Blown Rancho strut from a Frankenlift.

4wdParakeet · **Posted:** Sat Jul 22, 2006 8:58 pm

Well I was airing up my tires after an awesome day of wheeling with another lost person and I noticed a small spot of fluid leaking under the pass side just inside of the tire. Upon closer inspection I saw the cv boot was wet as a glass of water with a very thin oily supstance. I felt all around the boot and while I was doing that I noticed my strut was caked with sludge and was wet looking. Long story short I blew the top of the strut. I'll get some pics when I get it off the ground and the wheel off.
I've had the Frankenlift for less than 6 months and have less than 6k on the lift. Anybody else had this happen to them?

Parakeet

white04kj · **Posted:** Sun Jul 23, 2006 3:45 am

Ouch! Any idea where it happened? I should probably check my junk and make sure I didn't break anything either.

DaveKJ02 · **Posted:** Sun Jul 23, 2006 10:27 am

Happened to me too. I noticed one strut covered with oil after the first time wheeling it. Blew it off as assembly oil. After a few more times out, it got worse where the front end was bouncing all about and it was pretty noisey. Heather offered a discount but I found one local and didnt have to deal with shipping struts back and forth. After these go, I am done with Rancho.

jason thompson · **Posted:** Sun Jul 23, 2006 1:11 pm

Just a question ,probably a dumb one, has any body checked the collapsed length of the rancho strut to the collapsed length of an OE strut ?
is it much longer?
could the provided bumpstop spacers with the lift be to short?

I ask because when I lifted my TJ it took us 2 days to get it the way I wanted
I did not use the provided bumpstop spacers but I made my own from bar stock
I made them about .25" longer than the collapsed shock length to avoid bottoming out the shock but i wanted the max up travel I could get
The problem may be that yall are going beyond the max up travel of the strut and damaging them that way

I have seen shocks bend because some part of the lift was done wrong but you can remove a bent shock tie a good pcs. of rope on the axel and wheel the rest of the day then take the long way home because it will bounce all over the road if you go fast
But you cant do that with a strut

warblade666 · **Posted:** Sun Jul 23, 2006 11:28 pm

I beleive the Ranchos are about 0.25" shorter than the stock struts. Don't know about OME struts.

4wdParakeet · **Posted:** Mon Jul 24, 2006 5:56 pm

Well talked to Quinn this morning and one is en route as we speak. Give me a couple weeks and I'll be back on the trail. And the more I think about it since I'm going to have the front end apart anyways now is a good time to clevis lift it also. Just Empty Every Pocket right?

Parakeet

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Mon Jul 24, 2006 9:40 pm

Do you really need a clevis lift with the franken lift? I thought it gave the highest possible "safe" lift.

KJ04 · **Posted:** Mon Jul 24, 2006 9:47 pm

You go adding a Clevis to that Frankie, and you will empty some pockets!

4wdParakeet · **Posted:** Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:55 pm

Quote:

Do you really need a clevis lift with the franken lift?

Are you kidding me, do you really need a truck w/ 500+ horses that will run to 155mph? NO would you take it if you could HELL YEA. Well I can get an extra half inch from doing that. If it breaks I can fix it and if I can't I know ppl who will. Besides I'm still under warr. and if I remember correctly CV Joints are covered under the 7/70 powertrain. I know ppl who know ppl :wink:

The clevis lift is the best I can do untill the KJ gets paid off and a solid front axle goes under the front.

Parakeet

RespectMyLibertay · **Posted:** Tue Jul 25, 2006 1:58 am

My Rancho strut (Frankenlift) on my Lib's driver side is caked in oil, and I noticed it getting the CV joints and lower control arm all greasy. It's super noisy...so I'm guessing it's blown :oops:

Parakeet, what did Quinn offer you as replacement? Did you have to pay? I vaguely remember something about a "lifetime warrantee" when you purchase Rancho shocks/struts...? I have them on all four corners of my KJ and after 7k on the lift this is my only problem :?:

Jeepin Al · **Posted:** Tue Jul 25, 2006 7:33 am

I put the shock valve/rod/nut through the bottom of my Old Man emu struts a while back. I am again slapping the struts hard. You all need to extend your bump stops to keep this from happening. Make sure you don't relocate the bump stop to the lower arm, you will rip the ball joint right out! The bump stop must hit the top of the upper ball joint, which makes for an interesting problem for my arms. I will be looking at this soon. May need to relocate the grease fitting, or use a flush type.

Like a dummy I threw out the stock top plates when I put my daystar in, so now that the pucs are gone, I am left with the upper drop pockets, which make the struts "shorter". This causes the struts to bottom out, especially if you use struts designed for lifted KJ's.

Advice here than is extend your front bump stops the amount of your lift.

