Bent car?

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adriver

adriver

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I thought I would through this out for your information. I got run off the road by a bus. Actually I ran over a concrete curb/island. I bent two steel rims on the divers side. The 73 Dart doesn’t show any un-body damage. But you can bet something changed since the wheel isn’t straight and the left front tire camber looks bad.
Didn’t see any parts damage so I took it to the alignment rack.
He told me the SAI (?) couldn’t be set and it might be a bent spindle or upper arm.
I have the left front side apart and I can’t tell any damage in the spindle or upper arm. But I am changing them anyway since I have spares and it might make a difference.
I have the sheet of what the car was set at before and this aliment man is a friend of the one that used to do my work and set the car up before. (I trust them both to know what they are doing on a Chrysler.) And I’ll take the sheet up to him when I get the car back together.
Does anyone think I could have bent the car. I was doing about 35 and clipped the concrete island pretty good.
But I don’t see any damage or indications of bent uni-body. I was wondering what is done when a car has the “frame straightened”. Is there a big press they put the car on with chains like some mid-evil torturer rack?
 
The lower arm is mounted with a shaft in a bushing. Thats probably where the damage is.
 
Since I am this far into it. That's a good idea. I'll go ahead and pull it all the way apart on that side. It would be my luck (stupidity) to have to go back in twice.
 
Since I am this far into it. That's a good idea. I'll go ahead and pull it all the way apart on that side. It would be my luck (stupidity) to have to go back in twice. I have a poly bushing there and can't tell any problem just looking at it now while the lower is still in place
 
Sometimes the locating pin in the rear spring will shear when this happens and shift the rear axle just a bit. Just a thought.
 
Might look to see if the rearend was moved by the impact
and axle runout could be checked also.
Sounds like she took a pretty hard shot.
Good luck, I hope you find the problem.
 
That's the first thing he said because the rear showed up cocked.
But it may have been like that already. Hopefully , he will know when I find the sheet where it was set up before and show it to him. I didn't find any problem there. I have swapped the springs and shackels side to side in hopes that makes a difference. This car is a Sport and has a Diplomat 8-1/4 with rewelded spring perches. (I have a thread with how too pictures, I think) So it's a little differnent anyway. But that shouldn't make it off as far as being cocked.
The front has me more worried. I meant the steering wheel is not straight anymore. I'm looking for bent things still.
 
Check the spacing gap between the steering arm and backing plate on both sides and make sure they are equal side to side. If you bent the left steering arm it will throw the steering wheel off.
 
A shot that hard will move the tie rod ends in their adjusting sleeves. That may be why your steering wheel ain't straight anymore.
 
adriver said:
He told me the SAI (?) couldn’t be set and it might be a bent spindle or upper arm.
Click to expand...

SAI is steering axis inclination. This is the steering angle and geometry engineered into the suspension and steering by the car's designers. The tech is correct in saying that if it can not be set then a part is bent. SAI is not adjustable and can only be restored by replacing bent or broken parts.

The rear may be cocked or experiencing a 'dog track' situation where the rear is not square to the chassis because of bent or broken parts. You see that in trucks and vans when their springs are shot from carrying heavy loads all the time. if you drove it with this condition, you will have to compensate with the steering wheel to keep it straight. If you looked at the car from the roof and a drew a line from stem to stern, the rear wheel track line would eventually intersect the centerline, which is what he means when he says it's cocked. This can also usually only be repaired by fixing bent or broken parts.

Sounds like you smacked the curb pretty hard. Good luck.
 
It doent take much to knock the car out of alignment and parts can get bent so slightly that u cant really tell by lookin at them. Changes as little as 1/16 of an inch can cause problems and it is easy to go far beyond that. I agree u should throw as much at it as u can and if it is still not good; a body shop should be able to tweak it a little on a frame machine.
 
it doesnt take much to tweak these cars either. when i bought my scamp, i noticed that one of the bumper gaurds was broken off, as if someone tagged the bumper. both my fenders are original with no signs of bodywork. one day i was under the car i noticed just behind the bumper bracket the frame was a little tweaked, and the bumper was off to one side by an inch. so rather than the bumper bracket bending the frame did, i ended up putting it on a frame machine and 1900 dollars later it was straight.
 
[QUOTE

Sounds like you smacked the curb pretty hard. Good luck.[/QUOTE]

I thought I broke the car in half. Front tire went flat. The rear held. So with the spare I was able to limp to my son's house.
Dark and rainy night. Couldn't see and my head must have been in a dark place too.:-D
Swerved to miss the bus and didn't see the island. No markings in the middle of the road. The county will hear about it. Other's have been hitting it too. At least 35 mph head on or a hard glancing blow maybe.
Would have killed a rice car.
 
I would look hard at the left knuckle assy..if it got bent then your camber on that side will be off which in turn throws the toe off causing the steering wheel position to be off center also. It is sometimes difficult to visually see a bent knuckle/spindle. Smacking a curb or any stationary object with a wheel is bound to bend sumthing.... Dave @ www.davesautocool.com
 
Also rear wheel drive vehicles such as most of the ones here are thrust aligned meaning the front end is aligned according to the rear axle which is in theory square with the vehicle upon installation. This is mentioned as the thrust angle,positive or negative....D www.davesautocool.com
 
You had also asked about the frame machine. You pretty well pegged it when you compared it to the "rack". Chain or bolt the body in place, attach a chain to the part to be pulled and stand clear when it starts pulling!
C
 
what state are you in ? I know some states such as Michigan maintain a fund for repairs of damage caused by improper roads they just don't talk about it but you might be able to fill out a form and get reimbursed , we did that in Lansing when the county road workers stripped some local roads and left them open for traffic over the weekend with the manholes sitting four inches + in the air with no cones or reflectors at night-tore up the front end of my caddy and bent the crap out of a rim , the wife found the form online somewhere and we sent it and the damage receipt and they paid , might be worth investigating
 
All of the above plus damage to strut rod. Knew someone who stuffed one in a ditch. LCA and strut rod replace, and full alignment cured it. Good luck
 
Check every piece of steering linkage. Including idler arm and mount bracket. Hopefully around your steering box is clean so you can check your welds as they are usually not the best to begin with and will crack or rip, usually at the most inopertune time.
 
Update.
If it had been a rice burner, it would have been toasted.
I replaced the spindle, upper control arm and lower ball joint. The alignment guy was able to it set back up. The camber and caster is little different than before but we are dealing with a 30-year-old driver here that has been through some hard times. Plus I am using a different person since my previous guy is gone somewhere else. I told him just so it goes straight and doesn’t chew up the tires, I’m happy. (Only .2 out of specs on camber driver’s side and since the front end is higher than specs that might be the reason. 15-inch tires).
This was a dead on hit of a concrete island. Probably at 45 MPH. So that says something about how good these cars are. You can see where other people have been whacking them. They only recently put them in and never painted them. NO sticks up or anything. It is not a good design and you have to sort of swerve when you go though the intersection to miss them. I was going to stop and take a picture and try and get restitution like someone suggested. But GUESS WHAT. Not less that two weeks after I hit it, they a have painted them. So I didn’t get a picture. I went by the county office with the “evidence” and got the run around.(See rims, it is worse that it looks. I straightend the rear to try and keep air in the rear tire. Didn't work.) The county and the DOT both pointed fingers at each other. That’s a waste of my time and not worth the hassle since I don’t have any pictures of the islands before they were painted.
But my a$$ hole puckers up now when I go by them. I can still feel the impact.

IMG_1760 (Small).jpg
 
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