My front suspension is shot!!!

[Don Tomczak]

So I acidently, and yes I mean accidently jumped my truck. Not a whole bunch, but enough to screw crap up. I tore the lower valance off, and bent the fog light brackets. The problem is that no the truck it having some problems. The front drivers side tire is tilted with the botom left of the top, kinda like this...\. and the other side is opisite, like this.../. I know that I will need an alinment, but will I also need new struts? Should I try to do them myself, or take it in? I have acsses to air tools and jacks. I do have basic experiance with vechiles, mainl under the hood though. I have never touched the suspension at alll before. What are your thoughts? Should I do it?

 

[Todd Z]

Your truck does not have struts, it has control arms, I am willing to bet you bent them or bent the frame bad.....



Looking at some major $$$ my friend...



First stop, body shop to confirm the frame is straight, then suspension shop to replace all the bent parts....



Don't be surprised if the tie rods and hub bearings go bad down the line too...



Todd Z

 

[Richard Toms]

LOL accident, thats no good. Kind of sounds like you bent the tie-rod ends or even the ball joints. Not totally sure. The way you describe it, sounds like its sitting without a motor in it. An alignment is a must, but who knows what else. Um, there is also no struts. Front suspension, is like torsion bars, lower/upper control arm, and shock basically.



Could ya maybe get a picture to better describe. A few will chime in with better stuff, but a picture could show us, if the damage is worth trying to fix on your own or not.



Good luck with your repairs.

 

[EddieS'04]

Might have also damaged the torsion bars.

 

[Scott Heckler]

OK I have to ask - how do you " I mean accidently jumped my truck" ? What exactly happened?

 

[Benjamin Feinstein]

I was going to ask the same thing. To do that much damage it would have to have been more then a little jump as well.

 

[Kevin Palmer]

Like Todd says, get to a shop so they can tell you exactly what is wrong, then post back here as we will be able to help you much better...

 

[Brian Wolf]

How to accidently jump a vehicle when in Ohio:



Nice straight, not too busy 2 lane road...

Speed limit 55.

Nice road, Drive 75.

Miss the sign that says RXR 25MPH.

Almost like a ramp going on the tracks.



Almost done it myself, Luckily caught it in time.



Could be a possiblility on how he did it.

 

[Tom Schindler]

The proper way to jump a car.



Car # 1 needing the jump, car #2 giving the jump.



Connect the positive jumper cable wire from car 1 to car 2. Connect the negative jumper cable wire to the ground of car 2. On car one, connect the negative to a metal pert of the engine block. (this will prevent the possibility of a fire from the battery gas) Wait 10 minutes, then start car 1.



Remove cable opposite how they were hooked up.





Tom

 

[Chad Merry]

I will be removing the torsion bars and all brackets for the torsion suspension Friday night. My Fox coilover shocks are finally here, so they will be put on in place of the torsion bars. Let me know if you need them.



Chad

 

[Don Tomczak]

I will take some pictures and post them up in an hour or so. The frame and lower A arms looked straight, just like the suspension is conpresed. The tires travel in a kinda of arc instead of straight up and down, so they look like they are simply compressed. I will take a straight edge with me when I take pictures though just to make sure everything is good.



No for the good part, how I jumped it. I decided to take a short cut behind a couple of other bussiness, following about a block behind a few other trucks doing the same thing. It was a muddy, empty lot. I saw the trucks bounce a little, but nothing to big from a block away. As I was about to exit the lot, there was a BIG mud pit that looked a little deep. Not wanting to get stuck, I gave it a little extra gas. At the end of the mud pit it went up a little and stated to dry out. On the other side there was a sudden drop off that was muddy and made bigger by the other trucks. By the time I saw the drop off, and hit the brakes it was too late. The front of the truck went over and slammed down hard. I in no way ment to do it, thus I addcidently jumped the truck.



Chad, If I end up needind new T bars, I would love to take yours off of your hands.

 

[Johnny O]

Probably bent control arms.

 

[Becker69 CO]

I'd figure you bent a tie rod or both in addition to one or both your shocks. I would be kind of surprised if you bent a control arm depending on how much air you got. If you think you got more than 8 - 10 inches of air (and depending on your speed @ the time of impact) you may be looking at control arms and ball joints. Depending on how deep of mud you got into, you might be looking at getting the front diff serviced although it doesn't sound like you hit that deep a pit. Actually, the fact that you hit the breaks hard may have damaged more than if you hadn't... depending on the angle you were turning the wheel if any.



Dude a cell phone and/or cb and $40 worth of tow strap and D ring will save you almost any time you need to throttle it to clear a short bog.



Chad... FOX coilovers??!! Man you don't mess around. Why not just SAS for the cost?!!

 

[Becker69 CO]

Did you bust grease out on your cv's if it's a 4x??? If you're 2x , check your spindles for stress fractures.

 

[Mark Grumpy]

Tie rods will not cause a camber issue, which is what you describe with / and \ Tie rods cause the wheel to roll straight, or not, and creates toe in/out issues when bent, loose or misalligned. The first thing you should look at is the camber bolts. Especially since you have an older model. If it has ever had a camber kit installed you may simply need new cams and bolts.



grump