Broken Strut Top Bolt

[Oleachea]

A while ago I got a jingle or tink every time I would go over a bump, pot hole or delineator. Today I finally found what I thought was the cause of it was, a small stud with a nut and big washer on it sitting on my frame. I couldn't figure for the life of me what it went to so I went through and found out it was the top stud for the strut. I don't mean the three bolts that sit inside the fender but the actual bolt that runs through the whole strut. I know I need to replace the strut and I'm not looking for help on how to do that but instead looking for what might be the cause of it and what i could do to prevent it from happening again if there was a specific cause. The only mods I have are 2½" spacers in the front only, 256/75 tires and a slightly ground down upper ball joint to fit my tires, at best a quarter of an inch knocked off.

 

[Hypnotoad]

How many miles on the strut? Is the spacer inside the strut or on top of the strut?

 

[Oleachea]

On top of the strut and I don't know about the mileage on the strut but just looking at them they look fairly new.

 

[Hypnotoad]

On top of the strut

^This. Ditch your lift spacers and get something that goes inside the strut. Look into the liftmeister set, it's a good price for a good product.

http://theliftmeister.com/public_html/theliftmeister.com/

 

[The_Roadie]

2 1/2" spacers on top of the strut is a fatal accident waiting to happen. Who sold you such a kit?

 

[The_Roadie]

Pictures would help hugely.

 

[Oleachea]

It's pretty much just this and the strut stud that broken is pretty standard.

 

[markmc]

oh wow..
its a wonder your front disco or cv joints haven't blown out yet..
you gotta get that kit off your truck asap!!

 

[Oleachea]

I'm not trying to be a dick but thing's like "oh wow you need to get rid of that kit" "Who sold you such a kit?" and "^this" don't tell me how what I currently have caused the stud to break and why what you're recommending is better than what I have and why it won't cause it to happen again. I know all of you have a lot of respect on the trailvoy site and like I said i'm not trying to be a dick with this post.

 

[markmc]

I'm not trying to be a dick but thing's like "oh wow you need to get rid of that kit" "Who sold you such a kit?" and "^this" don't tell me how what I currently have caused the stud to break and why what you're recommending is better than what I have and why it won't cause it to happen again. I know all of you have a lot of respect on the trailvoy site and like I said i'm not trying to be a dick with this post.

ok here..
that kit over extends the strut rod (bushings in your pic) and strut assembly travel past its limits causing major damage to other related suspension components such as ball joints, CV angles that bind the front disco.
i would be more concerned about your safety with the ball joints breaking while cruising..

i could care less if you buy my products..not trying to make a sale here..
but i am concerned for your safety!

heed our advise..remove that kit ASAP..

 

[Hypnotoad]

I'm not trying to be a dick but thing's like "oh wow you need to get rid of that kit" "Who sold you such a kit?" and "^this" don't tell me how what I currently have caused the stud to break and why what you're recommending is better than what I have and why it won't cause it to happen again. I know all of you have a lot of respect on the trailvoy site and like I said i'm not trying to be a dick with this post.

We have little respect for Trailvoy here.

Try asking this question on Trailvoy and see if you even get a response. If you even get a response, I doubt you'll get a correct answer.

 

[Oleachea]

Sorry I didn't have a better way to put that but I was looking for an explanation not a short answer. You're right I did not get a response over there and I barely did here, I had to prod for it. I know I don't have a high post count and new members usually get short answers because people think there's a lack of experience there. I've never posted because I've never really needed help but thanks for the pleasant welcome.

 

[Hypnotoad]

Sometimes you gotta ask the right questions before we understand what response you're looking for. Sometimes we assume more than we should.

 

[IllogicTC]

Just my

There's a reason these guys are practically having a heart attack. There's a reason they're showing urgency, and I myself would trust them in this.

I myself know nothing on lifting vehicles, but these guys have done it. It may not have been phrased in the nicest way, but that's at least partially from the shock they're feeling at the design of the kit. I myself have never seen anyone pointing to spacers that appear to mount between the knuckle and the wheel hub assembly, it's always been the kind that mount between the hub/brake disc and the wheel. I assume there's a reason behind preferring this style.