Al

Guyute1210 · **Posted:** Tue Jul 25, 2006 2:56 pm

Jeepin Al wrote:

I put the shock valve/rod/nut through the bottom of my Old Man emu struts a while back. I am again slapping the struts hard. You all need to extend your bump stops to keep this from happening. Make sure you don't relocate the bump stop to the lower arm, you will rip the ball joint right out! The bump stop must hit the top of the upper ball joint, which makes for an interesting problem for my arms. I will be looking at this soon. May need to relocate the grease fitting, or use a flush type.

Like a dummy I threw out the stock top plates when I put my daystar in, so now that the pucs are gone, I am left with the upper drop pockets, which make the struts "shorter". This causes the struts to bottom out, especially if you use struts designed for lifted KJ's.

Advice here than is extend your front bump stops the amount of your lift.

Al

I thought this was a problem with the OTT type lifts, and not an issue for the Frankenlift?

Se7enLC · **Posted:** Tue Jul 25, 2006 3:16 pm

RespectMyLibertay wrote:

My Rancho strut (Frankenlift) on my Lib's driver side is caked in oil, and I noticed it getting the CV joints and lower control arm all greasy. It's super noisy...so I'm guessing it's blown :oops:

Parakeet, what did Quinn offer you as replacement? Did you have to pay? I vaguely remember something about a "lifetime warrantee" when you purchase Rancho shocks/struts...? I have them on all four corners of my KJ and after 7k on the lift this is my only problem :?:

Greasy? Or Oily? I don't know firsthand what strut oil will look like, but I know what CV grease looks like. I guess you would know from the noise which one is the problem (strut noise is on suspension movement, axle noise on rotation).

As for the earlier comment about CV joints being covered under 7/70 - Not Always True. If you have a dealership willing to look the other way, you might be fine, but chances are (especially if you try to milk that extra 1/2 inch) you will find that the dealership will eventually figure out that the CV boots keep ripping because it's lifted too high.

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Tue Jul 25, 2006 4:02 pm

Hey jason, dont get the front shocks confused with a strut. They are 2 totally different things. People have been calling the front shocks struts, but they are in fact a coil over shock. :wink:

Se7enLC · **Posted:** Tue Jul 25, 2006 4:10 pm

Jeepjeepster wrote:

Hey jason, dont get the front shocks confused with a strut. They are 2 totally different things. People have been calling the front shocks struts, but they are in fact a coil over shock. :wink:

I could be (and often am) wrong, but isn't a strut and a coil-over-shock the same thing? or specifically, the strut is made up of a spring and a damper (similar to a shock).

http://www.monroe.com/tech_support/tec_struts.asp

4wdParakeet · **Posted:** Tue Jul 25, 2006 7:20 pm

Quinn worked with me and I'm satisfied and extremly impressed with thier service once again. Just call and talk to Quinn, he's a super nice guy.

Parakeet

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Tue Jul 25, 2006 7:34 pm

Se7enLC wrote:

Jeepjeepster wrote:

Hey jason, dont get the front shocks confused with a strut. They are 2 totally different things. People have been calling the front shocks struts, but they are in fact a coil over shock. :wink:

I could be (and often am) wrong, but isn't a strut and a coil-over-shock the same thing? or specifically, the strut is made up of a spring and a damper (similar to a shock).

http://www.monroe.com/tech_support/tec_struts.asp

Not to sure how to word this, but with a strut the entire thing turns when you turn the steering wheel, springs and all.. Its hard to explain and is best to go out and find a little corolla or something and get someone to turn the wheel while you watch it.

Se7enLC · **Posted:** Wed Jul 26, 2006 9:00 am

Jeepjeepster wrote:

Not to sure how to word this, but with a strut the entire thing turns when you turn the steering wheel, springs and all.. Its hard to explain and is best to go out and find a little corolla or something and get someone to turn the wheel while you watch it.

But is that a requirement of it being a strut, or just something that some struts do and others don't?

Is it just a common misnomer that the front is not technically a strut? Pretty much everyplace I can think of calls it a strut, sells struts, etc (boulderbars, rocky-road, rustys, skyjacker, to name a few that call it a strut)

Elwenil · **Posted:** Wed Jul 26, 2006 10:01 am

Technically, a strut dampens the suspension and allows for the front spindle to pivot. A shock just handles the dampening. In the case of a stock KJ, it is a shock, since the upper ball joint handles the upper pivot that a strut would normally handle. Now in some cases, like a mid 90s Toyota Tacoma, the lift kits will change the front suspension and actually add a strut in the mix. Since I am new to the KJ scene and the related lifts I am not sure if this is the case with the Frankenlift and similar.

Blown Rancho strut from a Frankenlift.

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