Torsion bar mounting points- how do you know if they're ok?

[MRGTX]

My father has had his share of A-bodies including two Dusters that he loved but it has been 35 years since he has had one of his own.

Whenever I mention my interest in upgrading the suspension and tires, he reminds me that as soon as I start hammering my Dart around corners, components are going to break, likely starting with the 44 year old torsion bar mounting points. He could have a point.

My car is pretty rust free and has lived a relatively easy life but it does have 140,000+ miles on it. It's not hard to imagine that there could be fatigue in this area.

How do you guys address this before upgrading the torsion bars, etc?

Any suggestions are very welcome.

 

[Lucky Dart]

Structural corrosion could be inspected by a body shop. We have a bore scope, and a seer snake that we can inspect inside rails. Also look for metal fatigue, cracks, spot welds popped etc.

I hope this helps. Go upgrade and have fun!

 

[MRGTX]

Thanks, Lucky Dart!
That makes some sense.

How common are occurrences of fatigue and cracks?

 

[340 demon 72]

Classic industry's has torsion bar Weld in caps in process of putting the on my car they will definately fix any rot issues in that area

 

[CHEATHAM]

add some welding to the exsisiting overlapped metal that is spot welded, and maybe make some big gussets to enforce that center crossmember that the torsion bar ties into

 

[273]

Hammer

 

[RustyRatRod]

If they are not layin on the ground is always a good indication.

 

[RogerRamRod]

I just got done welding 1/8" plates with 2" holes to the back side of my cross member as a precaution

 

[72bluNblu]

I gusset the torsion bar anchors on all of my cars. I use 1/8" plate, weld the plate to the crossmember and then the anchor to the plate. If I'm adding frame connectors and torque boxes etc it's good insurance to gusset the anchors as well.

On A-bodies I think this is even more important. Not sure why, but it seems like the A-bodies didn't get the same quality of welding as some of the other styles, especially at the torsion bar anchors. The welds on the anchors on my '74 duster were horrible, very cold, not a lot of penetration. And there are more than a few cases were the torsion bar anchors have ripped out or twisted on A-bodies, no rust required. By comparison the welds on my '72 Challenger and '71 Satellite were MUCH better. My '71 Dart is better than my Duster for welds on the anchors, but not as good as the E or B body. Maybe my Duster is just a bad example, but there are more out there. I went over the factory welds and then added the gussets on top of that. The factory welds were pretty crappy.

This one, the thread is here http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/attachments/torsion-2-jpg.294070/

And this one, which is in excellent shape, no rust, darn near new looking. Just a really lousy factory weld. Look what I found...

I've seen more but those were the easiest to find. The crossmember is prone to rust as well as it can trap dirt inside, and even a crossmember that looks decent from the outside can have a lot of rust inside. A bore scope might help some, but there are internal gussets and even the torsion bar anchor itself inside the crossmember itself that make seeing everything difficult.