Hello TJ Forum,
I'm posting this as I'm looking for some opinions from you all. Its a bit of a rant if you want to skip to the last paragraph I list my questions and add images. Before I first bought my TJ I had taken it to a shop for a visual inspection, they had given me a list of things that needed to be done as the parts had looked very warn out. Tie rod, drag link, all four ball joints, both front axle u joints, and that it would need to be aligned after. Over the next serval months I had reviewed this forum for info and made the repairs listed by the shop that were needed. Then this week I had taken my jeep to a shop right down the road from me to get an alignment (I have since read several posts about how easy it is to do on your own, and will be doing this). This shop called me after 15 mins and told me that in order to do an alignment I would need a new steering gearbox, track bar & axle replaced???!?!? When I inquired more on what was wrong with my axle he had said it was bent, which sounds horrible, but as he explained it sounded like to me he was talking about the lower passenger side control arm where it meets the axle. I have included images below of my axle for you to look through. I declined them to do any of that work and I walked over to pick it up. To add more to my confusion they gave me a write up that also stated the above and that the jeep could not turn left??? I was kind of surprised by this as I had made several left turns on my way to the shop?? After getting the Jeep back home I talked with a family member that works on cars, but has no experiecne with Jeeps. He told me that it sounded like the shop did not want the job or the liability of messing with the control arm on the axle. In all I figured I would replaced the track bar as they are pretty cheap then adjust the tie rod and drag link in my garage and do my own alignment. I plan on leaving the axle as is since it seems to be holding up just fine.
Sorry for the long writeup above. In short, my question to you all is does the axle or passenger side lower control arm in the images below look horrible (I know its not great as its bent)? I assumed down the road when im ready I could just take the control arm off and hammer the axle dog ears back straight and then add a new control arm, is it that easy? Do I have a larger problem in my hands than I realize?
Image on the left is the passengers side front axle, image on the right is the drivers side front axle. (note that these images were taken before I did any work on this jeep)
I'm posting this as I'm looking for some opinions from you all. Its a bit of a rant if you want to skip to the last paragraph I list my questions and add images. Before I first bought my TJ I had taken it to a shop for a visual inspection, they had given me a list of things that needed to be done as the parts had looked very warn out. Tie rod, drag link, all four ball joints, both front axle u joints, and that it would need to be aligned after. Over the next serval months I had reviewed this forum for info and made the repairs listed by the shop that were needed. Then this week I had taken my jeep to a shop right down the road from me to get an alignment (I have since read several posts about how easy it is to do on your own, and will be doing this). This shop called me after 15 mins and told me that in order to do an alignment I would need a new steering gearbox, track bar & axle replaced???!?!? When I inquired more on what was wrong with my axle he had said it was bent, which sounds horrible, but as he explained it sounded like to me he was talking about the lower passenger side control arm where it meets the axle. I have included images below of my axle for you to look through. I declined them to do any of that work and I walked over to pick it up. To add more to my confusion they gave me a write up that also stated the above and that the jeep could not turn left??? I was kind of surprised by this as I had made several left turns on my way to the shop?? After getting the Jeep back home I talked with a family member that works on cars, but has no experiecne with Jeeps. He told me that it sounded like the shop did not want the job or the liability of messing with the control arm on the axle. In all I figured I would replaced the track bar as they are pretty cheap then adjust the tie rod and drag link in my garage and do my own alignment. I plan on leaving the axle as is since it seems to be holding up just fine.
Sorry for the long writeup above. In short, my question to you all is does the axle or passenger side lower control arm in the images below look horrible (I know its not great as its bent)? I assumed down the road when im ready I could just take the control arm off and hammer the axle dog ears back straight and then add a new control arm, is it that easy? Do I have a larger problem in my hands than I realize?
Image on the left is the passengers side front axle, image on the right is the drivers side front axle. (note that these images were taken before I did any work on this jeep)
