What did I bend?

[BeautifulDisasterSho]

Hey guys,

I unfortunatly hit a tall curb last week on the passenger side of my 93 SHO on a left turn. During this, my drivers side rim got bent out of shape because both tires went over the curb while the wheels were turned to the left. From what I can tell the steering alignment is way off. If I straighten the steering wheel forward the drivers side looks ok, but the passenger side looks as though it's turning right. It's noticable. Do you think it's just a bent tie-rod? The tie-rod actually looks strait on both sides up until the inner boot. No steering fluid gone.

Also, I have more noticable damage on the passenger side. The wheel is bent in from the bottom, like if the control arm was bent to all heck. The thing is, I dont think that the control arm is the only thing bent if at all. Could I have bent the whole spindle/knuckle? I'm thinking I bent that itself, which is such a solid peice of metal.

One more thing to add in, the shock obsorber on the passenger side slid down the spindle about a 1/4 inch because you can see the non greasy blue shock.
What do you think I bent exactly? I also need the names of the parts that could be bent?

Thanks for any help.
-Doug

 

[Ishodu]

You could have bent the strut.

 

[SHO Continental]

if the knuckle isn't in the same place on the strut you may have broken the tab. also the control arms are pretty strong, they might still be alright, but I'd look at your strut rods too.

 

[BeautifulDisasterSho]

Oh, to add in. I did notice that the drivers side coil-over is alot more vertical than the passenger side. Yes, almost as if the shock/strut rod was bent. Good info. Anything more, just let me know.

 

[NWGRN94MTX]

You will have to rip it apart and look closely. Control arms, tie-rods, struts, spindles and subframe. Mike and I fix a 92 the did a curb hop and we replaced everything but the spindle. Subframe tweaked, control arm tweaked, tierods tweaked, Rim, tire and strut totaled. And a good thing the spindle wasn't damaged as it was a TCE custom for a 12.5 TCE kit. That would have been spendy! I have seen bent spindles though.

 

[BeautifulDisasterSho]

The best I can describe the damage is it looks as though the the bottom of the spindle is ok and the top was pulled out, and the shock pulled out with it. Hard to imagine if I hit a curb, which you would think the bottom would collapse first in that case.

I'm trying to avoid taking it apart as of now. It's 21 degrees out and it's in the driveway. I'm getting ideas so I know how much work this will be. I know one of you probably mentioned what's wrong with it.

 

[SHOrespect]

I did the same thing that you are explaning. I barely slid into a curb and now my front passanger side wheel is slighly bent in and my alignment is way off. I was hoping that I would just get my wheel re-aligned but it looks like it might be more serious than what a first thought.

 

[Shoaz]

It could have bent or moved the subframe. It sounds like several things may have happened, but they're all fixable.

 

[BeautifulDisasterSho]

Yeah, I ended up bending the whole spindle so I just got another one from someone on the forum. Saved alot of money by doing that because the spindle costs about $275-375 new. I have not yet put it back together because I'm waiting for a new balljoint/control arm to come. That alone should take care of the bent wheel.

Alignment is a different story I'll just have it aligned, if that's the case.

My drivers side shock tower is rubbing on the tire and has not moved down the spindle.. ?? Does anyone know how to fix this?