ok well this is an aftermarket A-arm made from rancho. it snapped on a dip on the way to my girlfriends house. i was wondering if i can re-enforce the **** out of it. by welding and putting brackets for support what do u guys think? thanks for your help!
this first pic is when it had the trucks full weight on it.

the rest are when the truck was off the ground

 

Thats going to be tough.

Looks like the tubing is bent, (if thats even tubing).

And the factory bracing is cracked..

Honestly i think its time to start looking for a new one.

 

damn. yeah i know i wanted just to get a new a-arm but rancho doesnt make these kits anymore. do u know where i can just get a a-arm that would be matching or something?

 

Thats COOL!!!!




(sorry )

 

Im not familiar with any ifs "upgrades".

Sorry, i just wouldn't risk repairing those, you might be able to, but it would just be one of those things in the back of my mind all the time.

 

honestly I think that is such a major deal that it looks like a good time to cut all that IFS crap off and do a SAS. But that's just my opinion. haha.

 

yeah dude it would suck driving my truck knowing its just touched up and not buff like it used to be

 

lol! i wanted too but then i got an 85 4runner though so i like ifs on my daily driver

 

sny more suggestion/tips would help thanks.

 

i agree with 904runner, id bou tbe scared to try to repair it. if it was me the first thing id do is maybe hit up the junkyards and find some stock a arms that were in good shape. oh and nows a good time to whore your truck out... cuz i wana see pics

 

Even after Rancho stopped making the kit, Downey had a supply of those upper arms and was selling them as part of their "Grand Slam" IFS kit. As you can see, those arms are NOT meant to take abuse, as they do that. Anyway, you can talk to downey to see if they have one that they could sell you.

I know a good fabricator that could easily build some new ones. Not sure of the cost, though. www.roughroadfabrication.com

Personally, I wouldn't trust patching it. Even if you did a good job, it would be like Nailing a redwood plank onto a broken piece of balsa wood. Just my .002

 

He can't use the stock upper arms, as that arm is what makes the kit work. Other IFS kits need to lower the diff with brackets, this is one of the first designs that had the lift designed into the arm.

 

SAS is all I have to say looks like you have a donor vehicle in your drive or maybe just put your money into that one is it 84 or 85?

 

x2 - should be pretty easy to duplicate and make considerably stronger. It appears to be channel material (only 3 sides) - making it out of tubing would add a lot of strength ... could even go cromoly.

 

Ouch. Gotta love "bling" lift kits.

 

call up rancho and start saying every curse word til you get your money back and go to www.chaosfab.com and get a set that will out last your truck. my buddy has them on his 2wd and we have gotten it at least 20ft in the air and some how lived. they are built

 

if i call up rancho do u guys think they would help me? like seriously i got lucky it snapped on the street and not the freeway. that would of not been cool..

 

Yowza! Glad it didn't send you to the hospital. I sure wouldn't try to fix it. If you try to copy it, be very careful, a lot of engineering went into getting the geometry right on that puppy. Looks like they could have done a little more materials research though. As cheap as I am, here's my suggestion. A lot of coin but at least it won't break. SAS more than likely cheaper.
Jim
http://www.chaosfab.com/95000BJ.html

 

i would just fix it cut off the one side of the arm and re make it and wedl iot back togther

 

You might be able to find a part like that on ebay or off a wrecked one (ebay would be your best bet if you ask me) as far as a SAS I like my IFS much smoother ride for a DD (once again my opinion)