Second lower shock hanger broke off and mounting plate cracked

[SierraHawk]

The second (passenger side) lower shock hanger and the mounting plate (holds the spring pack to the front diff) are also cracked. I have had this van since Heber installed the Dinatrac front wheel drive in 2004.

When I posted the first note about the broken shock hanger and mounting plate failure on the driver's side, no one commented that their mounting plate and/or lower shock hanger had failed or cracked.

Some of us have used our 4X4 vans to get into remote areas on 100 year old dirt tracks with lots of rocks and boulders. Since these vans are very expensive to repair, I have not driven my van on any tracks that might be stressful enough to break anything in the past 6 years...maybe longer.

Take a few minutes to check your spring pack mounting plate and lower shock hangers to make sure that there are no stress fractures. The shop manager that I take my rig to said that it looks l like the passenger side mounting plate and shock hanger had been welded before. Before this year, I have never had the lower shock hanger or mounting plate welded.

 

[JoeH-SMB]

My lower shock mount/plate also broke a few years back. I believe there were quite a few instances of this from the SMB conversion where the lower tab was re-welded lower. My solution was to weld the lower tab directly to the front axle.

 

[vandiesel]

My lower shock mount/plate also broke a few years back. I believe there were quite a few instances of this from the SMB conversion where the lower tab was re-welded lower. My solution was to weld the lower tab directly to the front axle.

I broke both mine in death valley. Same story here was the reinforce and re-weld the heck out of it. Not a robust design to begin with.

 

[SierraHawk]

Extending the lower shock hanger is probably why they saw an older weld on the shock hanger.

 

[arctictraveller]

Any chance you have a photo or two?

 

[SierraHawk]

The shop sent the parts out to be welded before I thought of getting a photo but I will ask the shop foreman if he did. Mounting the shock hanger onto the axle seems like a good solution but what is causing the plate (where the nuts for the "U" bolts can be seen) to crack and the "U" bolts to shear?

 

[JoeH-SMB]

More on shock/spring mounting plate failures in this thread, including some pics of my fix. https://www.sportsmobileforum.com/forums/f9/sheared-front-shock-brackets-27048.html

 

[SierraHawk]

Thanks Joe,

The link Joe posted above has a lot of photos.

 

[arctictraveller]

Thanks for the photos now i understand the issue. Thats a fairly weak design, I think i would move the lower shock mount to bolt directly to the axle with a simple bracket, although it might require a longer shock.

 

[bobthecow]

My driver side lower shock mount broke a couple of years ago. I got a pair of replacements from Field Van. The new ones have a gusset where the weak bend is, though I'm not sure how much better they perform. I figure since it made it almost 20 years on the old one, and I'm not that hard on my van, I probably didn't need any more than that.

 

[VanMiller]

I have a Chevy Express 3500, with QUIGLEY 4x4, and Quigley 3-inch lift. My lower front shock mount also broke (many miles of washboard roads), but was covered by the dealer under warranty. That was several years ago, nothing since.