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Jeff Groves

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From the image posted? I can see evidence of a stress fracture on that Tie rod.
Notice it is NOT a clean break? It's all jagged.
You get a small fracture line from many different reasons and stuff goes south from there.
I also don't see any signs that the tie rod bent in any way.
I would expect signs of bending if other parts had failed.
 

iamdub

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Looks like the ball joints are there. The Tie rod looks like it snapped.

The ball joint STUDS are still bolted to the knuckle, but the actual balls are clearly visible. This means the retainer half is still bolted to the control arms. They have been separated. Yes, the very tip end of the tie rod is still bolted to the knuckle because it snapped off. The joint end of the tie rod is very much like a ball joint, but much smaller. I'd absolutely expect it to snap in an event that was catastrophic enough to snap ball joints.

We'll probably never know what chain of events actually took place. Either a tie rod end snapped first, allowing the wheel to swing whichever way and the ball joints failed from the stress. OR a ball joint failed, causing the wheel to violently fall against the control arm, which would easily rip out the other ball joint since one ball joint alone can't hold the entire knuckle, brake, wheel and tire mass in position, especially with such big tires. If the actual ball joints failed, there's no question that a much smaller ball joint (tie rod end) would fail. With those tires, the stresses everywhere are multiplied many times over. At highway speed and that much rotating mass colliding with the control arms (as evident by the wheel's lip being torn away like an orange peeling), not much will simply bend. It'll be violently yanked beyond it's yield strength.
 

Jeff Groves

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I'm basing my view on seeing stress brakes like that on many hours of demolition jobs.
I've seen buildings fall due to stress fractures.
Maybe something else failed but it's pretty clear there was a fracture in that tie rod.
Tie rods don't normally break in that fashion.
 

iamdub

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I'm basing my view on seeing stress brakes like that on many hours of demolition jobs.
I've seen buildings fall due to stress fractures.
Maybe something else failed but it's pretty clear there was a fracture in that tie rod.
Tie rods don't normally break in that fashion.

I think with 37"(?) tires on stock components, ANYTHING "normal" in that sense can be thrown out the window.
 
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Charles Tindall

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What brand hub did you put in because I wanna be sure I don’t buy one. I always use Timken so I hope it wasn’t one of theirs, I’ve never heard of a problem with them.
I don’t remember. It was a AutoZone hub. Moog is the best to get. But something besides the hub caused this. The entire wheel & brake parts are still in there.
 
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Charles Tindall

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Didn't know carjacking was much of a thing these days. I had a feeling you were "southern". Sorry for your loss but your new rig is way nicer. I'm diggin' the black wheels. They make me more anxious to get mine painted black.
Damn right! Southern proud! Down here you either know how to fix it, or you have a buddy that has fixed something before & will work on it for ya for some cold beer & company in the garage! We never go to a dealership to fix truck stuff in the Dirty South. I had to go to a crap chain store to get the front end done since I didn’t have a alignment machine or that knowledge.
 

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