I'll type more later, but I need to get to bed. I'll leave you guys (and ladies) with pics...

 

Damn, what happened?

 

his headlight oil leaked by the looks of it...

 

looks like he went muddin' and the mud won.

 

i can't sleep....

wish I was mudding. I met up with my best friend to help him with his PhD field research south of Albuquerque, NM. He had to head back into town by 9pm to pick up his gf from the airport. I opted to stay out on some local highways road cruising for snakes (another hobby of mine). I drove back into the nearest town (like 15 miles or so) to grab something to drink and then took another highway back down to where we were out in the field. I made it 17 of 19 miles, where I crossed a set of railroad tracks, heard a pop and clank, then felt my suspension bottom out and my tire sound weird. I instantly thought flat and oh crap, my spare is 60 miles back in Albuquerque. I got out to find my cv boot ripped (the so called "mud" you see is cv grease) and the shaft on my bilstein c/o unit snapped. I managed to walk back on the highway and found my hypercoil. As of right now I have the tire, brake caliper assembly, and shock pieces off. I stopped at the 32mm axle nut as I'm too damn tired to deal with breaking it loose.

IRONICALLY, I was suppose to head over to Clovis, NM today to pickup new cv halfshafts from Advance Auto Parts. They are only $70 each side, versus $350+ from Bob Utter Ford (parts.com) or motorcraft axles from rockauto (whom forgot to include my lower ball joints when they mailed me my MOOG upper control arms and outter tierod ends).

I also have fox coilover and rear shocks on order. Should be here in about 2 weeks. God forbid I have a job interview between now and then.

I'm gonna go pull out my contacts and try to cry myself to sleep.

 

Wow! Sounds like a rough night.

 

could have been wayyy worse man.

 

It looks to me like the shock's compressed length was a little too long for the application. Shocks don't make good bump stops.

 

to me they look cheap what is the size of that shock shaft? 1/2?

 

5100/6100/7100 series are 14mm, roughly 9/16".

 

Yup, I don't see any limit straps on there..?

 

hey!
man that sucks, i just went crawling over a speed bump when mine broke..

 

I can understand just a shock with that shaft size but a coilover?

 

the fox's are only 5/8 i think.

 

Both of yours broke in the exact same spot - to have that happen isnt your fault - its a manufacturer defect -- I'm sure if you all looked around on soem other forums you would most likeyl find the exact same thing - maybe get some free brand new replacements from the company.. sell them for cash, and get into somethign different.. Like a set of MonoMax :-D

 

That sucks man.

Don't think limit straps would help if the problem is the compressed length is too long.

He would need bump stops (like Bob mentioned).

 

Scary stuff. I bet you'll play hell getting a replacement from RCD with the kit being discontinued. nvm Fox's FTW!

I hope this never happens to me. *knocks on wood*

 

I'm trying to figure that one out too. For the ~25k miles I have on this kit that OEM bump stops always slightly rested on the LCA. This is per what the RCD kit called for and subsequently relocated onto the front crossmember drop bracket. In the first photo you can see the relocation point of the RCD drop bracket and the metal housing of the OEM bumpstop. Due to basically having no passenger front suspension the bumpstop was fulling compressed, but was sticking out, of to the side towards the middle of the vehicle.

I have to slightly agree with WowMike though. Matt and I are most likely not the only ones to snap the bilstein c/o unit at the exact same spot.

 

That sucks man! The coilovers on mine are slightly different then what made it into the production kit. I wonder if this will happen to mine sometime too.

 

Did you get Sean Spive's (or is it Spivey) used prototype kit?

 

we're not.

its a design flaw, i had a shiny spot on my frame where they had apparently been rubbing.

what side broke? passenger?

 

Yes sir.

 

yup, the shaft snapped just within the upper portion of the lower eyelet.

I just got back from Clovis, NM. They have an Advance Auto Parts there that had both CV halfshafts. Paid $150 total after taxes, plus 13 gallons of gas for a PT Cruiser I rented. I used another 1/2 tank to get home, would have been less but I opted to go drive some back roads for snakes on my way home. Nonetheless, $150, plus $33 in gas (so far), and doing a 10 hour roundtrip drive beats $350+ per shaft from the local stealerships, Bob Utter Ford (parts.com/trademotion.com), or rockauto.com. They are GSP brand shafts. Hopefully they are good quality.

I forget who it was, but you got it from someone off of ORR. I want your 1/4 inch extended custom halfshafts LOL

 

is there a clean spot on the frame on the passenger side?

 

D'oh, didn't look closely, I was thinking over-extended.
I have noticed that the new RCD kits have bumpstops much lower to help prevent that from happening.