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curb impact! what to check? (which is now about my steel rally restore)

RobTav63

RobTav63

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Hit a patch of black ice this AM on the way to work, spun out and my back left wheel met the curb. I hit HARD! It lurched enough that I thought I might roll, but luckily she leveled out. I was less than a 1/2 mile from work, so I drove to the lot, and had no issues - handled fine, no pull or shaking or anything, but I was going slow. When I parked I saw the rim was cracked, badly (photo to come), and leaking air, and the sidewall was marred from the impact. I gave a brief look underneath and didn't see cracked shackles or anything noticeably warped or out of position. The rear end looks even to the body. I threw on my spare, but not sure if I should chance the drive home - it's about 60 miles, mostly highway driving. I'm going to crawl under for a good look in a bit, anything in particular I should be looking for? Could I have hit hard enough to crack the rim and not have disturbed anything with the rear end/suspension?

Rob T
 
easily.....

after a cursory look for cracks in springs, broken bolts or a sheared center pin (the leaf would have shifted on the perch, you'll see a clean spot).... run it easy at first, and see how it feels, if it's tracking straight, no crabwalking or funny noises, you should be fine...
 
Need more details...was it a steel rim that cracked ?..could have also bent the axle at the flange or started a crack...usually the tire takes most of the impact and cushions the blow,depending on the curb's height..

Aluminum rims are fairly weak and it don't take much to bust a hunk out of one on a side impact..
I have seen many busted right off at the spokes,still bolted to the lugs,and the rest of the rim and the tire goes for a ride without the rest of the vehicle.:eek:....put on the spare and driven home,with no serious issues present..

I have spun out my 1/2 tom K1500 a few times and once I blew the rear tire off the rim by sliding sideways into a curb--didn't seem any worse off after putting the spare on it and I drove that ruck a long time afterwards...
I'd be more concerned with a 10 bolt being wounded than a 14 bolt...the springs and shackles can absorb a lot of impact without any real damage most of the time..the rubber bushings absorb a lot of the impact..
 
Cracked rim I would not run on. Unless absolutely necessary. Got a spare? If it drives straight no vibes should be fine
 
I'm assuming it's alum, the pic looks alum... he said he put the spare on...
 
Man I need to just stay off the internet today my comprehensive ability's seem to be very low today
 
ryoken said:
easily.....

after a cursory look for cracks in springs, broken bolts or a sheared center pin (the leaf would have shifted on the perch, you'll see a clean spot).... run it easy at first, and see how it feels, if it's tracking straight, no crabwalking or funny noises, you should be fine...
Click to expand...

Thats what i say. I would feel better driving it knowing the rim broke then not to have broken at all. If it didnt break id be searching hard for what did. I say get it up to speed somewhere safe, do some wobbling back and forth with steering and just give it a good look over. Should be fine.
 
Thanks everybody.

some more info: The rims are Mickey Thompson Classic II's (which I'm pretty sure are aluminum), on a stock 10 bolt. The whole rear end is stock and the suspension is stock/OE, no lift, except for an added rear anti-sway bar.

I have the spare on, and crawled under for a better look, everything looks normal. Going to give it a quick test drive during lunch.
 
Speaking of broken aluminum rims,check out this story...

My friend had a guy walk into his shop when I stopped in for a visit saturday, saying "my car is shaking real bad--can you take a minute and drive it up the street,so I can show you what its doing ?"..
He said OK,they got in the car,and he sped off--I watched him go about 500 feet up the street,then stop,and turn around,and came right back !--I opened the overhead door to let him drive the car in the shop to put it on the lift..

He puts the car on the lift (I think it was a Dodge Cirrus ?) and he shakes all 4 wheels to check for a bad wheel bearing--one front rim was slopping around,so he grabs his air impact and tried tightening the lug nuts,bit it was still flopping around,and it was not the wheel bearing either..

Upon closer inspection,he saw as he pulled on the tire,that four out of the five "spokes" on the rim were completely separated,a large crack across the four of them--ONE spoke was still intact,and the only thing keeping the rim from flying off into space!..:yikes:...the guy said he was going "about 65 mph on the highway" on the way to the shop too!--"because it seemed to smooth out at that speed !"..
Talk about death wobble!..:eek:..
My friend put his spare one,and gave him directions to the salvage yard up the road ,told him to look for some "new" rims there !..
 
I had almost the exact same thing happen to me 7 or 8 years ago. I ended up with a bent wheel and bent axel shaft. The axles shafts was not very noticeable except when breaking it felt like a bent rotor and would sometimes lock up. I drove with the bent shaft for 3 or 4 months till I swapped to 3/4 tons with out issue.
 
and a wider shot. not so clear in pic, but the sidewall has some deformation, definitely ate a good portion of the impact

tmp_10058-cracked rim resize 2.jpg1558559240.jpg
 
I've seen pictures of folks welding up breaks like that, but I would toss that rim. Not worth the consequences of failure.

As for the tire, I would examine it closely and see if any cords appear to be broken or significantly deformed (can't really see it in that picture). If not, I would continue to run it and inspect it periodically to make sure that it isn't aging prematurely. Seeing that you'd have to mount it on another rim, you could also get the opinion of your favorite tire shop.

Glad you made it out of there in such nice shape. That could have been ugly.
 
On second thought, it looks like that tire is getting low on tread (again, hard to tell with a side shot). Maybe it's just time to replace it. :dunno:
 
I fixed this. But these are not in production anymore so finding one in my time frame was not happening

 
Yeah, I'm close to due on the tires. I was hoping to get through the winter on them, but I may just go for it now.

As for the rim, I have the other piece, but it deformed so much that I don't think I could marry it up well enough to weld it and get it into round. I've been looking all over for a match to replace it, but since they're out of production, I haven't had much luck. There are plenty of reasonably priced rims on craigslist (I dig these http://longisland.craigslist.org/wto/5396779740.html), so I may scoop up a set to roll on as a stop-gap until I can track down a matching M/T...

[edit] Anyone know how I can check the width on the rim? There's no stamp or imprint... I know it's a 15 x ? rim, 6x5.5 bolt pattern, but I don't how to check the width, save yanking the tire off and taking out the trusty measuring tape. It has a 31x10.5 tire mounted right now, so I was guessing 10"...

More important update: got her on a lift today - the axles bent, so I guess I'll worry about that first, and making the wheels look cool later, haha!
 
Last edited:
RobTav63 said:
[edit] Anyone know how I can check the width on the rim? There's no stamp or imprint... I know it's a 15 x ? rim, 6x5.5 bolt pattern, but I don't how to check the width, save yanking the tire off and taking out the trusty measuring tape. It has a 31x10.5 tire mounted right now, so I was guessing 10"...

More important update: got her on a lift today - the axles bent, so I guess I'll worry about that first, and making the wheels look cool later, haha!
Click to expand...

Your tire looks a bit wider than the rim, I'm guessing the rim isn't a 10". But that's just a guess.
 
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