Joseph James
Senior Member
Saw posted elsewhere. Was on a former police car.
How does this happen?
- Thread starter Joseph James
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2010
- Messages
- 27,942
- Reaction score
- 26,879
Could have wracked a curb or something.
Joseph James
Senior Member
Thanks. Wondered how it could break like that. They seem tough.
Demonic
New Member
Wow. Running with a bad lower bushing for a very long time. You lose the cushon of the rubber - every bump and pothole is transferred to the lower arm, K frame, etc.
If the bushing goes south and the joint starts slamming metal on metal, that will also cause that type of fracture, simple metal fatigue.
Dave
Dave
Joseph James
Senior Member
Chasing the Duke Boys??
Newport 66
Old Man with a Hat
Matt's exactly right. Take it from experience, did that to my '73 Duster back in the day. Them concrete curbs are hard!!
Joseph James
Senior Member
Here is the car
Looks to be a pretty straight and rust free small block unit. Does it have a PK prefix on the VIN? Not seeing any spotlight mounts or a passenger side mirror, odd for a police unit.
Dave
stubs300
Senior Member
Because it can!
Might just be the photo angle, but the LCA also looks to have the hole for the shock mount elongated and egg shaped. That happens when somebody does not bother to torque the shock mount bolt and it works loose and beats itself to death. Cruisers assigned to traffic take a hell of a beating from running over center medians, rail road tracks, off road etc.
Dave
Dave
Joseph James
Senior Member
I will ask.
rapidtrans
Senior Member
Ooh, Ooh, Ooh. Me too.
Bent a lower control arm and wheel rim on Dad’s brand new 71 Satellite Sebring Plus.
You cant see those asphalt curbs for crap at night when they just jump right out in front of you.
Man you should have seen that wire wheel cover fly through the air!
Dad wasn’t impressed. Took me awhile to pay that tab.
4spd300J
Member
I bought a '72 Road Runner that had the long rear spring shackles and shock extensions that were popular back in the '80's. One of the control arms was cracked like this one and both pin sockets on the k-frame were wallowed so bad that I had to replace the k-frame and both torsion bars.
MarPar
Meat Man with a Hat
Stupid 3" curbs
When we were kids, my buddy hit a 3" curb while we were riding in his parents "X" body Citation. Seemed like nothing, and I mean nothing. It bent the whole subframe, which luckily was a bolt on part for that car...... You could see it in the front wheels, and the right side stance had fallen towards the front. This was like ~1980-81. That part alone was like $700.00 back then, and it looked like pretty much nothing but a dogs hind leg. His dad was not happy, nor impressed with his sons driving prowess!
C-Bodies were pretty rugged and would take a lot of abuse. As police forces started transitioning to Diplomat cruisers, everyone thought that they could be driven the same way, bad choice. We started seeing a lot of bent steering components, K members and braces were weak and there were lots of issues with these cars not being able to hold alignment. It got so bad that some jurisdictions specified "No K Member" suspensions on their bid specifications. The shock towers also moved around and they could only be straightened out a few times before the entire front suspension was toast. Eventually fixes were found but by then it was too late and GM and Ford dominated the cruiser market for the next twenty years.
Dave
Dave
not daily driver, but safe and legal now
Similar threads
