Left and right radius arms the same? Or did I bend them? (1 Viewer)

[xetura]

I bought some radius arms a month or so back locally so I could do a bushing refresh on them without having any downtime on my rig. Fast forward to today, I hooked up a 32 ton air jack to my 12 ton press to press them out. They came out, but then after the last one, I noticed they were both bent to the side. So now I'm afraid I either bent them (is that even possible?), or the guy sold me two radius arms of one side, OR they're fine and I'm just freaking out for nothing haha. I searched for pictures of them side by side from the top, but couldn't find any.

 

[xetura]

I found these two threads with top views (pics below): thread 1 thread 2, but the bends don't look as dramatic as mine do. Not sure if it's the angle or my imagination, but it definitely seems like I have two of the same side...

 

[scottryana]

Those are bent

 

[xetura]

Those are bent

Yikes.... my "genius" plan to save money by doing this myself just blew up in my face. Thanks for letting me know.

 

[Kernal]

Maybe I better pull out my spare set of used arms to check, just put them up
and never looked that closely at them.

Does this happen often and can they be straightened, apply heat and a big press or??

 

[xetura]

Maybe I better pull out my spare set of used arms to check, just put them up
and never looked that closely at them.

Does this happen often and can they be straightened, apply heat and a big press or??

I'm assuming I didn't position the metal plates correctly on the press and should've had them as close as possible to the bushing that's being pressed out. I had them further apart to support the arm. I can bend them 'back', but I'm assuming they'll never be 100% straight after I decided to light $120 on fire.

 

[SpenserAK]

Considering you have a landcruiser, if all you lit on fire was $120, I wouldn't sweat it much. But dang... oops!

I had never thought about this - just checked mine, and they are both straight.

 

[BILT4ME]

Press them straight and install them.

I'm guessing you didn't bend them.

They should both be straight, not a left and right.
I'm guessing there was a collision on the truck that they came from.

Dud you install your bushings in the proper orientation or just install the new ones how the old ones came out?

 

[clx16]

I'm assuming I didn't position the metal plates correctly on the press and should've had them as close as possible to the bushing that's being pressed out. I had them further apart to support the arm. I can bend them 'back', but I'm assuming they'll never be 100% straight after I decided to light $120 on fire.

So when I press in bushings I press in to cups that are sitting on the plates. The bushing ends up in the cup below the arm. I don't press between the plates. It is a mess to support long and heavy items on the cup but you don't bend them up. Attaching a ratchet strap to something above so you can "hold" the other end up and adjust height helps or if you have an adjustable height cart etc to set the other end on, it makes the job a lot easier.

 

[mudgudgeon]

$120? chalk it up to the price of learning.

Trust me, if $120 is all you burnt learning to wrench on your cruiser, it's not an expensive education if you don't repeat it

I'd be a little hesitant about straightening them and using them myself.

 

[xetura]

Press them straight and install them.

I'm guessing you didn't bend them.

They should both be straight, not a left and right.
I'm guessing there was a collision on the truck that they came from.

Dud you install your bushings in the proper orientation or just install the new ones how the old ones came out?

I'm going to try and straighten them, but we'll see how it goes.

I didn't install the new bushings yet. I saw the arms were bent after pressing the old ones out.

So when I press in bushings I press in to cups that are sitting on the plates. The bushing ends up in the cup below the arm. I don't press between the plates. It is a mess to support long and heavy items on the cup but you don't bend them up. Attaching a ratchet strap to something above so you can "hold" the other end up and adjust height helps or if you have an adjustable height cart etc to set the other end on, it makes the job a lot easier.

Yeah, this is what I was thinking about doing as well. I'm going to head back to the metal shop and see if they have any scrap piping that's close it size (slightly bigger, of course).

$120? chalk it up to the price of learning.

Trust me, if $120 is all you burnt learning to wrench on your cruiser, it's not an expensive education if you don't repeat it

I'd be a little hesitant about straightening them and using them myself.

Yup, not terrible when I think about it, just mainly disappointed that I didn't think this all the way through. I think I got caught up on modifying/welding the press itself to fit the new jack and rushing things. Im going to try and straighten them, but I doubt I can get them perfectly straight. That and the strength is now weakened.

I really appreciate the encouraging words, everyone! I'm being pretty hard on myself about this haha. I love this community.
Thinking about it more, I'm glad these weren't my ONLY radius arms, that would've been way worse.

 

[clx16]

I think I ended up finding something at Lowes or home depot in the plumbing area that I used. I would bet you can bend them back. I am cheap and would run them if I got them back to straight but I make a lot of questionable decisions that others would not. I don't have a single vehicle with less than 200k on them and I have an 80 series. Take that for what it is worth

 

[Broski]

Just pull the good ones out of your rig and put the new bushings in them.
In a pinch I would run them, but I have replaced ones that were not that bent !

 

[PIP]

It's no issue at all to bend these arms or bend them back.

You see that giant 1/2" wide parting line all around the arms?

That means they were forged.

Any grade of steel that can be forged and also cut with a file can be formed cold without repercussion.

I have bent several sets of 80 series arms the hard way to fix caster. I straighten out the curved part so they grow about 1/2" longer then I bend them right at the thickest part to get a few degrees more caster. Takes about 60 tons to do it over a 6" die opening.

