Broken Torsion Bar

[khryslerkid]

Another shot it broke quite close to the cross member.

View attachment 835601

Are these new / aftermarket? Not too old?

 

[WP29440SE]

wow , crazy, I have a gouge in one of mine from the slip of a cutoff wheel some 10 or 12 years ago with no issues. is that aftermarket? Chinese or sumpin?

 

[steve340]

They are original Mopar and the car has 50,000 miles on the clock.
It is a 1968 GTX with the 440 motor.

 

[WileE]

More rare than common, but we replaced a snapped bar on occasion. Actually happened to myself in a fairly new Dart back in the day.

 

[steve340]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Generally the feedback goes from never heard of it to oh yeah happened to me too.
Guess if you get well made bars or do not damage them you are probably OK for many years.
If not it is just a matter of time before they snap.

 

[Kern Dog]

No, I disagree with the premise that sooner or later, they all will break. Too many variables to consider that to be a true statement. Some factors increase the odds of a failure. The thinner the bar , the greater risk of failure. Slant six bars on a drag car with an all iron Hemi....I'd bet money on those failing 100 years before a light car with 1.24 bars.
I have never seen a B body with a broken bar. I have 1.15s in my Charger...Not much chance of breakage unless there is an unseen defect in the metal.

 

[oldkimmer]

I have seen a few broken. Actually 1 kinda shattered, there was pieces on the garage floor. Kim

 

[miller]

Thanks for the photos! Interesting. Yeah, I'm one of those...never seen it, or happened to me. Lucky, I guess.

Spring steel, heat-treated, shot-peened...and maybe some little defect, makes it all a 'it's gonna break, sooner or later'.

Good luck with it!

 

[Daves69]

You can see from the shiny part there must have been a fine crack and then it broke.
Hope the new ones are OK.

View attachment 835593 View attachment 835595 View attachment 835596

Looks pretty straight in the shinny area. Maybe not really a crack but a "seam" caused by voids in the material as it is rolled out.
In a prior era I worked for a company that made torsion bars for heavy equipment from bar stock. They were about 2" diameter and maybe 20" long and splined on both ends. Final inspection included 100% Magnaflux. Zero surface defects were allowed on the bars as well as aircraft and locomotive piston pins. I do recall we were allowed sub-surface defects with length limits per Mil specs on the pins. And yes, they definitely had them.

 

[Curiousyellow71]

Mopar knew how many stress cycles their parts could do before they would fail. You can only bend the paper clip so many times before it gives up...but unless those 50,000 mile were by a mailman who went out of his way to hit pot holes and speed bumps that should not have failed..so I say it was a defect...and time caught up with it. We broke a torsion bar on a 73 satellite 4 door once.. Bo and Luke would've been proud of the launch...but the landing really hurts when the suspension brakes.

 

[theman440]

In my experience it's usually a defect or it get nicked by running something over or when you clamp vise grips on it when removing it.

 

[BB BELLA]

I've broken one, 66 belii drivers side back in 77', broke in the middle of the night while parked! I'm sure it has to do with custom shock valving and rubber that hooks which creates more front end movement than mopar intended!
m80 is right! I wondered what was going on outside,until I went out in the morning and my bumper was 3" from asphalt!

 

[miller]

I'm using the original, 50 year old BB bars, on my 64.
But, personally, think the way their handled, can make, or break 'em too. I made my own aluminum tool, like the one in the service manual, to drive 'em out.

Vice grips? Lol.

Worked with hardened steel parts, most of my life. Even a small rust pit, or defect, on the hardened surface, expands a bunch, once it gets to the softer interior steel.
When ever I can re-use the original, made right parts, I do it. No telling, on some of the aftermarket stuff.