Frame hitting LCA ear

[dfrazz]

Looking for some help…I took my car in for alignment and they could not do anything because the frame is resting on the “ear” of the driver side LCA. I also noticed the LCA shaft only has 1-1.5 threads out past the nut from the k member. The passenger side LCA is fine with 4ish threads on the shaft showing. Is this from the torsion bar not being clocked correctly? A loose nut? A missing bushing? Thanks in advanced!

 

[pnora]

Better look that bushing and tube through the K-Frame. Loose, worn or possibly the tube has been welded in incorrectly from some sort of previous repair. I would pull that apart now.

 

[RemCharger]

Agreed, bushing / kmember problem..
But the torsion bars are either worn right out/ or possibly the clocked wrong ones from pst.
Measure the bars. ( diameter of course)

 

[dadsbee]

You can see that pivot shaft is WAY out of center on what ever bushing that is. I'd suspect some aftermarket "better the OE" polygraphite as you can't get an OE that far off center!

 

[yella71]

yeah take it apart is wacked.

 

[Kern Dog]

Even on this phone, I can see that your lower control arm bushing is bad. This makes the lower control arm move out toward the fender and that makes the TB adjustment lever closer to the frame.

How did the alignment shop miss this??

 

[zyzzyx]

All that plus remember that you have to remove the rubber bump stops to correctly install the torsion bars!
You won't get them clocked right without removing them!!!!!

 

[dadsbee]

The UPPER bump stop. Even so it's damn hard to clock them wrong with 60* between flats! Possible that he has some aftermarket "straight" bars and not OE's that are "twisted" 30 degrees end to end.

 

[threewood]

The torsion bar adjuster is way outside of normal limits. Yes, bushings look suspect. Torsion bar needs to be installed with lower control arm hanging all the way down, bump stop removed. If not, you get those results in the picture. Are they on the correct sides?

 

[dfrazz]

Thanks for all the input. Unfortunately this is the way I received the car and don’t have history as to why or who did this. The torsion bars are in the correct sides. I will pull the bar and shaft nut and see what’s going on with the tube and bushing. Also make sure the bar is installed correctly.

 

[Don Frelier]

There is a nut on that strut rod?

 

[RemCharger]

There is a nut on that strut rod?

Good eye Don.
Another unrelated question, does it have a Hemi

 

[RemCharger]

Good eye Don.
Another unrelated question, does it have a Hemi

Hah, nevermind I see it's turquoise

 

[Black_Sheep]

Just to echo what others have said, the LCA bushing is toast…

 

[dfrazz]

There is a nut on that strut rod?

Yes, on both bolts. You just can't see them in the angle of the pic. Thanks for noticing.

 

[autoxcuda]

The torsion bar adjuster finger is way out of normal adjustment range.

I think that is hitting frame and crushed your LCA bushing.

You are off a hex on the torsion bar install or it was part of a run of aftermarket ones that didn't have the hex in the right place or the torsion bar is so weak it's not loading correctly

 

[ckessel]

And the possibility of the sleeve in the k-frame spinning around due to cracked welds or other issues.

 

[Black_Sheep]

You can see that pivot shaft is WAY out of center on what ever bushing that is. I'd suspect some aftermarket "better the OE" polygraphite as you can't get an OE that far off center!

The poly bushings have a much different profile than OE and OE replacements.

 

[dfrazz]

I also noticed the torsion bar adjustment bolt is way in on the driver side compared to the passenger side. Although the ride height is equal on both sides.

 

[Kern Dog]

It isn’t unusual to see a difference between the exposed section of the adjusters but yours does look extreme. It could be from the bushing being bad and allowing the stud/pin being off center.