Can't say what it is for sure but wow broke this lower in less than 1k miles. A new record for me. The new motor with high compression is so snappy and responsive. The RPMs wrap up so fast and quick when you blip the throttle it makes a stock terminator motor seem very lazy and lethargic. Perhaps that extra snap accelerated this problem.
The other big change is I put the lower together with a stiffer than stock bushing material because the 2.9 would normally crush the stock rubbers flat and have some wobble and slop in the lower. Maybe that contributed.
Snapped the tri-bar right off the shaft. Engine was still running but nothing was spinning. With engine off you can see what I mean here
[video=youtube;fQHjfeG7BcU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQHjfeG7BcU[/video]
The tri bar on the left of this pic is the one I just snapped. Notice it ripped the threaded part right off. (the one on the right btw has stripped out threads from a prior incident lol)
So the shaft is stuck in there because of the snapped off threaded piece.
That center shaft was so seized into the damper I was really stuck for a while. Dropping the car's weight on it while in 6th and parking brake on did nothing. Jacked up the breaker bar, nailed with a hammer etc. Grabbed a 6 foot cheater bar. Couldn't budge it. I've never seen anything like it. That's by far the worse I've ever jacked one of these up.
Eventually got it off with the help of my buddy. We wedged a crow bar behind the pulley and pulled it away from the damper. Couldn't remove it because it's stuck on the shaft because of the snapped off threads on end. We got a torch in there and got some heat on the center shaft. Finally broke it loose.
I now have three broken factory lowers in the garage. Time to change it up. Going with a metco lower setup instead. Hopefully that solves the problem.
The other big change is I put the lower together with a stiffer than stock bushing material because the 2.9 would normally crush the stock rubbers flat and have some wobble and slop in the lower. Maybe that contributed.
Snapped the tri-bar right off the shaft. Engine was still running but nothing was spinning. With engine off you can see what I mean here
[video=youtube;fQHjfeG7BcU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQHjfeG7BcU[/video]
The tri bar on the left of this pic is the one I just snapped. Notice it ripped the threaded part right off. (the one on the right btw has stripped out threads from a prior incident lol)
So the shaft is stuck in there because of the snapped off threaded piece.
That center shaft was so seized into the damper I was really stuck for a while. Dropping the car's weight on it while in 6th and parking brake on did nothing. Jacked up the breaker bar, nailed with a hammer etc. Grabbed a 6 foot cheater bar. Couldn't budge it. I've never seen anything like it. That's by far the worse I've ever jacked one of these up.
Eventually got it off with the help of my buddy. We wedged a crow bar behind the pulley and pulled it away from the damper. Couldn't remove it because it's stuck on the shaft because of the snapped off threads on end. We got a torch in there and got some heat on the center shaft. Finally broke it loose.
I now have three broken factory lowers in the garage. Time to change it up. Going with a metco lower setup instead. Hopefully that solves the problem.
