I think I'm learning the downside to buying a "built" rig sure I might have saved money but all the money I had planned for upgrades will probably go towards fixing the previous owners stupidity.

First... off I just ordered an OTT stage 1 kit from Rocky-Road since the previous owner just reused the original pitman for a SPOA.... STUPID

Second... The previous owner re-used the old spring mounting plate on top of the springs which gave him no place to mount the front shocks. Why is this a problem? because he seems to have welded a 3 inch longgrade 8 bolt directly to the side of the front axle facing the rear. The bottom of this seems to have tweaked the axle tube so that whenever I am on a side hill there is oil coming from my axle tube right next to the springswhere the bolt was welded on. Now this slightly worries me
1. Is there supposed to be oil in the axle tube out that far?? If not what has gone wrong
I will try to get some pics to explain
Third... The previous owner at some point broke off the steering stabilizer and just re-welded it... poorly so it broke of again. This time I'm just going to buy a whole new steering stabilizer kit which inludes new mounting hardware

Normally I would consider selling the vehicle and starting with a new unmodified sami but this one actually runs very well and has no engine/ tranny/ transfer case issues. So here I am maybe I'm just venting but if you guys have any reccomendations on what to do feel free to let me know!
Thanks
Josh
JoshCushin|removethispart|@aol.com

here's some pics of the front shocks mounting point that i  was talking about

that does seem like a bit of a mess you're in with that shock mounting system. almost looks like the bolt that's welded on is a bit bent. I don't know what to tell you except, good luck.

sorry I'm no help

Well Josh, the fact that you can tell what the problems are make you on the road to a full recovery.

Yes, there is oil all the way to the bearing grease dam / oil seal. But leaking shock mounts is a first for me. Bad welding... over heating the axle tube is all kinds of bad. How straight are the tubes ?

Good news is Sam parts are cheap....get busy

maybe he over heated the axle and cut through it. or weakend it enought that when it flexed it cracked it. its in the wrong spot for sure try and buy a spring plate from RRO that already has the welded spring perch on it and have that 1 cut off and ground down see if it is cracked. you might be able to weld it back if it is cracked.

well I think I like that idea about puting on a new plate and grinding off that bolt thing thanks for the ideas. The crack that allows oil to come out is on the bottom and only leaks when the suspension is flexed downward (pulls the lower bolt up... maybe the shock was too short)

is it on the edge of the axle? if that is the case the bearing could have mud or other objects in it if its the housing that is cracked might just be better off buying a new axle housing (can buy them bare) and rebuild with new bearings etc.

you should just flip the plte's around, and you can use the original shock mounting. you might have to modify the holes for the U bolts, but at least you wont have that dodgy lower shock mount.

didn't think you could do that to the front due to the pax side being diffrent. thought only the rear could be swapped

that what we all usually do here for a temp fix. just blow or drill the holes out so that the big U bolt fits in both plates, and flip them front left to right. you will see that the shock mounts line up pretty much like factory.

other way's we've dont them are to make up new plates out of 10mm steel plate, drill out the holes, and weld on some shock mounts.

the good thing about welding on shock mounts to the actual diff housing/axle tube is that the lower mount is about 3" lower than if you used the plate, and so you can run a slightly longer shock.

otherwise just cut off the upper shock mount, and make some shock hoops that will allow for some good sized shocks.

just my opinion but since the axle housing isn't that strong i wouldn't weld anything i didn't have to on the axle. but thats just mho

If you want to do some extra work, you can sleeve the axel with a stronger tube.  It would also take care of the leak and give you something more solid to weld your mounts onto.

I would just build new spring mounts and move your bolt up to the top as SiKiD_01 recommended.  That worked well on my rear axel when I went to the larger U-Bolts.

Then you can grind off the current bolt and put a patch over that section of your axel.