LCA snapped in half

Long time KJ owner and lurker, first time poster. I’ve owned this KJ for over 10 years now, and since finding this forum I’ve managed to give it another lease on life, doing all of the repairs and maintenance myself.. This thing is my baby and the sweat equity I've put into it just adds to my heartache, because I crashed it into a telephone pole. It'll be out of commission for another few weeks, and I'm just feeling nostalgic and wanted to share some photos of the Jeep as I wait for parts lol.

Just for some added context behind the crash:
I recently left my job which had me working long nights with a 100+ mile commute for years. My girl and I were both in school at the time (she recently finished), we have a toddler and a 10-year-old, and I was just burning the candle at both ends with everything… About a month before making the choice to quit, I was maybe half a mile from our place and I fell asleep on my way home from work, and crashed the Jeep into a telephone pole. Nobody was hurt and I was able to limp it back home, but……..



The passenger LCA snapped in half. I can’t recall ever reading about this happening to anyone which leads me to ask.. has anyone here snapped a front LCA?

Anyways, here’s some pictures before the "incident" lol

That would take a lot of force to crack the LCA.

LibertyTC said:

That would take a lot of force to crack the LCA.

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My thoughts exactly.. I was blown away that it cracked like this. Aside from banging up the fender and bumper, this was the only other real casualty. I couldn't have been going more than 30mph when I crashed, so maybe I just hit at the not-so-perfect angle?

I dont remember things like I use to, but Ive never seen someone snap a lower control arm on a KJ.

Its amazing you made it home and it didnt completely break. Thats cast iron I do believe, which makes it even more surprising.

I have never seen an LCA crack in that way … the sheer force of the shear forces involved must have been focused in a way to make it fracture like that.

Most importantly, glad that you are OK…that could easily have been your femur instead of the Jeep's !!!

Check the body hasn't been bent by that impact!

jaburni said:

My thoughts exactly.. I was blown away that it cracked like this. Aside from banging up the fender and bumper, this was the only other real casualty. I couldn't have been going more than 30mph when I crashed, so maybe I just hit at the not-so-perfect angle?

Click to expand...

Even more interesting though it is damaged on the rear side of the lower control arm. If you had hit the pole going forward, I would think it would have broken near the sway bar mounting.

Are these the original Mopar LCAs? If not, what brand? If they are original, how many miles on them?

Glad you are safe, and welcome to being a poster. You are stuck with us now.