Close Call - Check This Out

[evill]

I was driving my 77 911 home from the office today when I had a mechanical failure and near disaster. I was traveling approximately 75 mph, when traffic slowed suddenly. I applied the brakes fairly hard,but not panic stop hard. As I slowed, I felt a pop in the steering, the car darted to the left, the wheel(s) locked billows of blue smoke and I had no control of the steering. The left side tires were riding against the divider curb, steering the car and keeping me from crossing into the express lanes on RT-80. I stopped and got out of the car to find the drivers front tire pointing out to the left, the steering wheel and right tire were pointing straight. The drivers tire was also pressed backwards into the rear of the wheel well.
Luckily, 2 guys in a flatbed, who were checking out my car as I passed them, saw the whole thing and stopped to assist me. We loaded the 911 onto the flat bed and got it home.
While it was still up on the flatbed, I looked to see what went wrong. I thought a tierod had snapped,although they are new 930 types. What I found was the front torsion bar mount tore out of the under carriage. The metal is clean fresh and shiney, no rust or rot. This car has only been on theEast Coast, in a garage, for the past 3-years. It came from San Francisco, where it spent it's lifedry nad rust free.

So, have you ever seen this happen before?

How do I fix this correctly? I can weld them backk in, but I want to attach them to all the support layers, not just the bottom one.

Advice needed and appreciated here.

Thanks,
Ed

[livi]

Jeeeesus !! I am real happy to hear you are at least physically all wright.

Can that really happen ? Just out of the blue. Crazy.

Please, let us know if you manage to find out what caused it.

[Fishcop]

Looks like your bushes have bound over time and fatigued the surrounding metal at the thread insert... doesn't look like a rust issue.

[Zeke]

Originally posted by Fishcop
Looks like your bushes have bound over time and fatigued the surrounding metal at the thread insert... doesn't look like a rust issue.

A good assessment, IMO. The original rubber ones do tend to "work" that piece, whereas the replacements take away the rocking stress. Still, that should not have happened.

When I replaced my front pan, I wasn't happy with the way those nuts were attached and did some more recreational welding on and around them. Could this car possibly have a new front pan even tho it was said to be high and dry all its life? I mean, that metal is really too clean for an old car.

I, too am very happy this wasn't worse. I had a similar incident in a 1 ton Chevy dually (BJ separated). What a ride that was!!

[evill]

Zeke, I have done auto body most of my life and I can say without any doubt that there are no repairs on this car. The front suspension pan is original.

The rubber bushings could really stress this area that much?

Ed

[Fishcop]

Ed, may I suggest you contact TRE (Dave or Tyson) as I believe they have posted about similar issues in the past.

I did a search but couldn't find, a thread relating to similar damage that Tyson identified as having occurred through bad lubrication of a plastic after market bush that effectively seized at that front pivot point. The result over time was constant rotational/pivot stress at the two lateral fastening points of the forward section of the A arm. Tyson suggested that the entire pan had become some kind of flexing spring before fractures occurred and the anchors tore free.

Do you know if your suspension bushes are after market or the original rubber?

It is not a direct or lineal pivot line between the front and rear attachment points. I think this is another aspect to Chuck Moreland's polybronze arrangement, in that the revised mounts he produces have spacers to remedy this factory anomally and help to produce a "straight" line between the attachment points (and thus produce a smoother A arm action). What I am getting to (sorry about the waffle ) is that if the front bushes seize; there is enormous stress created at the point where your A arm has effectively sheared away. So yes, I think it is possible that this is what has caused your problem.

On the bright side... if this is the problem, then a good welder should be able to repair your pan without replacing the whole section (as in a rust repair).

Good luck (though you might have used that up with your safe control of what could have been a disasterous event )

[2.7RACER]

This is a double post. Can it be joined with the other post?

[Fishcop]

Cross post link

Close Call - Check This Out

[randywebb]

OK - yesterday a poster had his alternator shaft shear right off; today this...

What's going on with our cars all of a sudden? I guess I'm glad mine is still in the paint shop and not driveable...

[island911]

shear coincidence?

(ducking)

[Fishcop]

[tracka]

Damn, your lucky that did not happen when there was nothing between you and cars doing 100+km/h. go buy a lottery ticket.

I had a rear diff seize a few years ago doing about 120km/h. was not a pretty sight and luckily I have had a heap of defensive driver training and was able to control the car

[Wayne 962]

Freaky, although with the car properly loaded, I would think that the force would be acting upwards on the floorpan, minimizing this issue...

But I guess if the bushings freeze, then all bets are off...

-Wayne