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[5GENIDN]

We don’t talk about it because it’s not something that needs to be focused on as a topic of conversation. Don’t want her wheeling journey to be associated with having “a condition” as that isn’t what this is about. The only time it’s even mentioned is if she’s having so much trouble from it that she can’t drive or feels that the pain will prevent her from being able to focus properly. It’s not an issue for driving around town or the interstate, but offroading can be highly stressful. She knows that and before we go out must decide if it is going to be a problem or not. And even then we’ll just say she’s feeling under the weather or something. The first time I took her to Moab in the bronco she would literally get out for the tiniest things that she wouldn’t even consider an obstacle now. And now she’s crushing ridiculous trails like a boss, and not just because she has a badass ride. It takes some nerve to do what she’s done. She started crying reading that response (wanted to make sure she was okay with it being shared) because she has come such a long way when it comes to being able to not just drive, but to do things she never could have imagined doing.

The reason I brought it up was yeah, I made a joke about needing to be alive to continue living, but there are things worse than death. And we have an accessory that could literally fall off without warning and cut the wheel in half. You may not die after crashing at what is effectively a front wheel blowout at 80 mph on 37, 38, or 40 inch tires. But you could be affected for the rest of your life with a painful affliction. Or in her case, it would absolutely wipe out all the progress she has made even if she didn’t get hurt in any capacity. Driving down the road and you roll your car because a company was dragging their feet on fixing a known problem? Fuck!

Spending two grand on getting our own brackets made was wanting to eliminate the problem causing the bracket bolts to loosen. Finding out these brackets were made improperly and that the bolts weren’t the correct length? I don’t know that I’d consider it to be a “bonus” but it was a relief that it wasn’t something I had done wrong and it does seem like 74Weld benefitted from our findings, if what other customers have told me with regard to their conversations with kwin are true.

There’s no need to discuss any litigation that could come as a result of these hypothetical situations. Too many variables and thankfully other customers reached out to warn us of the issue and we didn’t have an accident. And 74weld already seems to be preparing for potential lawsuits by saying “you must follow the attached instructions.” Looks like they’re trying to put the liability on the customer or shop doing the work, even if the instructions can’t be followed.

So when I get an email that says “we understand that you’re upset” no, motherfucker, I don’t think you actually do. Email me again to drive 600 miles on your fucked up brackets and not put it on paper whether they’re safe to drive on or not. Fucking cunts.

I love your response... It does explain a lot. Had I gone through that with my family I would be right there with you.... You are a good man... Thank YOU for the PM... I was a little worried there. And it has been so fun to watch Mrs Sierra grow in her driving and her mechanics. It has been impressive.... I think she is already a better driver than I am... Like I said... a fish to water. Some people are just naturals.

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[SierraBronco]

I love your response... It does explain a lot. Had I gone through that with my family I would be right there with you.... You are a good man... Thank YOU for the PM... I was a little worried there. And it has been so fun to watch Mrs Sierra grow in her driving and her mechanics. It has been impressive.... I think she is already a better driver than I am... Like I said... a fish to water. Some people are just naturals.

Dude, building this thing and her driving it has been unreal. She didn’t know a wrench from a screwdriver when we started all this, and the only caveat to “getting her 40’s” was that she did the work. And she was so excited to do that work. She literally replaced that entire harness herself while I was working on the axles and new coils. I think I removed one bolt because she (correctly) put a ground in the factory spot while I had the UCA tied up out of the way. When I went to put it back together it hit the bolt and needed to be moved back to where we relocated it on the UCA double shear bracket. Seriously that’s it. She’s not welding yet but she’s excited to learn how. It’s been awesome.

 

[SierraBronco]

I do know those are not the fronts. They look way to wide. However, The image of @ScLeCo bracket does nicely show the bearing areas the took all the load. Not sure why but very uneven load distribution on the large main bearing areas. Poor tolerance, inadequate clamping force? Who knows? But shows how f*up this is.

Some of the brackets are clearly behaving well (5gen) some are totally jacked up. I would check mine on all 4 corners and see if there are hot spots of wear on the bearing surfaces or in the bolts bearing areas (threads). I wouldn’t want the bolts carrying any significant shear load, just applying clamping force. I would get with 74weld if abnormal wear is observed.

Looking at that picture then looking at mine I can’t figure out what happened. Almost looks like some buckling but that might have occurred when it fell against the wheel.

