K Frame Problem

[olddog12]

I just finished moving the mounts on this and stupidly I never tried to bolt it on to the car prior to working on it, well the bolt holes wont line up, well 1 of the 4 anyway.

Now what?

 

[gdrill]

Just curious. Did you do frame rails on the car? I would think if the K-member was bent it wouldn't touch the frame like it appears to be.

 

[Dartnut]

Your frame is bent or the k member is bent or both......
Get them both checked is what i would do.

 

[olddog12]

gdrill, do you mean sub frame connectors, if so yes I did.

I did manage to get all the bolts in by loosening the other 3 off and then starting the 4th. The car is still hanging sideways on the rotisserie, could that be putting stress on the front of the car causing this?

I hope its the K that is bent and not the frame...

 

[mguner]

Just jack the rails apart untill they line up then see if the front end will align when it is together.

 

[80fbody]

Edit: Certainly could be the rotisserie or how the connectors were installed.

 

[RedFish]

In the pic above, The upper right corner of that K looks doctored to me. I don't know it has. I do know the K members would fatigue flatten some with age. This stressed and twisted the frame rails. This is what offset upper arm bushings were designed to correct and why the instructions included in that box doesn't coincide with what most of us use the offset bushings for.

 

[olddog12]

I have another K frame and I just tried to put it on and it bolted up with no problem at all. I think Im gonna move the mounts on this one and use it to be safe...but then I dont have another V8 K frame if I decide down the road I want to take the 440 out, then again maybe I will stick with this one, it will bolt on after all and its pretty well the same measurement at each corner in relation to the frame. I dunno, tell me what to do lol.

 

[Dubob]

Looking at the picture of the ear in question. The shoulder bolt was rubbing to the inside of the ear ( it's polished) on the vehicle it came out of. If there is no obvious physical damage I'd pull it up evenly at the 4 points and go from there. They used shoulder bolts for a reason and it was to help line things up. The tolerances from the factory were sloppy. 25 years ago people would have swapped this and not given a thought to it. You could measure and cross measure to the holes on that k frame to see but I'm gonna bet that hole is off both ways. The DC frame I'm using is sloppy as can be as far as welds etc. IMHO they weren't worried about perfection but quantity. Again this is my thought process and there are more knowledgeable people out there.

Maybe contact Jim Lusk here or wait to see if he comes along. Hes very knowledgable with the k frames.

 

[Jim Lusk]

Thanks Dubob. It CAN be straightened. I did one that was much worse than yours. I made a jig using a good k-member. I did separate the two halves, but I don't think I'd bother with yours. Bolt up the three that line up and use a porta-power to push it in. Take it a little past lining up so that it can spring back a little. If you were closer we could take care of that in a half hour.