And remember, on top of the warnings about the placement of the extensions - when you're putting your wheel 2.5" more away, you're increasing the leverage the tire movement exerts over the suspension. A bump providing x-amount of force would have some greater degree of mechanical advantage the further the wheel is from the hinge. So, combined with the extensions that go in a "no-go" place, it's only a matter of time before you bust something.

Please, do be patient with us. It's not about post counts. We help new people all the time. I still think it's partially just shock about the design of this kit. Please follow their advice, in this case it sounds like it very well could be life-or-death depending on the scenario when the inevitable failure occurs.

 

[Hypnotoad]

Just my

There's a reason these guys are practically having a heart attack. There's a reason they're showing urgency, and I myself would trust them in this.

I myself know nothing on lifting vehicles, but these guys have done it. It may not have been phrased in the nicest way, but that's at least partially from the shock they're feeling at the design of the kit. I myself have never seen anyone pointing to spacers that appear to mount between the knuckle and the wheel hub assembly, it's always been the kind that mount between the hub/brake disc and the wheel. I assume there's a reason behind preferring this style.

And remember, on top of the warnings about the placement of the extensions - when you're putting your wheel 2.5" more away, you're increasing the leverage the tire movement exerts over the suspension. A bump providing x-amount of force would have some greater degree of mechanical advantage the further the wheel is from the hinge. So, combined with the extensions that go in a "no-go" place, it's only a matter of time before you bust something.

Please, do be patient with us. It's not about post counts. We help new people all the time. I still think it's partially just shock about the design of this kit. Please follow their advice, in this case it sounds like it very well could be life-or-death depending on the scenario when the inevitable failure occurs.

The kit that Oleachea has actually mounts between the top of the strut and the body. Which is very problematic.

We're not talking about wheel spacers.

 

[IllogicTC]

The kit that Oleachea has actually mounts between the top of the strut and the body. Which is very problematic.

We're not talking about wheel spacers.

Ah, I see. The triangular design in the photo was very reminiscent of the hub assembly mounting, my apologies.

But the rest of my comment still stands on why everyone's having a coronary

 

[Oleachea]

Okay and all of that is fine but no one can actually tell me the difference and why one is better than the other. This is the first truck I've ever had with a soft front end and I just don't get the difference in the leveling systems. I got that what I have is dangerous after that reply of "spacers on top of the strut is a fatal accident waiting to happen" and that seems to be the extent of what people can tell me. I have a Jeep and a government Expedition so my Trailblazer doesn't see a lot of miles so the safety issue isn't big to me. It just seems that everyone knows that it's bad but can explain why that other kit doesn't do the same thing. I didn't install the extenders than came with this kit so I don't see how it could over extend anything.

 

[Hypnotoad]

Here's a thread where Roadie explained it much better than I ever could.

http://gmtnation.com/showthread.php?t=9627

 

[djthumper]

Okay and all of that is fine but no one can actually tell me the difference and why one is better than the other. This is the first truck I've ever had with a soft front end and I just don't get the difference in the leveling systems. I got that what I have is dangerous after that reply of "spacers on top of the strut is a fatal accident waiting to happen" and that seems to be the extent of what people can tell me. I have a Jeep and a government Expedition so my Trailblazer doesn't see a lot of miles so the safety issue isn't big to me. It just seems that everyone knows that it's bad but can explain why that other kit doesn't do the same thing. I didn't install the extenders than came with this kit so I don't see how it could over extend anything.

It causes excessive binding in your CV joints. Enough to the point that there have been a couple of reports from people that it has caused their frontend to lock up and unable to move the vehicle under its own power due to damage. If you were shopping for a lift and went to the major lift companies that have made a lift for our rigs you will find none of them are using a lift like the one that you have. A 2" lift in the strut with a .5" top spacer and a 2.5" lift on top of the strut are two different heights due to the geometry of the suspension. If have done any extended amount of reading on any of the trailblazer related sites you would have read that those lifts are not recommended for our platform.

 

[The_Roadie]

Sorry I didn't have a better way to put that but I was looking for an explanation not a short answer. You're right I did not get a response over there and I barely did here, I had to prod for it. I know I don't have a high post count and new members usually get short answers because people think there's a lack of experience there. I've never posted because I've never really needed help but thanks for the pleasant welcome.