Maybe I just didn’t bleed my rear brakes well enough for them to apply enough pressure

 

[5GENIDN]

Dude, building this thing and her driving it has been unreal. She didn’t know a wrench from a screwdriver when we started all this, and the only caveat to “getting her 40’s” was that she did the work. And she was so excited to do that work. She literally replaced that entire harness herself while I was working on the axles and new coils. I think I removed one bolt because she (correctly) put a ground in the factory spot while I had the UCA tied up out of the way. When I went to put it back together it hit the bolt and needed to be moved back to where we relocated it on the UCA double shear bracket. Seriously that’s it. She’s not welding yet but she’s excited to learn how. It’s been awesome.

I have been following... and YES I am very impressed.

 

[TeocaliMG]

Careful with going to a higher grade bolt.... A higher grade has a higher rigidity (or tensile strength) but a lower toughness.... They tend to be more brittle.

I am way late to this thread but ditto. 10.9 is used extensively on safety critical parts by the OEMs. excellent strength and not too brittle. I would reserve 12.9 for a very specific case.

 

[SierraBronco]

I am way late to this thread but ditto. 10.9 is used extensively on safety critical parts by the OEMs. excellent strength and not too brittle. I would reserve 12.9 for a very specific case.

The OEM 14mm bolts that hold the caliper to the bracket are indeed 10.9

 

[TeocaliMG]

You need thread depth to achieve full strength, less thread depth just means the treads will fail before the bolt. Not something to worry about unless your bolts are stripping out.

At this point we don't know if bolt size is based on thread strength or those cap bolt/washer head area. Back engineering the problem I say both.

Engineering mumbo jumbo here https://mechanicalc.com/reference/bolted-joint-analysis and note that you have damage in the pressure cone zone in diagram 1.

Several things you can do! more bolts! bigger bolts! longer bolts!

Ditto. Fastener engineering is more complicated than many people think. Looking back at the pictures earlier, seeing witness marks from the threads is a huge red flag. Obviously in this case we know the bolts were coming loose, but even if they werent "loose", that would signify that the fasteners were not clamping properly.

I saw earlier folks mentioning the bolts handling the shear load, and how a pin or the interfacing bracket geometry could help (it could help), but the bolt absolutely should not be handling the shear load, at least not primarily, the job of the fastener is to clamp the surfaces together so hard that the surface friction handles the load. There are some exceptions sure, but fastener selection in this application should primarily be to achieve adequate clamp load on the bracket so that no dowel pin or interfacing geometry is needed to handle load transfer. Using aluminum threads, and of inadequate depth, is a huge red flag in that regard.

I think the easiest visualization for this is the control arm bolts, they are big sure, but they are not handling direct shear load, they are just clamping the heck out of the control arm bushing between the frame flanges to get adequate friction to handle the insane suspension loads.

 

[mpeugeot]

Dude, building this thing and her driving it has been unreal. She didn’t know a wrench from a screwdriver when we started all this, and the only caveat to “getting her 40’s” was that she did the work. And she was so excited to do that work. She literally replaced that entire harness herself while I was working on the axles and new coils. I think I removed one bolt because she (correctly) put a ground in the factory spot while I had the UCA tied up out of the way. When I went to put it back together it hit the bolt and needed to be moved back to where we relocated it on the UCA double shear bracket. Seriously that’s it. She’s not welding yet but she’s excited to learn how. It’s been awesome.

Where I am from, we call her a keeper. LOL.

 

[Razorback]

Question for those that have replaced the caliper bracket. Did you put it in brake service mode and also did you use new bolts for the calipers given the high torque range?

 

[SierraBronco]

Question for those that have replaced the caliper bracket. Did you put it in brake service mode and also did you use new bolts for the calipers given the high torque range?

When we pull the brackets we just make certain the park brake is off then pull the negative terminal on the battery. They won’t set on ya doing it that way.

We bought new bolts up front after the…third time…we pulled them. Still using original 74W bolts in back.

 

[SierraBronco]

Home from sand hollow and had a shipment waiting for us. 74W came through and sent us replacement portal boxes (portal box is only this section, turns out. I was always under the impression it was the entire portal) to fix the potentially damaged threads on the brake caliper brackets.

I also asked for replacement tierod bushings to go back to single shear. I offered to pay for them as going double shear and drilling out the taper was my decision, so it would make no sense to expect those for free. Either they forgot to send the invoice, this is a gesture of goodwill, or it wasn’t worth the effort to make an invoice compared to how much they cost. Whatever it was they sent the bushings so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that it was the second option.

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