Just replaced a Dana 36 with a Dana 44, in an ’84, this past weekend.

Everything went in well.

Fitted the C5 wheels and after roughing the toe and camber so as to be “close”, the Driver side wheel is ¾ further in than the Passenger [ or vice versa]?

My partner said he had a little trouble getting the trailing arms on the Driver side, but they did get on, with some moderate tugging. The thing is settled well .. “ jounced” many times.

I am saying.... “Bent Frame”. The car is stripped except for the rear quarter panels.

We will break out the plumb bob and tape, and do the measuring Saturday. BUT!!!! Does anyone know of any Chevrolet weirdness; like you have to bolt in this piece before the next? Or do this in a full moon, or in odd numbered days, or something that is an easy answer.

Other wise, to the frame shop and maybe a new frame .

To quote S. Kinison... Aaah!.... AAHH!!!!.......... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!


TJM

 

They're offset from the factory.

 

Thanks Brian, but ?? What's off set, the batwing? half shafts? Control arms???

TJM

 

Ive had my suspension completely apart like that. It took several miles of driving to settle out afterward. Give it some time. As BC said the 1/4 panels may not be exactly squared above the wheels. Mine are now .

 

I can't ell you how much I want to believe that!!!

But, .... and granted we have changed bushings and all, BUT, the rear spring does not exactly make for a " fixed object " between the knuckles, and everything else is pretty much cast in metal [ ergo: fixed dimensions].


One item I neglected to mention. When I bought the car it looked straight. Nice and square. Just like my '89 and my partner's '92.

HOWEVER!!!! the two fronts and the left rear tires are 255 the passenger is a 225. They held air, and I just didn't pay attention to POS tires.

That is better than an inch?? Wonder why? Maybe the guy in Virginia [ who shall remain nameless] just happened to have that one tire?

I think this cluck put it in a spin and backed the driver rear into a curb on some street in Norfolk?


But Brian? Still hanging on your comment? What sort of factory offsets do you know about?

Not a mention of such a thing in the Factory manual??

Still fear the frame shop is in my future.

TJM

 

The Four Dogbones and the Batwing are the only mounting points for the entire rear end.

I know that the sway bar and shocks are there....but....

So, you are saying that both Batwing mounting points are 3/4" moved over?

Something is amiss with that, I understand your fear......it's like...."what the hell could cause that?" and the worse fear pops in the Noggin

So lets eval what else would be occuring if your rear was off by almost and inch.

The C Beam would have to be over or else there would be an elbow where the C Beam and D44 meet.....but the two bolt holes wouldn't allow that, so your C Beam has to be moved over in the rear if your frame is bent like you think.

Also remember, both rear hub assemblies can be moved outward with a bit of force once the rear ball joint and half shaft u-joints are taken out.

So really at that point the only thing holding the hub assemble from moving side to side are the Dogbones....and they don't have any lateral support....

So yeah, the whole thing could move as you drive and bounce it few times.

I'm not expert, I'm just lying under mine (with the D36 sitting over there) and looking at what could be occuring with yours. When I take my half shaft u-joints loose, I just use my foot to push the hub assembly outward so that the half shaft drops.....who is to say where it comes back to when I let it loose?

 

When I bought mine (locally) it had a 225 front passenger tire and the rest were 255s. I chalked it up to the guy being a huge d-bag and being cheap as he lied about a lot of stuff that slowly came out as I spent more time with the car...
(No frame damage though.)

 

There have been a few threads on the "weird" or drastic offset on some C4s. Often people that put the wider 11" rears on their car have reported/posted that with the wider wheels in place one wheel seems to stick out more on one side of the fender panels than the other....maybe this was done by design...maybe it is as simple as the panels being off from the factory...maybe not. The frame horns that hold the ends of the batwing in place are where to look for misalignment. The rest of the rear drivetrain except for the trailing arms are attached to the diferential case. So the frame horns pretty much determine where the rear end sets under the chassis with jhammons01 as well. It is unlikely that the whole rear of the car was bent 3/4" or more to one side...if it was the C beam through bolts whould be nearly impossible to install due to the improper thrust angle and the door panel's gaps/seams would show radical misalignment. If you discover that your frame is in fact "bent" shoot me a PM and I'll offer you some info on a local (FL) Corvette specific shop that does awesome frame realignment work.

 

BTW what year was the D44 taken from?

 

I would like to hear your explanation as well Brian.

 

I cant speak for BC but what Ive seen is, the rear clip isnt glued on perfectly straight. It looks like the suspension is offset but its really the 1/4 panels. I glued mine on straight.

 

1994

tjm

 

Looking at the Factory manual, they show the Inner Side Member frame section going to a vertical frame section [ Rear Side Outer member] . The spindle arms [ trailing arms, dog bones, whichever you like] and the batwing both support to this piece of frame. One section on each side with a cross memeber between them just behind the batwing [ where the way bar tabs mount] . Pretty darn sturdy.
.
The sections basically weld at the door strike side at the bottom..

IF... the "smuck" hit a curb and cracked both side's welds, then the whole a end would be off to the right and I'd have this mess. My guess you'd feel it give under loads.

I'll have to measure the thing and see. Pop a center line and take off the dimensions.

I was hoping for something easier, but does not sound like it.

What really sucks is the question: " Do you want a repaired frame in a car doing 150mph on the track? "

I have to give that one some thought?

TJM

 

I guess it would be prudent to see if this is the case, after measuring?

Regardless, I will post the conclusions of the measurements. There are a couple dozen in the book and that should tell the tale.


TJM

 

Come on Brian, you make this cryptic statement and disappear.

What is offset and why?

 

The frame sets it up for $180.00. Pulls are $150 a pop!

Unless you have a corvette, then it's " Lets look at when it's on the machine Uh Oh.....?

So yeah, is there a Mystic, Secret, Corvette Silver bullet that is going to save me??

TJM

 

Sorry, they just are, don't know why GM did it.

I know the factory ride height are different to compensate for the crown in the road.

search function

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c4-t...isaligned.html

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c4-t...of-fender.html

 

? That almost makes sense? Almost.

The rear is designed to take care of this. I think your links prove that.

I mean it is a Chevrolet, not a $350,000.00 precession instrument and a 1/4" is not a lot.

The Mfg. tolerances can probably add up to this, but that does not make it a good receipt for driving very fast. A full inch is a lot

I wonder if there are off set Batwing bushings out there???? Should the frame check out tomorrow, that seems a quick way to correct this.

Thanks for the input. Valuable as always.

TJM

[ Geez!!! I wonder if a clutch pack is disintegrated in there??? Great!!!! something else to worry about!]

 

I own three C4's and all have some offset. After carefully inspecting mine and having the frames checked, I found out exactly what JackDidley has stated. The rears on many of these cars are bonded to the frame off kilter. It's a C4 thing. I've seen this discussed on this forum and others. The general concensus seems to be poor quality control on the assembly line. If you want peace of mind, have your frame checked, but I suspect that it will probably be straight.

 

Go out and measure any C4, you'll find that most early years have the same misalignment from the factory.