I found this on my car the other day. It is where the sway bar was supported to the chassis on the passengers side. Maybe hard right turns? Not sure. I was told by a guy that has done similar repairs, that he has seen it on about 20 other Camaros and it is usually on the passenger side, to boot.

http://www.fattonyracing.com/Camaro/IMGP5288.JPG

WOWEE! Is it torn or are my eyes decieving me? :confused:

Nope. It ripped right out.

Wow! Has a certain young man been driving the 1st gen Guy? Looks like sideshow damage to me... :D ;) If you read this Ron it part of being young to be the scape goat... Kinda like letting one go when everyone is hanging out watching the tube and if it smells blaming the dog. :D who's fixing it Guy?

i'm sure david pozzi has seen this before he'll probly be able to tell you exactley what caused it. but you probley allready know.:beers:

Dennis,

Actually he had it the week before when he took the pictures up near Uvas. Perhaps it is because we have new tires on it that is what caused it. Grip is pretty awesome, actually.

I ripped out the driver side on mine a couple of years ago, fixed it, and just ripped out the passenger side last week. Need to fix the passenger side now. Both of mine just stripped the bolts out of the frame, they didn't tear the rail. I fixed the drivers side by taping a couple of wrenches together, and taping a nut into the wrench on the end, and threading a stud up from the bottom. Next time I'm just going to drill the hole out a little and fish bolts down from the top.

Any suggestions on how to fix this? I thought about running two bolts through the rail and up to the top, but now I am thinking of cutting out the section and welding in a new plate. Thoughts, please?

http://www.fattonyracing.com/Camaro/IMGP5288.JPG

To Repair this I would : 1) remove sway bar 2) Hammer old frame back to original 3) Weld tear in frame. 4) grind frame smooth. 5) Make a plate 1/8" thick or so to place over the damaged area 6) Weld plate to frame. This is just an outline. You may want to treat frame before you weld plate on and drill sway bar mounting holes etc.

We all know it has to welded so... the only question is how to beef it up so this doesn't happen again.
TJS69 has a good plan with the plate, but if you didn't want to have a plate on the outside of the frame your other option would be;
1. slip a piece of 1/2" round stock behind the tear, grind a nice groove in the crack (1/4 wide) and weld the frame to the bar.

For strength, your better off to weld a piece of flat bar (3/16 x 2-1/2") on the outside of the frame passing the crack by at least 2-1/2" each side.
Drill a couple holes so you can use your existing mounting nuts.

You can probably do all this with just removing the bolts and pushing the sway bar away from the repair area.

Good luck,

Rich

If you're not able to weld or have it welded, try this? Fabricate a plate from 1/4" flat stock that will be larger than the footprint of the area the s/b bushing brakcet attaches to. Drill & tap two holes that line up with the holes in the frame, and insert this plate inside the frame. This plate will then sandwich the frame and s/b bushing bracket all together.

Tearing out the threads in the subframe is a known problem. Tearing the frame is unusual in my experience but not suprising once a crack starts, it's going to go somewhere!

I'd close the tear, then weld it shut. Then drill out the two antiroll bar holes because the frame is swedged inward to make the threads, they stick up inside the frame and willl hit any plate you put in there. There also may be a "bump" in the frame right above the bar the plate will have to clear.

I'd make a plate as large as you can to fit inside the frame. You can shove it in from the front opening in the frame, or if a spring is removed you can slip it in from the spring pocket area. I'd make it from 3/16" plate, then weld two nuts on top of it for the antiroll bar,OR make it from 3/8" plate and just thread it, 1/4" plate would work, but it's not a lot of thickness for threads by the time you countersink each end for deburring. The idea is to spread the pull of the antiroll bar on the frame inside. It looks like this car made a LOT of hard right hand turns! Maybe freeway on ramps?

Tearing out the threads in the subframe is a known problem. Tearing the frame is unusual in my experience but not suprising once a crack starts, it's going to go somewhere!

I'd close the tear, then weld it shut. Then drill out the two antiroll bar holes because the frame is swedged inward to make the threads, they stick up inside the frame and willl hit any plate you put in there. There also may be a "bump" in the frame right above the bar the plate will have to clear.

I'd make a plate as large as you can to fit inside the frame. You can shove it in from the front opening in the frame, or if a spring is removed you can slip it in from the spring pocket area. I'd make it from 3/16" plate, then weld two nuts on top of it for the antiroll bar,OR make it from 3/8" plate and just thread it, 1/4" plate would work, but it's not a lot of thickness for threads by the time you countersink each end for deburring. The idea is to spread the pull of the antiroll bar on the frame inside. It looks like this car made a LOT of hard right hand turns! Maybe freeway on ramps?
Good Morning David ,as you stated Lots of hard right hand turns ,casual to medium driving with the Hotchkis T V S suspension (big sway bar ) will not be an issue? I kinda figured the added stress on the threads (insufficient amount for the added dia. And load put on them )would eventually pull out, but I did not think about a crack developing from the skip weld ,but the load put on that area (and G M did not probley design that area strong enough for a big sway bar )so would you agree that casual to medium driving should not be an issue??(I am at a point where I can do the fix you suggested by minimal disassembly she is still 2 ft. in the air ) Thanks for your response and always Happy Motoring :)

Finally got around to fixing the pass side. I drilled out the holes in the frame, drilled/tapped a 3/8 steel plate, ran some 1-1/4 long 3/8-16 bolts through the plate, tack welded the bolts to the plate to keep them from moving, fed an 18ga wire through the rear hole fish it through the front of the subframe, and then used the wire to pull the plate down the rail and the bolt through the hole. I think it is sitting on top of the bump inside the rail that David mentioned, any thought on how that's going to come back and bite me?

Also ran into one other problem. The original spacing between the bolts is 2 1/2". With 3/8 bolts and the Addco 1 1/8" sway bar, there is no room to get a socket between nut and the bracket. When I do it over again, I'll slot one or both bolt holes in the frame, and fab my plate with 2 7/8" spacing between the bolts.

http://www.blown.net/ls1swap/DSCF4834.jpg

http://www.blown.net/ls1swap/DSCF4837.jpg

http://www.blown.net/ls1swap/DSCF4838.jpg

I saw this original thread just as I was installing my new Addco 1-1/8" bar and it scared the stuff out of me! I made some 1/4" plates with nuts welded to them to put inside the frame. I had the springs out so they were easy to put in. I encountered the "bump" inside the frame so I milled a slot in the plates to clear the bump.I have my fingers crossed that these will work-I had never even heard of this problem before this post.

There's another thread on here somewhere about the ubolts for the Addco rear sway bar end link brackets ripping through the rear frame rails. Mine haven't had a problem yet.