Suspension damage?

[sparco431]

hey

so i just recently hit a curb pretty hard that my rim broke and yea (avoiding accident). so i finally got a new rim and i put it on and everything. but now when i drive and i make a turn it feels like the steering wheel completely dumps and turns to that direction. but the clutch is coompletely normal. can this be crank walk?? i heard its more common in the second gen 4g63 motors. but this is going on in my 420a. what do you think the problem could be? something in the steering line has been broken??

appreciate it

 

[97 4G63]

Did you take a look at your suspension?
like lower control arms ?make sure they did not get bent from hitting the curb.
That could be a problem.

 

[interex]

How did you come up with "Crankwalk" from what you described? I'm having a hard time trying to figure that out.

 

[joe sobo]

i doubt it is crankwalk buddy. also, i dont think hitting a curb is a symptom of it either

 

[97 4G63]

It's not crankwalk im sure it's just suspesion work that needs to be taken care off

 

[AiR]

I am 99% sure you bent your lower control arm, dont worry these arms are designed to bend in the event of an accident to avoid subframe damage whatever side you hit I would check Your lower control arm is the piece that looks like a boomerang has a ball joint on one side that bolts to your knuckle and another that has two 17mm bolts through it that go through your subframe and into the unibody of the car.

EDIT: You can pick these up fairly easy at a junkyard or search the classifieds or ebay in the $50 range

 

[97 4G63]

So yeah ...(AiR) is another member that khows that the lower control arms are gona fu%# up when you hit a curb..

 

[sparco431]

ooooo alright thanks guys, is this something i can do myself?? or do you need special tools that a mechanic would have. cause i got a good mechanic that doesnt really charge that much.

 

[AiR]

Ya I learned it the hard way although when i hit my curb it was from me being stupid. I had to replace all 4 rims cause they no longer made the ones I had and couldnt find them, my front bumper broke and also my lower control arm bent.

ooooo alright thanks guys, is this something i can do myself?? or do you need special tools that a mechanic would have. cause i got a good mechanic that doesnt really charge that much.

Very simple to replace If you are tricky you might be able to do it with the car on the ground and the wheel on.

If it were me I would jack the front up remove the wheel, take the one bolt off the knuckle, Sometimes the ball joints are a super PITA to get out so get a hammer or pry bar something to smack it out pry it out. then take the two bolts out on the other side and it will drop down. Install reverseof removal except its way easier to get the ball joint back into the knuckle

 

[97 4G63]

ooooo alright thanks guys, is this something i can do myself?? or do you need special tools that a mechanic would have. cause i got a good mechanic that doesnt really charge that much.

Well if you don't have any mechanical skills then i would just pay to get it done.
But no you don't need any special tools. just a jack,17mm socket and a rachet and other sockets i just don't remember all of them.

 

[sparco431]

yea its kinda dark here right now and when you go out side it smells really bad from the fires. so tomororw morning ill go take a look at it. cause im sure its the lower control arm. and ill prob order one and put it in soon hopefully. is it unsafe to drive like this for the time being???

 

[97 4G63]

I could not tell you it just depends on how bad it is.
But i would not drive it because it will probally wear out your tires big time.

 

[sparco431]

yea i wont take the chance

 

[DSM1G90]

Yea, I smaked into a curb with another car that I had, and really bent up things underneath - had to replace strut, lower arm, tie rod, wheel, and straightened the frame.

 

[sparco431]

wow, i hope i dont need to change alll of that

 

[DSM1G90]

..and to add: that was in the dead of winter. I either had a choice of having a head on with a huge Buick Road Locomotive driving down the middle of the road in a snowstorm, or go into the curb and miss this huge levathan. Obviously, the curb was the safer choice, but I had my wheels cramped to miss and I slid into the curb square with the wheel and everything went up under.

I managed to get the car home..slowly..since my steering was horribly loose. Took it to an alignment shop and they showed me the damage done. Had to file an insurance claim to repair all what was busted.

 

[sparco431]

yea thats the same situation as me, i was driving and i was going on the turn at my street, and a damn camaro was drifting the turn and was coming at me head on at about 40 and i was going lik 30-35 so to avoid the head on i just turned into the curb fasttttttt