Kevin in San Diego

Make sure if you are lifted and modified to regularly do your maintenance.
Most trail breaks can be avoided by keeping your nuts and bolts tightened
and your rig maintained.

I have a custom built dana 44 in my XJ. It has warn alloy shafts, ARB
locker, 4.56 gears, disc brakes. I put it in last year and never re
tightened the U bolts. They worked their way loose and then I managed to hit
some stuff so hard that I actually broke the welds on both leaf spring pads.
Stepping on the gas gave me horrible drive line vibes becuase the whole axle
was actually rotating and the pinion angle was all over the place.
It resulted in the rear drive shaft bearing caps giving loose on the trail.
My drive shaft flopped around at beat the snot out of my new muffler. Fixing
the bearing caps from spares I had and over tightening the u bolts to crush
the spring pads in place got me home, but just barely. When I got it home
and removed the U bolts, the spring perches actually just fell off. I had to
figure out the pinion angel and re weld them. I hope my crappy welds hold.

Go out and check your stuff! check things like the front track bar, it likes
to come loose. After market control arms come loose too.

Can you guys think of any other common things that loosen on our jeeps? Post
your thoughts here so we can all go out and tighten things up.
Kevin in San Diego