lphillippi

So I was down at the Baja 500 this year, 15 miles up a dirt road into the mountains. It was a rough road but not any rougher than I've driven before. The front bolt holding the steering knuckle to the spindle sheared off flush with the spindle. The knuckle arm therefore bent and my wheels were both pointing out rendering my truck undrivable or towable. Not good. I was able to bend the arm back most of the way. Got the broken bolt out, moved the "good" bolt from the back to the front of the arm. Made it a few hundred feet before I hit a small rock and the entire front right side of my truck fell to the ground. The weight of my truck was on the top of the tire, the frame and fiberglass fender which is now crushed. The crown nut on the control arm was gone. The crown nut was apparently cracked by the steering knuckle when it bent. Take a look at how small that nut is sometime.

None of the friendly pit crews that stopped had a nut the size i needed or any way to mickey mouse it. The only option was to leave my truck in the boondocks and go for parts...which took about 30 hours.

The steering knuckle bolt is\was grade 10.9 which is the strongest made. It was also only 2 years old. I bought spares (of everything) and checked out the bolt on the left spindle. The bolt was bent so I marked it and put it back in. The front bolt is being bent towards the back of the truck. My interpretation is that the tires are being forced out and the arms are bending. The bolt breakage was a result of use over time and not just the stress they were taking that day.

I searched the net and didn't find anybody that has had a similar problem. All of the hard core aftermarket suspension kits utilize the stock steering knuckle so I'm wondering why this happened to me but not others that are working them even harder. The only thing I can think of is to have some plate metal welded to the knuckle to reinforce it and prevent it from bending.

Ideas? Has anybody seen this happen?

hmmwv15

I have no idea but it must have sucked leaving your truck that long, I guess it was all there when you returned to it huh?

I hate leaving my truck for the 8 hours I have to go 20 feet into the work building every day, and it's probably not worth 1/2 as much as your truck!

Five1Nine8Eight

I've seen this happen with fabtech spindles, not stock or modified spindles though.

Stock steering knuckles on modified spindles are heavily gusseted.

lphillippi

I am using Fabtech spindles. Any idea why they are susceptible?

Thx for the pic of the uniball installed. I’ve looked at in on their website but they only show it in parts.

Yes it sucked big time leaving my truck in the boondocks. An alarm or a club wasn’t going to do much good. I took one last look at my truck and it made me sick to my stomach. I was expecting it to be burnt, stripped or stolen. I could tell others had gone around after we left but it was still sitting on a rock waiting for the crown nut to be put on.

Five1Nine8Eight

Ooooh, fabtech spindles. My friend had these a few years ago and went through 3-4 steering knuckles. I remember reading somewhere recently that a few people did what we did and had success.

Drill all the way through where the two bolts connect the steering arm and stuff a M14 10.9 bolt in there. There will be just enough rotor clearance on the other side for a jam nut.

Those spindles would snap the M12 bolts left and right with light offroading (maintained dirt roads). In fact one broke as we were going up a dirt road, locked the steering, pulled the brake lines out and we went right into a cliff (luckily not off a cliff).

The spindles worked fine after that for Moderate offroad (not maintained, rocks etc)