I haven't seen this topic discussed lately so I thought I would bring it up.
About a year ago I had a set of Dale Ak....i springs installed on my car.
While on the lift I noticed evidence of cracks on the frame just before the
front spring eye. The mechanic said he would try to weld the cracks which I
knew would be a temporary solution at best. A few months ago I heard some
banging noises from the rear of the car mostly from the drivers side.
Thinking maybe the panhard rod had come loose or the spring had come unbolted,
I jacked up the car and didn't see anything loose. Checking the frame I
noticed a rust hole in the same area where the crack occurred. Poking around
the hole with a screw driver made it much larger. The frame on the other side
had the same problem but to a lesser extent. All the info I can find
indicates the driver side has the problem worse than the passenger side for
some reason. It may be caused by a hole punched in the outside edge of the
frame on the drivers side and it lets in water. The passenger side lacks this
hole. Here is an example of a catastrophic failure : (search for Sunbeam)
http://www.universitymotorsltd.com/projects_archive/2005_12_01_archive.html
This problem is not only for the rust belt cars. It seems all cars have this
issue. A good write up is found here :
http://66.175.58.218/tech/Rear_Spring_Mount_Tip.pdf To fix the problem you
can buy a ready made kit from: http://www.tigerengineering.net/ I had a
frame shop install this kit since I do not have a lift or welder. Or you can
do it your self using a patch like this :
http://www.sunbeamtiger.co.uk/index2.htm The last write up is borrowed from
the CAT Shop Notes.
Jeff
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