Should I be pissed or is this my fault?

Took the sedan out for a drive today and visited HAMBer 8-Ball and on my way home went over some railroad tracks. The RF instantly dropped but the car kept going straight. I pulled over to find the shackle mounting lug that attaches to the batwing on the axle had completely sheared.

Before I fly off the handle and start bashing Speedway, I want you guys to tell me if I did something wrong with this setup? I haven't had any problems with Speedway before but this is a pretty serious deal. I was out on the highway doing 55-60 mph a few minutes before this happened. I know there's a large group of suicide axle detractors but there's also a ton of cars that have used this setup over the last half century.

The nut is a Nylock type and it is still in the batwing with the shank of the stud. The car only weighs 2440 lbs. with me driving so it's not like it weighs a lot. If I did something stupid I'll own up to it and hopefully nobody else will make the mistake. If it's inferior material I probably won't buy another thing from Speedway. Or is it just one of those things that happens when driving a hot rod?

 

It looks like it had been cracked for a little while, from what I can see in the pic.

 

looks like it's been cracked for a while, notice the brown area on the broken off end of the stud.

 

That's some spooky shit right there. Glad you are all right...

 

That's a pretty scary failure. I'm not going to point the finger at speedway or at you... but when I was learning how to fly years ago... they taught us the importance of inspecting stressed areas of the aircraft for cracks and corrosion and such.

I would take this as a sign and start inspecting your suspension on a regular basis. Especially with it being a hot rod, it's not like you have to take parts off or crawl under it to check it out. If that stud was corroded like it kinda sorta shows in the pics, a good inspection should've found it.

Oh well, atleast you're alright.

 

Hence the term, suicide. Glad you are OK and nothing major happened to your car. It'd be a shame. My wife hates those cars but thinks yours is cool! That's saying something, trust me.

 

What Squirrel said. Did you use an impact wrench to put it on? That might have started the crack we see in the pic.

 

Holy FUCK

 

It doesnt look to me like the weld broke. Look's more like the bolt broke instead.maybe it was overtightened,it could hane been loose and the moving up and down could have caused it to break,last possibility could have been low quality bolt. good thing is you didnt get hurt. have you called speedway?They sell alot of those thing's and I havent heard of any other failures. Not saying it hasnt happened. It will be interesting to see if anyone else has had this problem. Gregg

 

Yeah but in order to find that one he would have had to take the spring off, just glad to here he did not wreck.

 

No impact wrench, just a socket and a box end wrench.

 

Also bear in mind how heavily the stock Ford perch bolt is built. I haven't seen small T perches that come anywhere close to being as strong.
I welded my own up, but your post has me wanting to reinforce mine over the winter.

Glad you're okay (and living up to your username)

Flatman

 

Does your car have full suspension travel or does it bottom out on bumps? That shouldn't break either way but it is much more likely if it bottoms out. I see alot of cars out there with very little suspension travel and you are asking for trouble if your cars suspension bottoms out alot, something will fatique and fail sooner or later. That may have been overtightened or maybe a faulty part. Glad you didn't wreck.

 

Good point, I wasn't paying attention.

Still worth taking a look at though. Pulling a spring isn't that bad, but it's not something i'd want to do everytime I drove the damn thing haha...

 

There was one of those in a thread a year or so ago. Same thing. All the weight of the front suspension is on 2 bolts. One on each side. Looks to me like fatigue also. Small crack propogated until the bolt broke. That original crack is the brown, rusty area. Final failure is the bright area.

Bill

 

So all the weight of the car is put on that 1or 2 bolts that then supports the spring when flexing ... hmmm
hopefully just a bad bolt ... prolly overtightened just 1 to many times

/?/ how much travel is in your front end... and the shocks are workin?


some body said it best glad yer just talkin about how to fix it not fix you

 

Looks like it wouldn't be too difficult to set up a center spring perch off the front crossmember.

A spring over axle would be safer imo.

Granted, there's a possibility the front perch could break, but the ones I see are built heavy enough that I don't think there would be a problem if properly constructed.

A stock Ford forged axle would be enough to get the car down low.

 

Kev,

The car actually has a good amount of travel in front and doesn't bottom out. I had the friction shocks tightened to roughly 40 ft. lbs. but they moved, and didn't act like a bump stop.

 

I would be pissed. But then again, I wouldn't use any Speedway brand parts on my car, even if they were free. Matter of fact, I would use them even if they paid me to. Seen too much crap quality and have zero confidence in anything they make.

 

Would the extra vertical load of the shock mounting directly to the shackle exacerbate the problem?

 

Man there must be a thousand T-buckets with a Speedway front end like that. It looks like the bolt pulled apart. That's some dangerous shit.

 

If their perches are a welded on Allen socket head bolt they are grade 8 & brittle in a shear situation & once welded on all the heat treat can go mental & be even more prone to break. My 2c

 

Lucky77, that perch appears to have the threaded bolt pressed into the perch, not welded, is that correct?

 

Love the look of those front ends but never liked the idea of two bolts doing all the work. Just look at all the broken wheel studs--stuff happens. Glad your OK!

 

Two weeks ago I made three separate forty mile round trips back and forth from Joliet to Morris during the Pileup weekend plus an eighty mile trip down Route 66. Sure am glad this happened at low speed two miles from my house and not out on I-80 dodging those semi trucks going 85 mph!

 

Lucky,.. You got that right! Glad you're alright.

 

Not sure Blackout, I think that's how they're built. I don't remember seeing any weld. They're the same one's Speedway sells on their "Classic" frontend setup. I got the axles, spring, hairpins, shackles and all hardware as a kit.

 

I believe Speedway offers a welded one, it looks like a bolt welded to a piece of tubing, (cause it is) and one that looks to be a threaded shank pressed into a casting, I think yours is the pressed into the casting. Regardless, this failure is unacceptable, it is too critical of a part. The threaded shank did not pull out of the casting. The threaded shank broke.

 

Is it just a broken bolt? (best I can tell from the pics)

 

Wow Scott that sure is scary. I'd be tearing that front end apart to inspect every other piece. Does anyone else make a similar part that you could use instead of another Speedway piece?