Anyone seen this on rear shocks and inner tie rod boot?

[JohnGalt]

Crawled under the truck today to inspect for damage after pinning a big tree branch up between exhaust, driveline and the body pan. Fortunately it didn’t impact anything soft. But after inspecting everything I found….

The connection of the inner tie rod boot and the steering rack appears to be weeping a little oil on both sides. Should I be concerned or is this normal?

And the rear shock boot looks pretty mangled. Thoughts?

 

[ChiliPepper]

Looks like you had full articulation and the dust cover did not go back to the original shape.

Wipe a section of the grease off the inner tie rod boot, then keep an eye on it. If it gets dirty again, then you need to get it serviced.

 

[JohnGalt]

Looks like you had full articulation and the dust cover did not go back to the original shape.

Wipe a section of the grease off the inner tie rod boot, then keep an eye on it. If it gets dirty again, then you need to get it serviced.

Thanks. There’s definitely been some full articulation from time to time!

After your recent Utah and other adventures have you found the need for any other protection underneath? I’m still waiting for my RCI sliders and considering ordering the Foutz diff cover. After my underbody review this morning I don’t see any obvious issues, but always Like to learn from others!

And the front bash plate works as intended…

 

[ChiliPepper]

I bought the FMI diff skid and glad I did. That is the lowest hanging fruit. All the OEM skids work as intended and appear to be substantial. No need to replace them. I'll see if I have the same opinion after a few more 7 and 8 trails.

I do wish the T-case skid was more encompassing to protect the catalytic converter. I sent Greg Foutz an idea but he's not interested in piece parts; only in the full kit he already has on his FMI website. I may just have it built locally as a one-off.

The muffler and front trailing arm bracket have taken a few strikes due to the breakover angle. No harm , no foul.

I'm not a fan of the exposed bolt heads. They're just waiting to get ground down.

 

[JohnGalt]

I bought the FMI diff skid and glad I did. That is the lowest hanging fruit. All the OEM skids work as intended and appear to be substantial. No need to replace them. I'll see if I have the same opinion after a few more 7 and 8 trails.

I do wish the T-case skid was more encompassing to protect the catalytic converter. I sent Greg Foutz an idea but he's not interested in piece parts; only in the full kit he already has on his FMI website. I may just have it built locally as a one-off.

The muffler and front trailing arm bracket have taken a few strikes due to the breakover angle. No harm , no foul.

I'm not a fan of the exposed bolt heads. They're just waiting to get ground down.
View attachment 9215

Thanks For insight. I’ve taken a few minor hits on muffler, exhaust pipe and trailing arm brackets too.

I thought the cats were tucked well up behind the engine, not sure how those could be better protected. But the transfer case skid could have been wider and better anchored.

 

[ChiliPepper]

Hmmm, what is this part then?

 

[TurboS]

Hmmm, what is this part then?

View attachment 9219

Exhaust Flex pipe.

Catalytic Converter Protection

Depending on your region you may have heard about the high frequency of catalytic converter thefts due to the value of the precious metals used (Paladium, Platinum, Rhodium). Given how much clearance the BRaptor provides it’s been a concern of mine of how easy it might be to be targeted for...

www.broncoraptor.com

 

[ChiliPepper]

Copy. Still, I'd like that area covered. I tore my "flex pipe" up on my Jeep.

 

[JohnGalt]

More coverage is always good. I got a branch wedged between drive line and exhaust pipe, underside of body and ground that would have torn the crap out of the flex pipe last weekend. It took multiple cuts with sawzall and some muscle to extract it. If you’re interested its somewhere in the middle of this video…

 

[ChiliPepper]

08:04
Geez John, you ought to be more careful.

 

[JohnGalt]

08:04
Geez John, you ought to be more careful.

youd think I would be. Ive got two standard bronco friends who have had their tranny pans speared by branches already. One limped home with small leak, one had to source a new pan and trail repair it In the snow (ugh).