Not at all true. Some of my longest and most detailed explanations have been to new members with ONE post.

In this case, I was in the middle of a LOT of urgent shit last night worrying about my wife driving after dark back from dinner at a friend's house up a mountain and she was 3 hours late and nobody was answering their cell phones because that village has crappy coverage even on a good day. She's fine, BTW. All I had time to croak out on a cell keyboard last night was my short warning.

This is the long warning: There are CRIMINAL Ebay vendors who sell crap they could be sued for. I've tried for years to get Ebay to police this stuff, to no avail. I've tried to educate the vendors to no avail. I post warnings after warnings on three web forums over the last 5-6 years when these lifts arrived on the market. These lifts are nowhere to be found on our lists of recommended suspension mods here and on offroadtb.com. If people install these lifts because they're attractively cheap, BEFORE they do some due-diligence research and find my warnings, I (and the other enthusiastic volunteers) can do nothing. Until they find problems, hopefully before their ball joint fails and they have a rollover accident and everybody dies.

Okay and all of that is fine but no one can actually tell me the difference and why one is better than the other. This is the first truck I've ever had with a soft front end and I just don't get the difference in the leveling systems. I got that what I have is dangerous after that reply of "spacers on top of the strut is a fatal accident waiting to happen" and that seems to be the extent of what people can tell me. I have a Jeep and a government Expedition so my Trailblazer doesn't see a lot of miles so the safety issue isn't big to me. It just seems that everyone knows that it's bad but can explain why that other kit doesn't do the same thing. I didn't install the extenders than came with this kit so I don't see how it could over extend anything.

The original suspension design had no margin for longer struts beyond about 1/2". That's why you can't put spacers on TOP of the struts because then the suspension droops too much at full extension and the upper ball joint shaft is at great risk of breaking, and the inner CV joint (if you put these on a 4WD truck) will bind up. The CV issue is trivially discovered by rotating the wheel when the suspension is at full extension. The ball joint weakness has resulted in some breakage in lifted vehicles but no high speed accidents because no educated offroader would dare put on these lifts. Lowered folks put their ball joints at risk for the same reason, and some of them HAVE had accidents when they break. Everybody who does the research about DJM control arms also knows about the issue and the smart ones buy Tony's modified arms from our sister SS site.

The only safe lift spacers for our front struts are ones that go on TOP of the spring and don't have the effect of lengthening the strut. The way lift happens is that we trade downtravel for uptravel. Since the shock stays the same, and the shock is the element that fixes the total travel, what happens is the resting height of the vehicle is higher, but if you raise the truck up by the frame with a floor jack, the wheels will droop less at full extension than a stock design. They will travel UP more over an offroad rock or bump, but that's the tradeoff. You can't get more travel.

More questions, just ask. I'm near a computer and a real keyboard today.

 

[Oleachea]

It wasn't a price issue for me it was just the most prevalent on the market so I assumed that's the one to go for. I've done a lot of suspension work but I've never had a truck with a soft front end so I'm to it in that sense. I plan on buying a lift from MarkMC soon. I just get frustrated, it seems most forums learn things from 1-4 members and can tell you what's bad but can't tell you why or throw around snarky remarks like "If [you] have done any extended amount of reading on any of the trailblazer related sites you would have read that those lifts are not recommended for our platform." I got it that I made a bad purchase from the third reply stating so and that it cause my strut rod to shear off, I can deduct that I probably should have looked around more before I pulled the trigger on buying what I did. So it seems like you had an effort going on to get these removed and I'd like to help. I have no hope at all of getting my money back which isn't an issue but would like to have eBay see a complaint against them. Is there anything in particular you'd like me to say or should I just pull stuff from this thread??

 

[The_Roadie]

It wasn't a price issue for me it was just the most prevalent on the market ...

I'd love to know what they did that misled you into thinking this? Multiple spammed Ebay listings? I'd really love to know how they get any sales at all.

157 lifted trucks in this list along with what they used:
http://gmtnation.com/f76/master-list-lifted-ones-278/

For more reading:

offroadTB.com - View topic - The Complete Lifts and Suspension Accessories Thread

offroadTB.com - View forum - Lifts / Suspension

offroadTB.com - View topic - VEHICLE PHOTO INDEX