Trip Report/Failure

ryan-in-oregon · Jul 8, 2010

Well my ten day trip was cut short at seven days. Yesterday afternoon my right front airspring was punctured on the Mcgrew Trail in Southern Oregon. (Not the best place for this to happen) Fortunately I had rock sliders and they were USED as I got off the trail on my bump stops!!! It appears that the upper a-arm rubs on the sleeve around the air spring at full droop. I do have the rod mod but I am only running at 8mm shorter then stock.

Has anyone seen anything like this before??? For now it looks like I may ditch the rod mod and go back to stock!!!

jpljpl · Jul 8, 2010

Bummer about the breakdown. No experience with the rod-mod...

But that looks like a good candidate for some JB Weld. Obviously wouldnt address the rubbing issue, but you probably could get off the trail without being on the bumps.

ryan-in-oregon · Jul 8, 2010

JB would cover the hole in the sleave but not the hole in the rubber bladder. Unfortunatly the one idea I had to cover the hole from the inside of the sleave with a thin piece of aluminum ducttaped in place didn't work. The hole in the bag was too big for the bag to even inflate and push against it. I was hoping this might do for a temp fix to limp out.
Ryan

Houm_WA · Jul 8, 2010

Ryan, you assessment is that the puncture is due to the control arm at full droop and not some foreign object? Maybe the rubbing happened AFTER you lost your EAS and were at the bump stops? Or were the pics taken before? I don't see how the control arm could rub a patch like that AND puncture the metal too...it seems like two mutually exclusive interferences to me.

Also, how would going back to stock help this situation? Isn't full droop full droop regardless of what height you start at?

...sorry you had a bum outing, man!

CMGRover · Jul 8, 2010

Even that sticker on it didn't protect it! LOL!

Sorry to hear about it though.

ryan-in-oregon · Jul 8, 2010

With the spring deflated it is impossible for that damage to occur. The bladder has a wear mark through it due to the raw edge of the hole. The pic is taken at full droop deflated. I imagine at inflation it would be lower but I can't prove it. The wear hole is definately from the upper a-arm, there is a corresponding mark in it and they line up perfectly. That a-arm was replaced last September by me and there was no indication of a rub at that time either. Currently with the front end in the air both sides have similar clearences so I am unsure how it would have happened. I am going to go and talk to one of the local indy's today and see what he says.

Houm_WA · Jul 8, 2010

Let me know what you find out. Just looking at it from a Physics standpoint it seems like they couldn't interfere regardless of rod-mod or whatever. I would bet that you had something lodged in there that fell out after it did the damage.

....plenty of us run the rod-mod, wouldn't this be a common problem?

blackforestham · Jul 8, 2010

Duuuuuuuuuuude! Something looks wrong. Almost like the upper shock mount is tilted inward towards the a-arm. I'm headed down to the garage tonight to do some snazzy laser measuring on some of the suspension components. I'll definitely look around this zone and post up if anything looks odd. I'll be sure to cycle the suspension and take some readings. Sorry man. That blows.

blackforestham · Jul 8, 2010

BTW - trippy looking rod mod Ryan???

blackforestham · Jul 8, 2010

Ryan - there's more going on here than a simple rub issue. There's plenty of room between the arm and canister. These are both fixed points and the tire only rotates AROUND the knuckle and will not be allowed to move closer to the canister, unless something else is going on. I would have a close look at your shock mounts - especially the upper one. I measure a minimum of 1" clearance here -

Trip Report/Failure

ryan-in-oregon

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