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Massive steering failure... With Cognito braces

We all gotta remember Nick just sells these parts he doesn't make them.

These braces breaking are pretty much the same as the Member (tinypeckerwood) having the new BF KM2's coming apart. There are far to many pro's on these braces or tires that out weigh the faulty part. That could happen in anything.
 
btfarm said:
That's kinda what I was thinking too Jared. This issue has me plenty worried for everybody using them. Not at all trying to discredit Nick because he's done alot of good things for these trucks and should continue to be commended for that, but IF it's a worn steering gearbox issue then catastophic failure with the braces on is just a ticking time bomb until the box wears enough. I was hoping Brandon or Devin (one said he'd try) was gonna be able to get a metallurgical opinion one of these days.
Click to expand...

I talked to a friends roommate who is majoring in material science (i think... i don't remember the official name) he explained what he saw in the fracture. I was going to have him write up an explanation of his findings, but he has not done it yet. I would try to explain it but I know I would explain it wrong.... he used some big fancy word and lost me a little. I'll see if I can get him back on that, because he knew what had happened right when he first looked at it.
 
Pitman arm update

I got a reply back from Justin at Cognito about Mike and my pitman arms.

"Brandon's OEM pitman arm. If he was turning the steering wheel to the right when the stud broke loose, then the break happened in the forward to back direction which is the same direction the PISK provides support when the steering is pointed straight ahead. BUT, there are serious marks on the housing that indicate the stud was flexing severely, enough to hit the housing, which could have only happened before the PISK was added. So it appears that a stress fracture may have already been present at the time the PISK was installed.

Mike's MOOG pitman arm. If he was turning to the right when the stud broke loose, then the break happened in nearly the left side to right side direction which is not the direction that the PISK supports when the steering is pointed straight ahead. There were no marks on the housing and apparently this pitman arm was new when the PISK went on it. It appears to me that the pitman arm may have just had a flaw."
 
RYDNHI4X4 said:
We all gotta remember Nick just sells these parts he doesn't make them.

These braces breaking are pretty much the same as the Member (tinypeckerwood) having the new BF KM2's coming apart. There are far to many pro's on these braces or tires that out weigh the faulty part. That could happen in anything.
Click to expand...

Steve I don't take it personal as if I designed the product and know that most anyone are just basing there judgment of the issue off what they are reading...it's like the evening news and what it brings up in what can happen after seeing a bad car accident, you might say man...I am never driving down that road. But really how many cars drive on it daily and just this one day it happened to be a crash. Basically you just have to look at percentage and how many years have these been talked about on the forums but within 6 months 2 arm failures pop up and had Cognito braces. If you look there are other threads that have pitman arm failures and no braces and there are plenty driving on this very common combo. There might be people that don't feel OK running this set up but that is OK and once they don't see this talked about on more trucks over time they might feel better. We still ship out the brace kits and still as of now these are the only 2 I have had a part in or heard of. It just sucks it happened to these 2 members and everyone had to think of it could have been them. Things brake and sometimes the answer is pretty easy to see, sometimes it's not.

07HDClassic said:
I got a reply back from Justin at Cognito about Mike and my pitman arms.

"Brandon's OEM pitman arm. If he was turning the steering wheel to the right when the stud broke loose, then the break happened in the forward to back direction which is the same direction the PISK provides support when the steering is pointed straight ahead. BUT, there are serious marks on the housing that indicate the stud was flexing severely, enough to hit the housing, which could have only happened before the PISK was added. So it appears that a stress fracture may have already been present at the time the PISK was installed.

Mike's MOOG pitman arm. If he was turning to the right when the stud broke loose, then the break happened in nearly the left side to right side direction which is not the direction that the PISK supports when the steering is pointed straight ahead. There were no marks on the housing and apparently this pitman arm was new when the PISK went on it. It appears to me that the pitman arm may have just had a flaw."
Click to expand...

I have not yet recieved this. I will talk with Justin next time we are on the phone.
 
I don't think there's anything wrong with the brace kit at all; I wouldn't be suprised if it was just a flaw in my pitman arm. In addition, I'm running some big tires and I do beat on my truck pretty hard; I know that's what the kit's designed for, but frankly I'm happy it held up as long as it did.

Like I said, I don't think there's anything wrong with the design of the kit, I'm mostly just interested in making sure it doesn't happen again. Right now I have a NAPA pitman arm on there, which I think I'll leave for now unless I find some reason to replace it.

That being said, I think that if I had it to do over again, I'd go with an OEM pitman arm for replacment (with the PISK). My factory pitman arm held up for a long long time (100k+, IIRC) with 35's and was still in OK shape when I replaced it and installed the new MOOG arm and kit.
 
I agree with Mike, I don't think that there is anything wrong with the braces... In my case, I think that my pitman arm was just wore out! When I get a chance, the new braces will be going on the truck.

Nick,
If you talk to Justin before I get to, could you remind him that I would like my pitman arm back if he was done with it. That way I can add it to my wall of shame!
 
Good thread. I just purchased the Cog. braces and will install next Monday. I will check for any play in the stock arms and evaluate.
 
Hey everyone, new to posting here, not new to reading these forums:)

Hate to revive a dead thread, but figured it was better than starting a new one. I purchased these braces, and am in the process of putting them on...

Any updates know quite a few years later on the braces?

I currently have Moog HD idler and Pitman arms on the truck which only have ~8k miles on them. I don't like how the Moog HD Pitman arm doesn't go very far up the shaft on the steering box (and thus with the Cognito brace, the nut will only barely thread all the way, if not all the way.) I am going to replace the pitman with a delco Professional, unless anyone else has other suggestions.

I installed the cognito Idler brace, with the Moog HD because it looks like all the clearances worked great.

Big thing is, I see a few threads with these breaking in the 2009-2010 range, but recently there's been no updates... Just looking to see how everone's doing.
 
geronracing said:
Hey everyone, new to posting here, not new to reading these forums:)

Hate to revive a dead thread, but figured it was better than starting a new one. I purchased these braces, and am in the process of putting them on...

Any updates know quite a few years later on the braces?

I currently have Moog HD idler and Pitman arms on the truck which only have ~8k miles on them. I don't like how the Moog HD Pitman arm doesn't go very far up the shaft on the steering box (and thus with the Cognito brace, the nut will only barely thread all the way, if not all the way.) I am going to replace the pitman with a delco Professional, unless anyone else has other suggestions.

I installed the cognito Idler brace, with the Moog HD because it looks like all the clearances worked great.

Big thing is, I see a few threads with these breaking in the 2009-2010 range, but recently there's been no updates... Just looking to see how everone's doing.
Click to expand...
I know somebody who within the last 2 years put on one of the MOOG pitman's, and his also didn't go very far up the pitman shaft. We TIGHTENED that sucker and just couldn't get it that far up the splines. I had some issues with mine in my 95, but was still able to get the pitman on with the brace, and enough threads in the nut to feel safe. As to brace failure, most of it was because people were installing them on worn out pitman and idlers trying to keep from replacing them. The braces help a tight joint to live by supporting the bottom of the joint to help stop deflection. If the joint is already loose(even a TINY bit), then the braces will be over stressed, and fail when loaded.
 
Thanks! I'm going to use the Delco pro and keep the Moog as a spare.... I couldn't get the nut in enough threads to feel comfortable.

If anyone else has been using these for years, let me know. Just want to know what to expect
 
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