Well I’m here after a little bit of stupidity that may have really screwed up my truck bad. I was messing around in a parking lot and hit what I though was a pile of snow going about 10mph. I was pleasantly suprised to find out this snow was a 2 foot tall frozen solid ice chunk, when my chin abruptly met my steering wheel. I tried getting home on a prayer after a quick inspection to ensure my wheels wouldn’t fall off. Going down the road straight, the top of my wheel is at about 4 O’clock now.

I made it home and went for a closer inspection. As far as I can tell, the only damage I can see, (and hopefully have) is both radius arms bent inward when the axles was forced back from the shock of the impact. I guess my next move is to replace them? I don’t need my alignment to be perfect, however I’d like to be able to safely go down the road.

I believe I have the procedure of replacing these planned out correctly, but would appreciate correction or advice. From my understanding you lift the truck up from the top with something like an engine hoist (where to connect the hoist, I’m not totally sure), then unbolt the radius arms, and pull the axle forward with something like a comalong connected to a tree or second vehicle. Remove the arm, put the new one in place, and guide the radius arm into place and bolt everything back together. It also looks like I’m going to have to pull the coil spring out, but maybe not. These are the details I need advice on.

Anything helps, thanks.

 

Also, is it a terrible idea to just take it to an alignment shop and tell them to do their best and see what they can do? Both arms seems to be equally bent and possibly able to be made up for with an alignment?

Again, don’t need perfect, just need to go down the road.

 

I doubt an alignment shop would bend them straight, too much liability in that. That doesn't mean you couldn't try it though.

Someone had drilled the rivets out that holds the frame brackets on my old 1980, so when I had to do the bushings I just had to unbolt them. It's painful the first time, but makes it easy later to change the bushings. You could do that instead of the come-along thing.

I have never taken an arm completely off, but have heard horror stories trying to get that large bolt out that holds it to the axle up front. I think it gets really rusted and stuck in there.

I would also be surprised if your steering linkage came through this without getting bent.

 

P.S. Is there any way possible you could get a jack inbetween the frame and the arm and bend it back without taking it apart? Maybe something like this would work? Harbor Freight has it on sale for $150.

 

Getting that bolt out is something else. What worked well for me is putting a wrench on it through the coils and then whack the wrench with a hammer. worked like a charm to get it loose.
Spray some PB or something like that on the nut a few days in advance, if you attempt to do this.
I would say the steering linkage is toast too. If the radius arms bent, that linkage probably had the time of its life as well.

 

Also, wouldn't jacking the axles forward put a lot of stress on that center bushing? If that thing is still the original one it is probably not gonna be happy about it.

wouldn't it almost be easier to take the axle out with the radius arm at that point?
If I remember correctly you would just have to take off the brake line and steering linkage. Lift the truck by the frame so that the tires are off the ground. Take out the axle bolt and then the radius arm nut.
Take the spring out when it is completely without tension and pull the whole assembly out. Now you could work on it in your garage and have access to the center bolt holding the radius arm.
I don't know if this is any more work than drilling all those rivets out.

Just another option.

If I am missing something please correct me, but that is basically how I redid my frame.

Edit: Just realized that this is about a 4 WD vehicle. Same thing applies, but it everything is way heavier If I am thinking about this the right way.

 

I had thought about trying to somehow bend it back. Didn’t know if that was just too outlandish but I guess it’s doable. Like I’ve said I don’t need perfect. Would it be a bad idea to heat the arms up if I go to bend them, or is that just asking for trouble. I really don’t want to tear it all the way apart as I don’t think I’ll have this truck more then a few more months.

 

In that case, I would also just go with the fix it till it works solution instead of tearing into it.

I have no idea about the metallurgy that they use in the radius arms. If they are only slightly bent I would probably just try it cold.

Since I work for a German car manufacturer, and they use a lot of work hardening to get the strength they need I would be hesitant to heat it. If it is just mild steel, that does not depend on the work hardening, or even already is normalized from the factory, I would not see any problem with heating it.
I would wait for input from other members to see what they say.

Only other problem I could see that you could potentially melt the bushing if you get it too hot.

 

Yea I really don’t want to tear it apart. If I had long term plans with this truck, I would, but it’s sortie a little mess around truck that I do stupid stuff with...Incase you didn’t already realize lol

 

I don't know how you'd ever get good leverage on the radius arm to bend it, even if it was heated.

2wd I beams have the one larger bolt through the beam. TTB have two studs, one on top and one on the bottom.

 

I was thinking maybe park another truck with the back of it pointing at the side of the truck and then using a come along to pull it. Either that or weld a thick plate to the frame and use some sort of hydraulic jack and wedge it between the radius arm and that plate, then just cut the plate off when I’m done

Any ideas to branch out from that?

 

Pictures of how bad they are bent would help out in figuring out what would work best.

 

I’ll snap some pictures tomorrow after school, but the just sortie buckled in. Looks like they wanted to shift back on the impact and just started to fold in a good 2-3inches. They honestly look normal if you don’t know what you’re looking at. They both bent the same way and same amount on each side. Only reason I noticed is because I just sanding them down and painted them a couple weeks ago when I pulled my transmission and know what they’re supposed to look like. I'm sure anyone that has owned one of these trucks before with this style front end could easily tell too.

 

I would first like to apologize in taking so long to post this and not respecting the time of those who have helped me so far. I have been busy and the truck sort of got pushed to the back burner.

I have some new findings. I’m thinking my radius arms may actually not be bent. I took the truck to NTB to have one of their guys look at it and he went out and started shaking around the front end and clear as day saw the steering arms were bent. I don’t know how I didn’t notice this, but it is what it is. I got a quote for $350 to fix it, and I don’t mind paying that and moving on and learning the lesson not to hit stuff anymore. However, I want to confirm the radius arms are not bent because I don’t want them to tear it apart and find out this $350 fix is going to turn into an $800 job. If that’s the case I’ll do it myself.
All of the diagrams I look at tell me the arms aren’t bent, and I measured a few things using the same reference points and both sides are even. My only concern is the lower shock mount seems to be twisted. Can anyone









confirm if this is how it is supposed to look with the pictures I will attach?