Fortunately our pans are well armored.

I like your thought on a bigger replacement t-case skid, but I’m wondering if Ford balked at that because it looks like it would trap a lot of heat in the there. It would be pretty buttoned up.

 

[412Brap]

Crawled under the truck today to inspect for damage after pinning a big tree branch up between exhaust, driveline and the body pan. Fortunately it didn’t impact anything soft. But after inspecting everything I found….

The connection of the inner tie rod boot and the steering rack appears to be weeping a little oil on both sides. Should I be concerned or is this normal?

View attachment 9188
View attachment 9192

And the rear shock boot looks pretty mangled. Thoughts?

On the rear shock boot.......
I won the lottery last week for "fastest nail in tire on a BRaptor" at 281.3 miles late last week. Went the the dump after cleaning out the garage a bit. Came back with nail in right rear tire that went all the way through the tread block. Tried pulling it out with pliers, but hear hissing, so knew it needed patched



While I had the tire off the truck, I decided to take a bunch of pics of the rear of the car just for documentation. Seeing your post reminded me of seeing my shock boot looking weird

This is with less than 300 all-pavement miles. Clearly came from the factory this way.

 

[Magic]

My rear shocks looked like that during Bronco Safari in Moab this year. Went back to normal in a few days after driving back to Texas.

 

[JohnGalt]

On the rear shock boot.......
I won the lottery last week for "fastest nail in tire on a BRaptor" at 281.3 miles late last week. Went the the dump after cleaning out the garage a bit. Came back with nail in right rear tire that went all the way through the tread block. Tried pulling it out with pliers, but hear hissing, so knew it needed patched

View attachment 9268

While I had the tire off the truck, I decided to take a bunch of pics of the rear of the car just for documentation. Seeing your post reminded me of seeing my shock boot looking weird

View attachment 9269

This is with less than 300 all-pavement miles. Clearly came from the factory this way.

Took mine into service advisor who said that it was definitely a problem, scheduled for service later this month.

They’ll also check the inner tie rod boot weeping issue, but indicated that unless it’s dripping they would recommend monitoring.

 

[412Brap]

Took mine into service advisor who said that it was definitely a problem, scheduled for service later this month.

They’ll also check the inner tie rod boot weeping issue, but indicated that unless it’s dripping they would recommend monitoring.

Just confirming. Your service advisor said the inner shock boot was "definitely a problem"?

 

[ChiliPepper]

Took a look at my rear shock dust covers. Both sides are bound up as shown in John's photo. I have no documentation of the as-received condition so it is difficult to speculate when they got bound up during the last 4600 miles.

 

[TurboS]

This is what the boot looked like on mine when new and dropped to within 2-4 inches of full extended travel.

This is what it looks like now with ~1600 road miles while sitting in garage, vehicle weight only.

The accordion boot is very long to cover the fully extended shock travel, I will be surprised if they are suppose to perfectly accordion once fully extended.

 

[JohnGalt]

Just confirming. Your service advisor said the inner shock boot was "definitely a problem"?

they indicated the bound up rear shock boot was definitely a problem.

they said the would inspect the inner tie rod boot, but expected the recommendation would be “monitor until it gets worse”

 

[ChiliPepper]

they indicated the bound up rear shock boot was definitely a problem.

Geez, now I have something else to do when I rotate the tires at 5000 miles.

 

[JohnGalt]

Update: ford looked at my shock boot, ordered a whole new shock as the boot is not serviceable! $3000 fix, but covered under warranty. Currently awaiting the part to arrive, they said 3-4 days.

This was why I bought the extended warranty from Flood (Granger, et al offer similar pricing). One shock is well over the cost of the 10 year/125k/$100 deductible extended warranty I bought in December 2022. My dealer wanted $5k ha ha ha ho ho ha ha for the same coverage.

Who knows if my bet will pay out, but this definitely makes me feel better about that decision.