Hit a wall doing 60 on the highway in my 85 Toyota pickup (Before and after pictures below). Now the front axle is crooked. Looking for help on what all I should start on investigating what might be damaged and getting this girl back in good shape. I can't believe the truck survived, but I guess that's a testament to how tough the little girls really are!

A little background. This is my great grandpas old 1985 Toyota Pickup DLX longbed 22R 4wd. She has procomp 3" lift springs on the front and some add-a-leafs on the back to raise her about 2.5". Also running some later model 4runner wheels with 30.5" tires and wheel spacers.

After our last ice storm in Kansas, I had been driving around without any problems in 4wd but as the ice melted and the roads were dry, I decided to take her out of 4wd while on the highway. Unfortunately while going 60mph in the left lane, I hit a large patch of ice under an overpass and the back tires broke loose and swung wide right. I ended up with hitting the concrete barricade on the left with my front driver side wheel at around 55-60 mph. Luckly I was able to bounce off, regain control and moved to the right shoulder to assess the damage.

Luckly there doesn't appear to be any body damage. The plastic bumper end cap I had recently installed is destroyed and the rim took a pretty good scrape but overall, the only major thing I can see is that the driver side front wheel is sitting further to the rear of the wheel well and that side of the truck is sitting a little lower. I will be putting this up on jacks in the garage as soon as the ice melts a little bit.

Any ideas what I may have bent or broken that would cause the axle to shift backwards on the driver side?


Before:



After:

 

May have sheared the centering pin on the leaf springs, worst case is you bent the frame out of square. First I would measure from the front spring eyelet to a reference point on the axle housing and compare side to side and see where that leads you

 

Thanks, Just to be clear, you're saying measure the distance from the front of each spring eyelet to the axle to compare driver and passenger side measurements?

 

Also forgot to mention that now I must keep the wheel 90 degrees to the right to keep the vehicle going straight. It was perfectly aligned previously.

 

Yes that's it. That will show that the axle housing has slid on the leaf spring rearward. Pretty common when the u-bolts get stretched a little and are not clamping as tight as they should

 

Man, your lucky that was all the damage and you didnt total it! Thats a good looking truck!

I would be worried too that it bent the axle it self. Can you see anywhere on the axle, around the knuckle ball area, that the axle is bent backwards?

Take it for an alignment. Theyll tell you whats up if you cant find it.

 

I got back from the alignment shop, and they claim nothing in the suspension or steering is bent but that the frame is not straight. I have included the images they gave me below. I believe some of this damage was done by my Grandpa before I ever got the truck as I noticed some inconsistencies in the axles and alignment before I ever hit the wall.