How much Stress on Diagonal Link Bar??

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72DMag

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End of racing season and helping a buddy upgrade to strange double adjustable shocks from qa single adjustable shocks in the rear. Car is a duster with Ladder bars and 8 3/4 rear with a brace. After setting up the new shocks scaling it and setting the ride height I went to put the diagonal link back on and noticed the car is shifted to the passenger side about 3/4 of an inch. As I push the car over to the driver side to center the axle the last 1/4" to 1/8" takes a little bit of effort. After further investigation the one shock mount is a little slanted and not welded on the axle perfectly up and down.

My guess is the new shocks are causing the effort to align the axle with the body. So is it normal for the diagonal link to be under so much stress? I'm thinking about installing a pan hard bar instead because with that parallel to the axle wouldn't it be better for this situation? The diagonal bar is 3/4" diameter maybe I should just get a thicker bar or maybe I am over thinking this whole thing. My dart doesn't have this much tension on the diagonal bar so figured I'd ask if this is normal. Thanks in advance
 
Pictures would help. I'm imagining a diagonal bar like used with 4-link but not sure why you would have it off in the first place to change shocks or why you would make adjustments without it in place.
 
I can post some pics tmrow. We r doing a routine maintenance checking all the eyes on the ladder bars etc.. so everything was taken off and checked. We also had the third member out good news is that everything looks good.
 
If the car was shifted to one side relevant to the rear axle, you will probably need to recheck all your earlier measurements... like ride heights and scaling.
 
A bar used to keep the axle housing centered could be under compression or tension, but 3/4" should be fine depending on wall thickness and material of course. I assume the bar was part of the ladder bar kit.
 
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