A couple of weeks ago I nailed a curb turning a little to fast and fished tailed it into a curb. My passenger side rear end smacked the curb, denting the bottom of the wheel in, shifting my entire differential housing a foot to the left (passenger side wheel completely inside of the wheel well, driver side wheel completely sticking out), bent my passenger side rear axle, and busted the weld on the track bar completely open which was now barely holding onto the bushing.

I've replaced the track bar, upgraded to Alloy USA axles, and replaced the old wheels with Cragar SS wheels and BF Goodrich Radial T/A's. P215/50R15's in the front and P265/50R15's in the rear (not tubbed).

The problem. I noticed that my driver's side rear wheel sticks out just a little more than the passenger side, causing my fender to cut into the sidewall tread whenever I'm driving through dips and turning right. I know that isn't right and I'm wondering how I can shift my rear end to the correct position so that I won't have that problem. The other problem is there is shifting going on in the back whenever the weight of the car shifts. It sounds like a clunking noise. I think that when the entire differential moved from the hit, it cause the spring mount up top to break. Everything at the bottom end looked fine.

Would anyone happen to know or have any ideas of how I can fix this or what else might have been damaged that I couldn't see or wouldn't expect?

 

Did you check the panhard bar?

 

Yeah, I replaced the panhard rod (track bar, same thing) with one from a GM dealer. Brand new, never used.

 

What about the panhard support, and where it mounts on the body side??

How was the axle tubes and control arms and springs and everything?

 

The support looked fine. The axle tube was surprisingly not bent and the control arms were shifted over but once I torqued up the track bar, they shifted back. They didn't look bent up either. The spring on the driver's side almost came off but I just took a screwdriver and hammer and gave it a single tap and it moved back into position.

 

I would say the upper panhard/support assemble is damaged. If you replaced everything and the wheels are still off, then this is the problem. Look at the support bracket on the driverside, make damn sure its not pushed over, and see what the upper rod looks like as well.

Take a pic too if you can

 

I'll be putting it in the air tomorrow to see what I missed. I'll take pictures too.

 

Haven't had a chance to check it out yet but if everything goes as planned, I should have it up Tuesday.

 

You should check your lower control arms really closely!!! I know someone who bent his autocrossing and he didnt even hit anything. That pushed his axle about 1 inch to the drivers side. Global west makes an affordable set and they are easy to install... Good luck!!!

 

I'll definitely have to check that out. When I was bolting up the new panhard rod, I had to have a friend wiggle the driver side wheel back and forth in order to get the panhard bolt in between the rod and the top of the differential housing holes.

Thanks.

 

I checked it out today and the clanking noise is now gone. When the passenger wheel hit the curb, the inner wheel well had bent in causing the spring to rub up and down on the inner well.

The torque arm appeared to have a crease in it near the differential and the lower control arms look fine but I will replace them anyway.