Most arms I have done this to are also bent different from one side to the other. I have one known good stock arm I use a reference to see how messed up others are.

 

[Broski]

It’s my understanding that each time you bend metal it weakens it.
That’s why your not supposed to straighten tire rods they just bend easier next time.

But to each their own

 

[Malleus]

It depends on whether it was ever worked prior to you working it. If steel has been hot forged/bent/shaped/etc., you can bend it (cold work), within reason, safely. If it was cold worked prior to you working on it, it has residual stresses in it, and although it can be cold worked again, you have to know what you're doing.

I agree with @PIP, bend it back and go one, or you can take a chance on removing the new bushings, and pressing them into your old arms. I'd go with @clx16's recommendation, though. That's the right way to press bushings into anything. You only want to support the area immediately surrounding the hole.

 

[Broski]

It depends on whether it was ever worked prior to you working it. If steel has been hot forged/bent/shaped/etc., you can bend it (cold work), within reason, safely. If it was cold worked prior to you working on it, it has residual stresses in it, and although it can be cold worked again, you have to know what you're doing.

I agree with @PIP, bend it back and go one, or you can take a chance on removing the new bushings, and pressing them into your old arms. I'd go with @clx16's recommendation, though. That's the right way to press bushings into anything. You only want to support the area immediately surrounding the hole.

The bent arms never got the new bushings, they were bent removing the old one.

Why bother if you have a good set.

For me personally I would prefer to have unbent arms.

 

[PIP]

It’s my understanding that each time you bend metal it weakens it.
That’s why your not supposed to straighten tire rods they just bend easier next time.

But to each their own

There's formulas and maths for this stuff.

Here's an example to consider-

Your bolts in your vehicle, All of them, started out as alloy steel wire. That wire started out as a poured steel billet about 6"x12"x10ft long that was sized through rollers hundreds of times before it was coiled up and sent to the cold headers.

Cold headers are the name of the companies that make bolts. They use cold headers and plate rollers to smash your bolt in one hit then roll threads on the shank.

All this is done cold. No heat.

So the connecting rod bolts in your engine are 4340 chromoly (or similar) wire that has been stretched and formed cold hundreds of times before being smashed under hundreds of tons to form a hex and the threads holding it in place were put there by displacing material from between the threads.

Now your radius arms are forged of something like 1018. They probably start out as 2 or 2.5" round bar stock before they are open die forged into radius arms in a couple operations. They don't go through hundreds of cold forming operations like your bolts did. They go through zero.

Yes, bending/forming weakens material past a certain point, but that point is after a considerable amount of cold working.

You can bend your radius arms ,cut them apart and weld them back together again. It can all be done safely provided you use the right process for what you assume the material to be. We know roughly what the material is because of what it's used for and how it's made.

 

[mudgudgeon]

There's formulas and maths for this stuff.

Here's an example to consider-

Your bolts in your vehicle, All of them, started out as alloy steel wire. That wire started out as a poured steel billet about 6"x12"x10ft long that was sized through rollers hundreds of times before it was coiled up and sent to the cold headers.

Cold headers are the name of the companies that make bolts. They use cold headers and plate rollers to smash your bolt in one hit then roll threads on the shank.

All this is done cold. No heat.

So the connecting rod bolts in your engine are 4340 chromoly (or similar) wire that has been stretched and formed cold hundreds of times before being smashed under hundreds of tons to form a hex and the threads holding it in place were put there by displacing material from between the threads.

Now your radius arms are forged of something like 1018. They probably start out as 2 or 2.5" round bar stock before they are open die forged into radius arms in a couple operations. They don't go through hundreds of cold forming operations like your bolts did. They go through zero.

Yes, bending/forming weakens material past a certain point, but that point is after a considerable amount of cold working.

You can bend your radius arms ,cut them apart and weld them back together again. It can all be done safely provided you use the right process for what you assume the material to be. We know roughly what the material is because of what it's used for and how it's made.

Clearly you have more knowledge than me.

There's quite a few qualifications and provisionals in that post.

For a critical suspension part, I don't think I'd take the chance for me, my family, and others on the road, even though some dude on a forum says it'll be all good. (Not saying you're wrong)

Even with what you posted, most of us wouldn't be able to make an educated assessment if the integrity of the material was compromised with a few bendings.

Radius arms have been known to bend and break on the trail, without being tweaked a few times in a press too.

Sometimes a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Sometimes it just looks/sounds redneck AF without being a problem.

 

[PIP]

Clearly you have more knowledge than me.

There's quite a few qualifications and provisionals in that post.

For a critical suspension part, I don't think I'd take the chance for me, my family, and others on the road, even though some dude on a forum says it'll be all good. (Not saying you're wrong)

Even with what you posted, most of us wouldn't be able to make an educated assessment if the integrity of the material was compromised with a few bendings.

Radius arms have been known to bend and break on the trail, without being tweaked a few times in a press too.

Sometimes a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Sometimes it just looks/sounds redneck AF without being a problem.

It isn't voodoo magic, but you are correct that you maybe shouldn't modify critical suspension parts without some understanding of what you're doing.

There are hard rules of reduction percentage used in forming metal, but I'm struggling with how to explain it well in a way that relates to bending 80 series radius arms.


The op is very safe to straighten his bent arms and run them.