Broke my K Frame

So the perch that the engine mount bolts to on the K Frame is completely broken on the passenger side. It has slid about an inch and a half away from it's original position, and it's pretty obvious to see the engine leaning way to the left.

Think this is possible to repair in the car? Lift the engine as far out of the way as possible, weld this thing back on?

Doesn't seem feasible to me, although a friend suggested it.

Pretty bummed out about this at the moment, but I guess as hard as I drive this car, it isn't unexpected.

If I have to take it out, is it reasonable to just hoist the engine out of the way, or do I really need to pull the engine and trans?

Support the engine and pull the k-member out. I have done many k-member repairs, but haven't encountered this issue before. I don't see where it would be that difficult, though. A bare block with the mounts attached should work to get it back. It might also be obvious where it goes...

Is it a clean break or has it chewed up the crack some? Can you get it clean enough and prepped in the car to weld in the car? Any issues getting the mig torch head in there and will it be a difficult weld in terms of the position? If it is possible to weld in the car I'd remove any ignition boxes, and voltage regulators or other electronics in the car lest the weld current damage them. I fried a voltage regulator on a mower welding up a part with a mig welder.

I would say pull it, and send to Mega Parts, I think they have a jig, and then it would be done right. They

Or send it to Firm Feel. While there, they can weld in their reinforcement bracing kit.
Is this the 383 K member or a genuine HEMI K member?

I haven't had a good view of exactly what it looks like yet. It is the 383 K Member, not the hemi one. I think once I have it out it will be very obvious how it all goes back together, I just can't imagine doing a proper job of it while it is still in the car.

I just have to come up with a good way to support the engine, and then the rest is just dropping it out.

That is not a hard to find K member. All 318 and 383 cars used it from 70-72. I am told the 440 cars had that unique skid plate but was otherwise identical.

Like this one.

I supported my engine and pulled the K-Member to repair and reinforce at the steering box mounts when I broke a steering box. Made it much easier to repair it, and there was no guessing if I had repaired all the cracks. Included a pic with the k-member out. By the way this was with a low deck, 440-1 heads and the original pro parts headers. Have since gone to a custom set of headers.

-Dave

The 70 unit is unique as it has the sway bar through the k but the steering box angle is the same as the earlier years. 71-2 the box angle changed and to use it you need the center link from those two years too then you should be ok. 71 on is the same as the e-bodies from what I've found out. Found this out when putting a 70 unit in my 65 Coronet.

Late 69 would have the same indents in the k-frame for the 70 sway bar, just no holes drilled which would be easy to do. I have a 71 k-frame in my 69 belevedere... has no issues with it.

Find another k frame, if the mount is broken, what else?

Take a good look at your transmission tailshaft while your are under there.

I agree with Pittsburghracer.....check your tail shaft while you're under there....great advice!
HR20

Ugh..!

Will do...

Good idea: I would expect the left mount to want to pull up, not so much the right one. I wouldn't worry about a new K-member, welding this one shouldn't take more than 30 minutes and you have to pull it out anyway.

Yea, my plan is to weld it, and just reinforce all the other welds.

If it can be welded, fine. If needing another K, get a hold of Moparmarks member here. Either way, I'd consider a torque strap for the final install as well.

When you pull the kframe, take it to a machine shop and have it hot tanked, less things to burn when welding. Tim

That is a great idea. I should do that next time.

That's one of the reasons I have my own hot tank, but I really need to clean it out soon.

Good advice, but won't need to. It was well cleaned out when I put it in, had it powder coated before going in.

Will just have to clean it well for welding.

Got down under the car today, and it is an ugly sight. The outboard side of the perch still looks like it is attached to the k frame, although a little hard to tell. The inboard side is completely separated from the frame, and bent down towards the engine, at least a few inches out of place.

So I'm going to have to bend it back into shape before it can be welded on. I may remove it and add a little structural bracing, just to be sure. Bent metal is bent metal...

I hope to have it out in the next few weeks, but we'll see...

Mick, if you need to replace the K-member, you want a good rust-free one. Let me know - I have a few contacts still from TX. & AZ. that should have some good 1970 K-members. From the way you describe it, I would not even bother trying to repair it.

Well, got started this weekend.

Now, you have your high tech way of doing things, and then you have your "whatever is laying around the garage" way of doing things.

I thought about buying a lift thingy that was only $60 shipped, but then I thought that after that it would just be sitting around, taking up space and collecting dust.

So, a few 4x4's, 2x4's and some chain, and here it is!

The perch is completely separated from the k frame. Don't have it out yet, but close. Wow! Busted that thing right off.

On another note, it's been a long time, and I don't have anything specific. How do I get the torsion bars out? And yes, all of the preload is off.

You should be able to remove the balloon seal and the clip and slide them back. Might take a little jacking on the lower control arm. Very slight to get it to line up. I changed the torsion bars on my Dart and seems like someone had an oil filter wrench type tool for grabbing the thing and then hammering. Fasten the tool towards the rear X member so you can swing at it. I forget now... Anyone?

Several ways to get the torsion bars out. One way is to use the control are to push the whole thing out. I have also use two u-bolts to clamp a piece of channel iron so that I had something to hit to knock them out.

