betelnut

After a night of freezing rain, my wife was feeling daring enough to go to the grocery store, despite my begging and pleadingt. She hit a patch of ice around a curve and slammed the curb with the right front wheel. Looks like the rear support for the lower A-arm is bent inwards abount 1/4 inch. Just eyeballing it, that's going to be too much to adjust out to get the alignment right. Suggestions for what to do?

I see three options:

- Rent a hydraulic ram and try to push it back myself, putting the ram between the bent support and the frame on the other side. Is a 10-ton ram strong enough to do this? Anyone can put odds on getting the frame reasonably straight this way?

- Take it to the body shop. They would probably do it right and put it on their table and get it pretty straight. However, this would probably be extremely expensive, and they'd probably charge me for disassembling and reassembling the suspension. That sound right? Anyone have experience? This truck wasn't worth more than a few thousand dollars before this, and even after it's fixed, this negative history will surely take a grand off its former value.

- Junk it and get another. I don't know if a truck with a bent frame will ever be the same.

T_F_E

My grandpa was a bodyman his whole life and did a lot of good work with a come a long some chain and a telephone pole

vital22re

iTrader: (2)

find a small body shop with a frame machine.. pay them under the table .. done..

malteserunner

iTrader: (1)

I just did this repair to my 4Runner recently. A previous owner bent mine badly. I moved the rear LCA bracket about 1/2" on a frame rack. Also, the LCA was bent and the bushings tweaked. I replaced the bad LCA, then welded in a brace between the rear brackets to reinforce the frame. I was fortunate to have a friend with a body shop, that let me use his frame rack.

Just telling my story to get you thinking about other components that may be damaged, in addition to the bracket. Good luck with the fix.

You'll get a ton of people suggesting you just do a straight axle swap....

Terrys87

iTrader: (1)

If you shop around, finding a body shop to do that is not that expensive. They will get it done right. I just had one done a year or so ago and think it was at $200. Didnt go on car report. Drove better than before. I was happy I did it and had no regrets.

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

Sounds to me like it is the wife`s problem.

Maybe Texas has changed since I had been down there in the eighties.

You and your friends should sit there in comfort instructing the Mrs. how to fix the truck.

Such is life. A good body shop with a frame rack should make as good as new.

Good luck

peow130

Find one of them rear support crossmembers, or make one, and use a small hydraulic jack to spread the subframe apart.
Squeeze in crossmember.
Bolt/weld in.
Get alignment.
Enjoy never having to worry about it again.

iselloil

Take it to a frame shop.Find a small shop and pull it to spec.

betelnut

Thanks for all the replies. Peow's thinking is pretty close to mine. Here's the latest.

Pulled off the front suspension and spent an hour with a kitchen brush and a bottle of degreaser. One year ago this thing was bone dry after I did the timing belt & replaced all the usual culprit gaskets, but I've learned my lesson: don't buy cheap parts off ebay.

Here's a pic of the damage. Note the split weld on the frame between the front and rear A-arm mounts. I estimate the rear mount is bent inwards nearly 1/2 inch where the A-arm connects. I've got a 12-ton hydraulic ram and a welder, and I can rent a 50-ton for $50/night. If one of the rams can bend this back, I'll weld the seam back shut and fab up a brace like this one, but probably a real ugly version.

The LCA and steering knuckle will need a good inspection to be sure they're not bent.

If the frame looks straight after everything's done, the truck'll need new bushings, tie rod ends and idler arm. Then a driveway alignment job and all should be good.

If the frame's too far gone, I'll wait for a bad HG to come up on craigslist and swap the engine, after redoing all the gaskets with Toyota parts.

betelnut

Making some progress here.



If it's hard to tell, the body's being supported on those scary stacks of cinder blocks with a 3-7/8" piece of oil drill stem laid across with wooden jigs to fit the blocks/pipe/body together. The right-hand stack might look to be leaning, but it's an illusion, since I checked for plumbness with a bob. Yes I know cinder blocks can break and no I don't think anyone else should do it this way and of course I didn't leave it that way any longer than needed.

I'm using a surveyor's transit to compare frame geometries with both black & white trucks to be 100% sure the donor frame is square before repeating those gymnastics to swap the frame with the white truck. I found some German guys that sell a tool, the deluxe version of which does the same for motorcycles. I'm doing the same thing conceptually, but with old-skool surveyor tools: a dumpy level and a measuring tape.

http://www.scheibner.de/max-system.php?lang=en

Anyway, the body is safely near the ground now, and I can take a little time to replace bushings, ball joints, tie rod ends, axle seals/gaskets/oil seals, etc., as well as freshen up the engine before sticking it all back together again.