[Healeys] Chassis Damage/Failures -- was: Re: Digest N0.4, Enquiring minds want to know

Bob Spidell bspidell at comcast.net
Fri Aug 20 07:31:05 MDT 2010


I'll add my own.  My BJ8's front left wheel had been crunched by a PO, 
probably by a curb or parking stop.  I'd always known that the the A-arm 
brackets were bent back a little, but saw no other damage and it drove fine.

I was underneath the other day and happened to notice that the welds on 
the inside (engine side) of the rear bracket  were slightly torn towards 
the bottom of the bracket.  The adjoining chassis metal was also torn 
and I saw one small crack.  At first I thought that the fairly recent 
addition of a larger sway bar had exacerbated the original damage, but 
when I looked closely the injury looked to be older (but it's sill 
possible the larger sway bar contributed).  I re-welded the bracket to 
the frame.  It looks to be a good repair, but I'll keep my eye on it.

In addition, I've had to weld up cracks on the shock tower mounts--these 
are fairly common from what I hear.

These accounts suggest we should get under our cars--preferably on a 
rack--and inspect the chassis closely.  That's why I started this 
thread--to hear what other owners have encountered so we know where to look.

So far:

- shock tower mounts
- A-arm brackets
- chassis rail behind shock tower (but could be anywhere)


bs


Alan Seigrist wrote:
> I nearly had my BJ8 chassis collapse on me when I hit a very severe
> dip in the road which created a crack on the rail just behind the
> shock tower...
> It was welded up and has been fine since, The guy was a good welder.
>
> Alan
>   


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Bob Spidell           San Jose, CA            bspidell at comcast.net

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