possible frame damage

[Germanshepherd]

just found out my jeep was in an accident about 2 years ago. when I bought it the steering wheel was off center about by a foot. they were not able to align it or straighten the steering wheel because the lower control arm bracket was bent way out of shape. once they got that fixed, they were able to straighten the steering wheel and also do an alignment.
my questions is, if the vehicle was able to be aligned, is it safe to assume the frame is not bent.

 

[xxdabroxx]

Hard to say. You could take it to a body shop that does frame work and they should be able to tell you if it is straight.

 

[StG58]

Probably not a safe assumption. The frame can be checked for square and damage at a good body shop though. For that matter, you can crawl under there and check it yourself as well. Grab some chalk, a plumb bob and string, a clamp and mark spots from the frame to the driveway. Measure them out and that will tell you if the frame is square or not. A tweaked frame can be straightened on a frame machine. Last I checked it wasn't horribly expensive.

Edited to add: If it's within a quarter of an inch of being square, I wouldn't sweat it.

 

[Germanshepherd]

thanks ...

 

[XISophos]

You can also check the square of the frame by locating two fixed points that are relatively a decent distance apart on one rail, and then finding the the same exact mirror locations on the other side. I usually used suspension bolts or the like because you know they will be in the same fixed location from one side of the car to the other. Then measure cross-ways from the front point on one rail to the back point on the other rail. Then repeat on the other side. If the measurements are the same for both, then everything is square, if not you have what we used to call a diamond in the frame. Usually this occurs when you have a heavy impact on one rail from the front, or the back.

If you have a buddy in the autobody field, you might be able to talk them into printing out the frame diagram, and usually it will give some specifics in measurements, and what the tolerances of those measurements can be within to maintain spec.

We also used simple hanging gauges that I would assume any body shop would still use for quick assessments (this was in the 90's) that could show you within reason whether your rails were level, and show through a vertical center pin on each gauge how centered your line down the middle was.

Hope this helps!

 

[bobthetj03]

Not sure if this would be helpful. Out of my service manual...

 

[XISophos]

Nice! That's exactly what I was talking about! You'd be amazed how much you can get accomplished off of that sheet and a bubble level on a frame rack.

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