Just removed mine over the weekend. Support the LCA's w/a jack, loosen both LCA pivot nuts, back off the height adjusters, and give the LCA's a whack w/hammer and block of wood rearward. The bars should pop right out.

Watch my video on YouTube about t-bar removal. The one by Roll Another One Fabrications.

Good luck finding a machine shop with a hot tank in California.

I would highly recommend replacing the whole thing with the proper Hemi K frame

This. Mega Parts will set you up. It will place the engine perfectly in the engine compartment.

Your Hemi puts out a lot of power. Too much for a 383 K Frame. You don't want to do this a second time.

You guys have a stockpile of these rare 1970 only K members? From what I understand, the 1970 model is unique, the 71-71 fits but the steering box mounts are angled slightly.

That worked well for the right side, left side I can't move at all. I've triple checked that all nuts are loose, clip is out at the back, but it just doesn't want to move. I put these bars in about 10 years ago, and the car hasn't seen weather, no rust or anything, but something is keeping that LCA from moving, or the bar from coming out.

I did check this out. I played with moving the adjuster up and down, didn't help, although I didn't work it up and down and find the middle point. I'll try that.

You need to get the pressure off the hexes of the bar and the sockets, then they should slide out. Factory bars have a bit of a helix/twist in the hex which helps to keep them in. Think of it as a fastener stuck in your socket, after putting some grunt to it, that you have to change the rotation back the other way for it to pop loose. Loosening up the control arm shaft nut, say a little less than 1/4", then thumping it back gets it unstuck from the k and helps it to rotate freely to further aid getting the bars free.

Try jacking up the LCA a bit more. You gotta find the sweet spot where it will slide out.

I purchased a 1970 Hemi K-frame from Mega Parts. They take a small or big block frame and cut the mount perches off and weld HEMI perches on. They use a jig so the dimensions are spot on. They are usually made to order so don't let the out of stock keep you from calling in. Sometimes they will require a core to be sent in. http://www.megapartsusa.com/proddetail.asp?prod=MP-HKF103

Oh, okay. Thank you for the response.

Ok, so got it out. I think the pictures below explain it all. I think my repair job will hold up just fine, let me know what you think.

Nice job, Mick! Personally, I would have used a generous bead of super glue prior to applying the duct tape. But that might be overkill...

is there something weird going on with your LCA pivot tube? the weld looks strange.

Yes, I noticed that as well. We will be going over the whole k frame, looking for any other issues, so I'll definitely take a closer look at that.

Yeah, I think so. The engine only puts out 700hp, duct tape should handle that!

But seriously folks, ee are going to repair it. It is truly amazing, just how bad these welds were from the factory and that it lasted this long. I thought about which way to go, and with the above fact, terrible welds and still it lasting as long as it did, I don't have any doubts that welded properly it will be good from here on out. We are going to go over the rest of the k frame and redo welds that don't look good as well.

From what I can tell the welder missed most of the mount perch. I picked up an A-body k-member where they forgot to weld in one of the strut rod reinforcement plates. The body of the k-member cracked behind it.

I've seen messed up control arm tubes before, they can be tricky to weld.

The last few k-members that I have done I have cut the bottom open below the pin tubes and welded from the inside. Might also make sense to open the top and weld it from the top, too.

I'm hoping it doesn't come to that. If so, may be worth just finding another one. I'm hoping to have it back from the powder coating guys, (burning the old stuff off), soon, and then we can really go over it.

I do it as a preventative measure. I'm not sure about your k-member, but the tubes did not receive much of a weld on one end on A-bodies. Here's a pic. I actually split this K-member so that I could straighten it. In part just to see if I could...

That car is a beast! Does it already have subframe connectors in it and the front frame rails tied together?

I have the US Cartool connectors, the ones that are welded all along the bottom of the floorpan. It makes a big difference!

So, here is the latest. The K frame is all welded up and ready to go. We tacked the perch on, and then I did a test fit, and it was perfect, so we finished off the welding.

I decided to stick with this (instead of going for a MegaParts hemi K frame, I have the Schumacher mounts), for the following reason. When you look at the photos, you will see how ungodly horrific the welds that held this perch on were. It's absolutely astonishing to me that as bad as these welds were, that the thing lasted this long. The welds along the seams that make the perch itself are very, very nice welds, so no worry at all there. When you compare what was there before, and what is there now, I have full confidence that it will outlive me!

I also put the FirmFeel braces on the LCA's, a few pictures of those.

We also reinforced a number of other areas on the K frame. Some welds I ground away and we redid, and some we just added in places that can only help. Pictures should say everything.

More pics:

And the last few:

WOW, some of those factory welds look like my doing!

But, I swear, I was nowhere near the the factory back then, Iowa at the time, in college.

Sooo, my welds WOULD have looked like that ...

It is scary how bad some of them were. Especially that perch. The guy knew that this was holding the engine in place, but hey, good enough, I guess...

I didn't show any pictures of the before on some of the others, but pretty bad. Hard to believe someone was hired with that lack of a skillset.

That looks much better. Great job

I've seen more sloppy welds on k-members than on about anything else.