Some have said its due to the torque of the engine, others say the 2" lowering... I'd like to say my engine did it but it is a relatively mild build 346" lopey cam, was a torker even when stock. The lowering is mild as well. What do you guys think?
From what i can see your running out of suspension travel putting stress on upper arm mount. Did you cut coils or heat? Or did you put a kit in?...... You would be getting a good thump and vibration every time you bottomed out
Thats very odd break, also if it has alot of miles on the chassis it could be "work hardened" and turned brittle....as it has broke around the factory weld
When you pull the upper shaft apart...I'd have to think the shaft is rusted to the bushings, or sticking, rather than turning smootly.
I don't see how the lowering job or engine torque would do that. My 55 Olds was bagged and I rode with it real low all the time and never experienced any banging or binding that would cause a break like that.
I thought that too, but usually when those bushings go out the arms kinda flop around on the shaft....
If I'm seeing this clearly, the break looks like it is clean on one part, and kind of tarnished elsewhere-the metal looks like it may have been exposed for a time, so that looks like it broke out a little at a time. My guess is it was old damage, from who knows what-(maybe a collision, causing hidden damage?), that finally failed after years of stress on the still unbroken part...Just a guess, maybe I'm way off, hard to tell from the pics, but I've seen damage like that in the past on frames, (retired body man), and the breaks looked just like that-one part fresh & clean, one part old and not so clean. Just a guess... Eric
Coils were cut w/torch, there hasn't been any issue as far as bottoming out, however I would like to have new springs and maintain ride height as is now after reading here on the hamb the heat/tempering issue caused by this method... I found the car during a 10 year rest... had to machete away the jungle that had grown around it so it sat not far from the beach so its got a rust issue, but nothing real scary. It has been in a couple collisions, one where it/I rear-ended and completely destroyed a brand-new vw jetta, twisted/cracked the frame. I and others with more experience combed over the rocket for a few days unable to find any damage as a result. The jetta owner was determined to get and old car after this experience, she was a cute girl too! I was also t-boned by a toyota camry when he ran a red light, the damage was obvious resulting in a new door and 1/4 for the rocket, I was still proud that it drove home with only "cosmetic" damage whereas the camry was totaled. So I'm guessing its likely a combination of maybe all these battles it has fought... Not to mention my driving style can't be helping Hoping to get it welded-up and re-enforced before x-mas! A couple of local hamber's have offered some reasonable welding rates for me get it done. Afraid to do it myself this time cause' I haven't welded anything in better than 12 years and I am sans welder, appropriate space, and practice time... All I want for x-mas is a safe-to-drive rocket...
forgot to mention, the shaft does move freely and I've been pretty good with greasin' everything up regularly. Droplord, I love how your car looks at that height but with all the dips, potholes, and generally crappy streets here in L.A. I fear going so low and alot of people have scared me away from bags... I'm curious if you have had any issues keeping it aligned or premature tire-wear?
Funny you say that F&J, right after I sent my last reply it occured to me that I did not mention the difficulty in my regular greasing! Most of the front-end takes grease well and it oozes fresh grease right out, but both the upper shafts have always been a serious wrestling match which has never ended in my being 100% confident its all getting in there and has always resulted in a lot of grease on me!
Maybe I should put back what i edited out When your guys can pull the two mounting bolts out, try twisting that shaft to see if it creaks. I am no engineer, but have seen a lot of broken things. That break is very strange. I just keep thinking there is something binding on that shaft.
you totalled a vw and got hit in the side by a camry, and have rust issues. I'd bet money you have more frame damage hiding.
I think so F&J! I responded before seeing the edit, and I think you're on to something here. I think that just because it does move freely does not mean it moves smoothly... It is a weird break which is why I wanted to hear more about it... The high-torque theory makes sense when talking about a 49' ford with a BB in place of the original flatty but this car came with this engine and while I am proud to report it is more powerful and faster than before it nothing extreme, its my everyday car and I have yet to find another human-being that has seen this break on this chassis...
53sled, that has been a concern of mine for some time even before the accidents that I know of... The rust is relatively minor and in all the classic hardtop places, also the worst has been repaired. On the frame just a minor rub with sandpaper reveals bright shiny steel. What method of inspection can I do to determine any unseen damage and are there critical load bearing spots I should focus upon? I ask because from inside the car this was felt immediately, whereas as mentioned above the photos show the break began some time ago and somehow that weld began to separate without detection while driving and when I saw it I was startled to say the least. I'd like to know that I've got no surprises coming my way.
That's a pretty beefy frame to have an odd crack like that. Did you undo the upper arm to swing it through the full travel? Is the chassis bottoming out in that area? I would have to see it close up to make a better diagnosis. Bob
you need to strip the front end and find the other cracks. my brother bought an s10 that was lowered 6/8" and I found it was cracked at the spring pocket from a previous accident, then found more, unrepaired damage near the firewall, on the other side. at the very least, get a frame guy to put it up on a rack and check the collision damage.
It looks like a bad weld with no penetretion from factory. The welds on old cars can be real scary,had a 55 Ford that i was going to build new motor mounts,just hit one of the old motor mounts with a hammer and after a few hits it fell right off. But that was a Ford ha ha.
I'm a paranoid and would heed 53 sled's advice and strip it down too. Me, I'd never feel good about trusting it without checking it out. Speaking of which, how do people check when they want to be thorough, Sled? is a visual inspection enough or does it need magnafluxed or something? When I worked in the oil field they'd come out and magnaflux the tools right there in the shop. They'd find cracks you'd never see without it.
Well it has been inspected on a rack after each accident and just recently after this was discovered. He said everything does look fine but also mentioned further inspection along the lines of 53sled's suggestion, but he also threw it out there very nonchalantly as if it was possibly overkill... He also said he had never seen a crack like this on this chassis before and used the word "weird" about three times. John79 the weld that was there looks exactly like a non-penetrating weld! The steel underneath looks like it never melted at all, the pool looks like it just settled on top of it, which you can kinda see when looking at the side angle photo
I work as a welder and also was a welding tech guy. We do hydraulic cylinders at the place where i work. Did and do alot of testing on welds and just as you say,if it doesent look like the weld have penetrated the frame at all i think that is the main problem. Its hard to see on the pics but is there justa a wlded on piece that has separated from the frame or do you have a crack in the material? (sorry aboute my bad spelling)
I forgot to mention, chickenshift re: mileage on the chassis. I know it has alot of miles on it... odometer reads just under 100k, but I am only the 3rd owner of the car and the story I was told was the speedo stopped working 10years before the original owner had health issues and left the car parked, the second owner bought it and sold it to me almost immediately without doing anything to it, the chassis could have seen +200k as the original owner apparently never owned another car since 55'...
John 79, thats just it! The "cap" the shaft is bolted too appears to be totally intact as does the frame beneath it, just a pool of metal on top of both pieces... I am a layman when it comes to welding, but it looks like a "how not too"! Its very difficult to see underneath as I fear messing up the location/geometry and don't wanna break the still holding portion of the weld. It looks like just a fill layer on top of where the two seams meet...
put the parts back where they were, drill three small holes for steel dowel pins in three different locations, now you can remove the parts to inspect, but still line them back up properly to weld them back in. when the three holes are lined up and pinned the part is back in the exact location. This works on most parts, it's hard to see in your picture exactly what happened.
I drove the car for about 6 years and put probably 30-40k miles on it and never once had a problem. I took it and had it aligned right after I bagged it at the height I normally drove at and never had any tire wear issues. The roads are pretty shitty here in SA too, that is why it was nice to have it on air, so I could raise it up if I needed to.
The Jalopy Journal
