Messed up front suspension (cracks) Driver's side

[80 MONZTA]

Are there any cracks around the steering box ?

Hmmm, why do you ask this? At first I thought no, then went out and looked, uh..... yep one crack under the lowest hole in first pic.

crack A.jpg

Blurry pic, but crack can be seen under the hole.

crack B.jpg

[80 MONZTA]

Found yet another crack on drivers side. Pic should explain where it is with tip of small prybar inserted. Actually cracked all around small weld holding that section on, pulling it out like a cork in a bottle.

[AusRs]

Sorry to add to your welding .......i found many cracks around my steering box ,i welded them up and then plated over the whole area just to make sure ,also check underneath the front rail where the oval hole is ,mine also had a crack that ran around that ,way easier to weld up when you have everything out !

[80 MONZTA]

Well, I am almost glad that I am not alone with the cracks. At the same time I wonder how many are running around without even knowing they are there. My car has almost 97,000 miles on it, I wonder when they started to form? Like Ishiftem said "I'm surprised more people don't don't find similar damage". Wait a minute, I didn't know they were there before I started tearing mine apart.

[Bacchus]

Never had any cracks like that on my car, but then it only has 42K miles on it and has never been pulled like that (that I know of).

Oh, and you aren't an "official" H-body owner until you have to pull the front A-Arms. Everybody needs to go through that at least once.

[sportster96blk]

im glad to know that i know qualify as a h-body owner now that Ive found cracks and have pulled off my a-arms now to just get them back in with the farrells and new welds in place....lol

[SOHCracer]

I'm glad I checked this post. I recently just put my Astre back on the road after 15 years. It always had a clunk sound on passenger side when suspension would drop in a dip in the road. Today its more of a loud bang. I replaced lower ball joint thinking that was it but its still there. I'll have to dig deeper and check A-arm bushings and figure it out. pics soon...

[cjbiagi]

What that could be is a shock absorber topping out (fully extended). This can be a problem if the car sits a bit high and the shock is already extended past its' midway point of travel. H body shocks are supposed to have a internal bump stop, some replacement shocks do not have this feature especially if they were originally designed for another car that utilizes external upper bump stops.

[NixVegaGT]

That is really great stuff, Pappy. I love this joint. Really smart solution:

http://www.ballisticfabrication.com/For ... _1636.html