strut rod and torsion bar question

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coffeedart67

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Noticed tonight that one strut rod has a little bit of a bend in it, it is at the end that bolts to the control arm. I assume it is not supposed to be bent as the other one doesn't have the bend. Do I need to replace this or is it ok?
Thanks
Aaron
 
coffeedart67 said:
Noticed tonight that one strut rod has a little bit of a bend in it, it is at the end that bolts to the control arm. I assume it is not supposed to be bent as the other one doesn't have the bend. Do I need to replace this or is it ok?
Thanks
Aaron
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Strut rods take the brunt of the vehicles braking force on the front end while 'locating' the suspension components in relation to the frame. If it's bent, something is seriously out of whack. Blown out strut rod bushings may cause it to be loose. If it were me, I would replace both and get new bushings. Mancini Racing sells beefy new steel ones for around $120. They're larger in diameter than OE. Nice parts. Rock auto has the bushings cheap.

Any other symptoms besides the bent rod? What is the condition of the front end and/or the rest of the car?

I would get under there and really check everything over carefully. Obviously you need to make sure nothing else is bent, cracked, loose or broken. Check all your bushings, fasteners, wheels, tires for uneven wear, K frame, control arms, ball joints, shocks, mounts, correct ride height etc., whatever you can eyeball or pry on to see if there's excessive play. Look at the torsion bar cross member too, make sure it's solid.

You really shouldn't be able to pry or pull on something and have it move more than about an 1/8". A little movement/wear is normal but you'll know if something is toast.
 
Too many times a hook from a wench is placed on a strut rod to drag the car onto the road or a rollback. That will bend one.
 
If you are interested we have available adjustable strut rods for your application. They are $279 but you can take advantage of the members discount.
MoparAdjustableStrutRod-RMS.jpg
 
Have front end all tore apart, and going to replace all bushings, ball joints, tie rods, etc. What do I check on control arms as I plan on reusing the old ones. Got new tires 20 years ago and probably between 5,000 to 10,000 miles since then. At that time everything checked out but the idler arm, which I had replaced.
I see I forgot my torsion bar question which was about prepping them for paint, would a good cleaning and a sctoch brite pad be to aggressive?
 
Just don't put any scratches in the metal. Scotchbrite should be fine.

coffeedart67 said:
Have front end all tore apart, and going to replace all bushings, ball joints, tie rods, etc. What do I check on control arms as I plan on reusing the old ones. Got new tires 20 years ago and probably between 5,000 to 10,000 miles since then. At that time everything checked out but the idler arm, which I had replaced.
I see I forgot my torsion bar question which was about prepping them for paint, would a good cleaning and a sctoch brite pad be to aggressive?
Click to expand...
 
coffeedart67 said:
Noticed tonight that one strut rod has a little bit of a bend in it, it is at the end that bolts to the control arm. I assume it is not supposed to be bent as the other one doesn't have the bend. Do I need to replace this or is it ok?
Thanks
Aaron
Click to expand...

my 61 had a bent rod,i straightened it,rebuilt the front end,took it to my alignment guy.he couldnt get the bent side in specs,he said should have left it bent probably would have been in specs.go figure
 
coffeedart67 said:
Got new tires 20 years ago and probably between 5,000 to 10,000 miles since then.
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coffeedart67-Am I reading this correct? Your tires are 20 years old? I had a '70 Challenger that only saw about 1000 miles a year and the tires looked fine after about 12 years. I had many people tell me how unsafe they were because of their age. I was told tires degraded with age and could suddenly fail. You might want to ask around to see if you get any feedback similar to what I heard.
Just trying to keep it safe.
 
My drag Demon had a bent strut rod. Too many wheelies I think. They are supposed to be straight.
 
No, actually I think they are only 19 years old, had them put on in 94. Plan on putting new ones on early this summer. I have seen where they recomend tires not being over 3 years old now. Hate to look at tire prices, though. Don't know how difficult it will be to find 14s though. When I got new tires(15s) on the Dakota 2 years ago I had 2 choices, either car tires, or bump up to a 235 for light truck tires.
 
The tire makers... who make money when you buy new tires... say 7-10 years is ok age for tires. That is for real world, 100% zero concern, daily driver, all weather type use. Then of course they age differently depending on if they are in a garage, in hot climates, etc. If my hobby car sat in a garage those 19 years I would have no concerns running the tires. If they have been sitting outside with the sun beating them every day then I probably wouldn't run them down the highway at 80mph for hours on end. Its really those high speed extended runs that test a tire.
 
Sets in a storage unit, concrete floor, no windows, no electricity (seems like i read that electric motors produce ozone that attacks tires). Maybe the 3 years was on motorcycle tires, which makes my motorcycle overdue for tires with only 5,000 miles on it. Guess I just got to drive the heck out of my toys, so the tires wear out in the prescribed time.
 
Instead of spending almost $300 on a pair of strut rods, could I slide the original strut rod into a piece of thick wall tubing and weld it up so its beefy?
 
spikekid999 said:
Instead of spending almost $300 on a pair of strut rods, could I slide the original strut rod into a piece of thick wall tubing and weld it up so its beefy?
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i heated mine with a torch then clamped them in a big vise and it straightened right up
 
Mines not bent, but I wanna reinforce the ones on my car so I don't have to worry about en bending when I take out the torsion bars
 
Are strut rods for a-bodies all the same? I ordered the steel rods form Mancini and checked them today, the stockers I took off were 16 7/8 from shoulder to shoulder and the Mancini strut rods were 16 9/16. Should I use washers as shims to get them the same length, send them back or what?

Thanks
Aaron
 
coffeedart67 said:
Are strut rods for a-bodies all the same? I ordered the steel rods form Mancini and checked them today, the stockers I took off were 16 7/8 from shoulder to shoulder and the Mancini strut rods were 16 9/16. Should I use washers as shims to get them the same length, send them back or what?
Click to expand...

Did you get these to work?
 
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