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Massive steering failure... With Cognito braces

S

schulte

ACCELLERANT!!!
Messages
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Location
Southern CT
This happened tonight... thankfully there was no accident because of it... scary stuff, just completely lost steering going down the road... went to turn, heard a huge snap, and that was it...

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Mike, that could have gotten real ugly quick. Glad all turned out well and your safe. How many miles on the failed part?
 
CtChevy427 said:
Mike, that could have gotten real ugly quick. Glad all turned out well and your safe. How many miles on the failed part?
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Not exactly sure, have to check my records... Less than 90,000 for sure. It's a Moog arm (I believe) that I got with the Cognito brace kit.
 
exactly what part failed...I just put the pitman & idler arm braces on not too long ago...

Is it the heim joint part that came with the kit?
 
Pepperidge said:
exactly what part failed...I just put the pitman & idler arm braces on not too long ago...

Is it the heim joint part that came with the kit?
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The Cognito braces were fine... it was the Pitman arm ball joint end itself that broke off. It appears as though the bolt just snapped (the sound it made sure sounded like that). Very odd...
 
so it wasn't any cognito parts that failed?

also you ARE running rather large tires also correct?
 
Pepperidge said:
so it wasn't any cognito parts that failed?

also you ARE running rather large tires also correct?
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Nope, no Cognito's failed. They actually look like they held up well. But the Pitman arm they were supposed to brace failed miserably.

I'm currently running 315's on H2s; have been for about 60,000 or so, if I remember right.
 
I think I'll be ok running 285's for 68k of the 88k on the truck now...the past 20 has been on 265s with no replacements except front wheel bearings and the putting the Cognito HD tie rod ends on for drag racing...
 
Wasn't there some reports of substandard Moog pitman arms a couple of years ago? Try searching old posts on DP maybe. Glad everyone is ok.
 
Pitman arms are a bitch to get off...all of them...they are the devil.

I would love it if you could clean both of those broken parts up and post nice pics of the broken edges. I'm curious, I would like to see if there was a manufacturing flaw in that shaft.
 
Unit453 said:
You think the 35's had anything to do with it?
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Maybe. But I've got the Cognito brace kit, all new Moog parts, HD tie rods, etc with less than 60,000 on them.

I'd THINK a pitman arm with that kit should last longer than that, especially seeing how I went ~120k on factory parts, the first 100k with 285s and the last 20k with 35's with NO Cognito braces.

Will post pics of the failed arm; the stud end stuck in the drag link went flying when I popped it out... was kind of stuck in the grass at the time so I couldn't find it.
 
I'd have to think it's a fluke! Moog is a VERY trustworthy manufacturer (or always has been)...
Glad you're OK and nobody got hurt!
 
83GMCK2500 said:
Pitman arms are a bitch to get off...all of them...they are the devil.

I would love it if you could clean both of those broken parts up and post nice pics of the broken edges. I'm curious, I would like to see if there was a manufacturing flaw in that shaft.
Click to expand...

I went back and found the broken off end. See the attachments for pics; too large to embed. If anyone wants the high resolution versions, PM me your email.
 

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I had a Dually rear end axle shaft break on me and it looked just like that.

Wish you luck getting it fixed! :thumbsup:

I never got mine fixed, just had to get another rear end.
 
From the pics I dont see any sign of it having been cracked before it broke. Usually you'll see a shiny area near an edge in that case. Strange pattern at the break like there was a flaw in the material although since it's a forging that might be normal. It's possible that it had a nick in it which caused a stress riser. Strange distortion in the stud which leads me to think about over-torque which can stress the material close to yield but usually not that far away from the stud end. Without a microstructure analysis ($$$) it's not likely you'll ever know the actual fault.
 
Sorry all, I searched DP and it was Fabtech that had the recall, although some also seemed to have had issues with the Moog unit.
 
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