Torsion bar housing issues.

[moparmaniac59]

Greetings folks,  I've not posted on here in a while. Life's been busy! I'm getting ready to retire after 37 years of civil service!  Then I'll have more time for cars.. ...yeah right! I hear honey-doo calling!!  I have been rebuilding the front suspension on my '74 Challenger. I am using all new QA-1 components and have been very pleased with the form/fit and quality of their products and read good reviews with some of it from here. The car has a big block, so the front suspension, K-member ect. are from a '70. While cleaning and prepping the torsion bar housing to go back in, I noticed this damage/repair to the driver's side torsion bar housing. It's been like that for at least 10 years when I bought the car. The bottom portion of the weld is cracked as is the cross-member from an apparent impact with something and it looks like someone tried to pull it out unsuccessfully. I don't weld, so my intentions are to take it about 1/2 mile to my buddy's garage, put it on jack stands, unload the front wheels/suspension and torsion bar and complete the weld repairs. Sooo any comments, suggestions, pointers? Thanks!!

                                                                                                        Matt B.

[moparmaniac59]

One thing I forgot to mention, the torsion bar fits in the housing fine and moves smoothly (no binding) within the housing. 



                                                                                             Matt B.



               

[moparmaniac59]

And the cross-member isn't cracked. The hole in the frame for the housing is extruded from the impact, and obviously that's why it was weld repaired.

[GoodysGotaCuda]

Is that from an impact or from the torsion hex twisting in the crossmember? It's also worth noting that the weld shown there didn't hold up very well..

[moparmaniac59]

Yeah, I didn't weld it. No it's not from twisting, it's from an impact, maybe a concrete parking block. I once accidentally drove over one of those things with my '73 Barracuda and it tore up my headers. I'm thinking a decent reweld and it will be fine, The other side of the crossmember is fine along with the torsion bar housing.

[Chryco Psycho]

I would weld the crack & grind it smooth & then plate over it with a slightly thicker material than the original steel crossmember & reweld around the socket this will transfer the load over a larger area .I would use a holesaw to cut the plate so it fits over the socket

[GoodysGotaCuda]

I would weld the crack & grind it smooth & then plate over it with a slightly thicker material than the original steel crossmember & reweld around the socket this will transfer the load over a larger area .I would use a holesaw to cut the plate so it fits over the socket

I did something similar when cutting up my torsion bar crossmember to fit the T56.