I noticed something strange to me the other day on my camaros and I'm trying to make heads or tails of it. This is a very long story so I'll spare you all and just give you all the highlights.

I bought an 89 camaro that was built for drag racing, salvaged title, 355 hi-compress, th350, 12 bolt with welded spider gears (I know...very bad idea, I didnt do it). But whats odd is that when you look a the rear of the car the whole rear end seems to be shifted to the left side of the car. Well, I have another camaro that was stock and i took all the stuff out of it, and put the drivetrain out of the 89 into this car. Now the 12 bolt sits straight and the stock rear end thats in the old, salvaged title chassis is shifted to the left. Why?

First I thought the 12 bolt's axels were not the same length, but I measured them and they are the same, and as I said the 12 bolt sitting in the car with the good title is straight/centered. But no matter which rear end is under the other chassis that was drag raced, it sits to the left as you are facing the rear. It didnt have any support (SFCs or cage).

So my question to all you drag race junkies out there with these cars is...have you ever heard of this happening? Did the chassis get twisted on a hard launch and permanentaly shift the rear end towards the driver side? Or is it possible that when the car got totalled that it got so screwed up that thats why its off set? I'm just trying to find out if I need to stiffen the other cars frame (the one with the good title) before I get on it real hard.

 

It's very possible that the frame is twisted from being launched at the track. It could also be from being totaled since it has a salvage title. You would probably have to get it on a frame machine to verify if/where it is tweaked. Or it could also be as simple as the pan hard rod being the wrong length. When you raise/lower these cars it forces the rear end out from underneath the car due to the arc motion that it follows.

With all that aside though, you should get a set of subframe connectors for your car with the clean title. These cars aren't the strongest thing and they do twist on a regular basis. The subframe connectors will tie in the front and rear of the car to make it rigid enough for most things you would want to throw at it.

Welcome to Thirdgen.org, if you search around there's a lot of good information on here

 

if the rear of the car is level, and the axle is off to one side, it sound like the panhard bar, behind the axle, is missing, bent or broken.

probably a better starting question, what suspension does the car have? Stock style or ?
how is the 12 bolt in the car? is it a bolt in one from strage or moser? or is it something else modified to fit?

 

Ok, thanks for the help. I went and checked it out yesterday and sure enough the pan hard bar on the salvaged title car is all bent up. Near the end where it bolts to the chassis it has a bend in it AND it twists backwards. WTF? How did that happen?

It has the stock suspension (coils, LCAs, torque arm, sway bar, and panhard bar). The 12 bolt came out of a 68-ish Chevelle and the necessary brackets were welded on to it. When I checked the car with the good title (where the rear end sits straight) the panhard bar was straight, no bends or twists.

So now that i know why the rear end was sitting crooked, let me ask this...any body have any idea why that panhard bar was in such bad shape? Is it the same speculation as before: track use? I was already planning on buying that nice p-bar from spohn for the car with the good title that everything is going into, just to be safe, but i'd still like to know if anyone else has had this problem and knows why it got bent/twisted.

Thanks for the assistance.

 

Panhards bend from side impacts

Side sliding into a curb or doing dounuts and hitting a pothole...

If the car doesnt have enough power to tear up the stock LCAs or torque arm them it surely wont have any effect on the panhard

Either the 12 bolt swap was botched or he hit something