. The pinion seal is leaking too. Could have been alot worse. Does anybody know if springs can be unbent and if they are safe if you do that? This might be a good time to do that springover I've been thinking about. Hopefully there's no internal damage to the t-case or differential I don't know about yet.

[Shaggin' Wagon]

Oh, SNAP!!!:eek:

[FSJ Guy]

Yikes.

Reminds me of the saying "If you want to play, you'll have to pay."

[Mars]

Holy monkey.. that could have been WAY worse. As far as unbending.. I doubt it.

[fulsizjeep]

Wow, that made some noise. Thank You. It helps to spread the load of grief and heart ache amongst the community.... and enabling the FSJ Addiction. :thumbsup: :cool:

[mattmopar440]

How fast where you going when you hit the Hole ??? 60 :D

I have to ask before buying my new 6" where did you buy those springs from :confused:

[mdill]

Pretty much my thoughts on running a little longer shackels with a bump stop and tie (aka HI Scout sway bar) on the front, to eliminate that senario.
Springs are toast, bent past their yeild point, no making them right ever again :(

You don't have to be going fast, just catch a little bump then dip, to unlaod the springs then bump the bank and the shackels flip wrong, as the weight comes on hard and if you are lucky the springs bend, if you are not out rips the rear spring hanger.

Bummer.

Mike D.

[duncanstives]

Not the first time I have seen this sort of damage. I think I am going to move adding some metal stops to prevent shackle inversion up my list a bit as we have a lot of the same sort of ledges here.

[ksq2]

I had a 2" shackle invert on a YJ, we popped the shackle back down and rigged the shackle so it would never happen again. After that I drove and wheeled it for three years with no problems before selling it. They were rough country 3" lift springs.