Broken torsion bar mount? suggested fix?

[magnumdust]

I'm not totally sure how this happened, but while my car was on a lift today i noticed that at some point in this car's history, the torsion bar housing on the crossmember had sheared off and some "genius" "fixed" it by booger welding the housing in place.

I have no idea on what would be the best way to fix this.

 

[Purple Haze]

May be this would work, but without pic's it's hard to tell.
http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=174374

 

[blown71duster]

http://autorust.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=32

auto rust makes these to fix that problem

 

[inkjunkie]

Years ago a front end guy I knew used to saw muffler clamps in 2 and weld them around the torsion bar sockets....

 

[wjajr]

There is a lot of torsional force applied to the cross member by a torsion bar. The fix shown above using a small gusset welded to the cross member probably won’t last too long. It won’t dissipate the force over a large enough area to the compromised corroded cross member, and will twist free breaking the metal adjacent to the welds. I can tell you from experience when one of those rear bar mounts fail while under way it is a very violent event.

The best fix would be to use Auto Rust’s larger repair patch. It is designed to slip over the existing cross member, and accept transmission mount bolts, and locate the torsion bar in the correct spot. Correct location of bar is important to prevent binding of lower control arm bushing, and tying the patch to the transmission mount helps to spread the forces generated.

My 2 cents.

 

[Purple Haze]

If your cross member is rusted I totally agree, but if the below is your problem this should work.
http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=174270

 

[cudamark]

You could always just get another good crossmember out of another car and have it welded in place of yours. What year and model are you working on?

 

[magnumdust]

You could always just get another good crossmember out of another car and have it welded in place of yours. What year and model are you working on?

I could, but i'd be back at square one in a few months after i put on big torsion bars and starting taking corners.

As of now, my plan is to buy those autorust gussets. I'd like to do this and never worry about it ripping out again.

 

[Purple Haze]

I could, but i'd be back at square one in a few months after i put on big torsion bars and starting taking corners.

As of now, my plan is to buy those autorust gussets. I'd like to do this and never worry about it ripping out again.

After you do that make sure you do the repair I posted or You will be back to square one if you go with those big bars. The big bars is what caused the havoc that I posted.

 

[autoxcuda]

After you do that make sure you do the repair I posted or You will be back to square one if you go with those big bars. The big bars is what caused the havoc that I posted.

Did Magnumdust's car have big torsion bars on it in the past that caused the bad previous repair. California Dart said he had hit a big pot hole or something when his ripped.

I'm sure the big bars didn't help California Dart's situation. But there more going on there. And Magnumdust's car had the same problem with stock bars.

 

[Purple Haze]

Exactly why I posted what I did, because he wants to got to big bars.

 

[72bluNblu]

Did Magnumdust's car have big torsion bars on it in the past that caused the bad previous repair. California Dart said he had hit a big pot hole or something when his ripped.

I'm sure the big bars didn't help California Dart's situation. But there more going on there. And Magnumdust's car had the same problem with stock bars.

I totally agree here. The big torsion bars are not the problem, the torsion bar anchors/crossmember is. If everything is solid (no rust) and the welds are good, big torsion bars won't cause any problems. If you've got rust, or poor welds from the factory (as California Dart's appear to be), then the anchors can fail with factory bars too.

If the crossmember is in good condition, I don't see any reason why you'd have to cap the entire cross member. The repair that California Dart had done to his would be more than strong enough as long as the crossmember is rust free. The caps have the additional problem of possibly trapping rust/dirt/moisture between the existing crossmember and the cap, and hiding any ongoing rust beneath the cap.

 

[magnumdust]

Being that this is a california car, there is no rust that i can find. I'll get some detailed pics when i get the car back. Right now its sitting outside my friend's shop in car purgatory awaiting exhaust and some little bits from the magnum swap.