hit curb straight on

[davejaw]

serious damage. my '89 240sx fb wouldnt turn when i turned the wheel. it locked up and made a rattling noise.

i know i need to replace the control arms, and on one side, the wheel moves and grinds the inside of the fender. when i jacked it up, i saw that the rod in front of the control arm was broken. can someone tell me what these are called? t/c rods?

if i hit the curb at the force that would actually break the rod, would it be likely there was something else damaged? something i wont be able to fix?

Thanks

[Jeff240sx]

Originally posted by davejaw
serious damage. my '89 240sx fb wouldnt turn when i turned the wheel. it locked up and made a rattling noise.

i know i need to replace the control arms, and on one side, the wheel moves and grinds the inside of the fender. when i jacked it up, i saw that the rod in front of the control arm was broken. can someone tell me what these are called? t/c rods?

if i hit the curb at the force that would actually break the rod, would it be likely there was something else damaged? something i wont be able to fix?

Thanks

Nice drivin' there, Tex. And yea, if you can break a control rod, you have definatly fuxored up a ton of stuff.
-Jeff

[Yoshi]

do a search for my thread about my encounter w/a curb. I'm sure it's much the same stuff. I got 90% of my parts to fix it from PDM.
:/

If you hit hard enough to snap the T/C rod(s) better get your frame checked.
Good luck.

[Dousan_PG]

yeah check out the entire front suspension/steering rack. good luck!

take it to a frame shop if you bend/broke stuff. if you hit that hard, its bound to do some permanent damage

[Strider]

Been there done that... hah
when i hit the curb, i messed up my rack n' pinion, control arm etc, and the frame. Don't do what i did! a lot of people have told me they bought aftermarket parts from PDM-racing for a lot cheaper then the OEM parts that the garage place sold me. its worth the wait to order the parts, trust me.

[davejaw]

thank you very much for the inputs. when you bent the frame, isnt that permenant damage? how much were all the parts? labour cost?

[Dousan_PG]

labor? no labor, do it yourself. its easy. bolts and such
frame work that's where the labor/money is. call shops to get quotes.

YES there can be permanent frame damage. so you need to take it to a frame shop to find out.

[Strider]

well when i took it to the frame shop, the guy charged 45.00 an hour to straighten it out. I forgot how long it took, and how much...but i remember the car was gone for almost half the day. But i do remember it was expensive. Go to one of those lil shops, that need the business. You can almost always negotiate a price.

[davejaw]

im really new at this though. im learning as i go along, im willing to learn, but this will be the first repair i do by myself. seems complicated. i dont have the tools or the service manual.

would a newbie like me be able to do it? i know i have to replace the stuff, but what about the alignment? camber?

[Dousan_PG]

you can replace the suspension parts yourself. its REALLY easy. just have basic sockets and breaker bars, liquid wrench and a FSM is always helpful. FSM for you specific year and car is bset, but a cheapy one like those at autozone work too.

you must msut get an alignemtn at a shop afterwards. maybea local person to you can assist you! im sure we got some NM people on this board!

[Yoshi]

It really is very easy. If you have a metric socket set and some metric combo wrenches (you'll need 17mm-10mm). It helps to have a couple of each wrench, but not req. if you have the socket set. A dead blow hammer is also helpful to get bent parts to cooperate, and maybe a torque wrench.

here's a scan from my FSM, disregard the circled items, the pic was originally to show a guy what parts I wanted from him :)
http://www.360realms.com/PartsNeeded.gif

The scan isn't the greatest, BUT it shows quite clearly the exploded view of how it all goes together, it's VERY straight forward for anyone even mildly mechanically inclined.

tools to do this job, even if you don't already have them are really cheap. Go to Harbor Freight if you have one (or check their website, www.harborfreight.com ), that's the cheapest route for you, if you want super high quality tools, get snap-on or craftsman (admittedly I've broken some of my harbor freight tools, but they're all lifetime warranty, so I just get new ones ;) hehee)

If you get a repair estimate on your car, I wouldn't be suprised if it was over $2k when all is said and done, it's MUCH more worth while for you to try to do this yourself (plus the sense of accomplishement you'll feel will be tremendous!)

Keep your fingers crossed you don't have to replace your crossmember like I did! And be sure to get an alignment when you're done.

If you have any questions as you go, let us know! Best of luck.

[davejaw]

alright guys. ill go ahead with the repair then.. good way to spend my spring break =) thanks for all the help..

so i know i need the control arms. whats the name of the bracket in front of the arms? can i get them somewhere online? would i need an entire fsm too? or was that scan enough to go off of? should i get new struts?

[Yoshi]

Originally posted by davejaw
alright guys. ill go ahead with the repair then.. good way to spend my spring break =) thanks for all the help..

so i know i need the control arms. whats the name of the bracket in front of the arms? can i get them somewhere online? would i need an entire fsm too? or was that scan enough to go off of? should i get new struts?

Honestly, the only way to know for sure it to tear it all down and see what's bent up. Hope you've got a garage or some other covered area to work in, it'll take a couples days most likely. I got most of my parts from Don (www.pdm-racing.com) you might check with your local nissan parts dept. and compare prices.

I think the brackets u mean are the Tension Rod Brackets? like in the pic (one of the circled ones)?

[davejaw]

i believe so, it completely snapped off so the wheel is moving around freely in the wheel well.. touching the inside of the fender when i brake