Both of mine a bent slightly at the K-member end, but they are even so I am wondering if they were bent that way on purpose or are they suppose to be perfectly straight like A-body ones?

If they should be straight what other ones will interchange correctly?

It is an AAR if that matters.

Thanks in advance, Kevin

They're all bent slightly like you describe.

Sheldon

I ain't never did notice that on my AAR & I rebuilt the front end myself. News to me.

If they were supposed to be bent, there would be a up and down to them.

If it's a really tiny bend that you can only see on the bench or only by measuring them, I don't think it will make any difference. Especially with rubber bushings.

Need a picture to know what your talking about.

Most are slightly bent from service and can be bent back slightly with a press, no big deal.

I'll lay them out tomorrow and see if I can get a good picture of them. I did grab a set of A-body one I have sitting in the shop and they are straight as an arrow, just shorter (that's how I know they are A-body).

Thanks for the info so far.

Swing over to Bill's website: http://www.bmcuda.com/

He has a restored set on his homepage.

They are supposed be straight, just like the A body ones you have.

If both sides are bent equally, it may have been a half azzed attempt of introducing extra positive caster into the alignment. Put a jack under the strut, crank it up, it bends and shortens the effective length, you are adding positive caster by default. Swapping back to straight struts will subtract positive caster.

Its fairly common for the strut rods to have a "dog leg". My OE rods do. Some have more than others. With the dog leg the working ends are still in line... in between though, there is the dog leg. If the rod is bent by hooking a chain or wrecker, ends are no longer in line.

I have a frontend i took out of a 72 charger and the strut rods were bent on it both look the same was looking at the ones under the gran coupe were working on there stright

All the tow truck drivers I asked say yes, and if they aren't they will be glad to fix them for you.

Even my 71 B body rods were bent. Probably to clear the sway bar assay making assay easer.

Here's my thinking: If the strut was supposed to be bent, the FSM would make mention of which way to clock it on installation....it doesn't, the FSM merely says to install the strut and torque the nuts.

My observation is that the E Body strut rods are not bent, they just kinda look like it because of how they were machined.

The Rod's appear to be a forging and are not really "round". The threaded ends appear to be "offset" from the center of the rod which makes them look bent. In fact, in my case, the threaded ends are straight with each other, but the rods look funny as the thread center is offset from the rod center.

Astrobuf

Thanks for the info so far. I am convinced at this point that they are bent, I may try to straighten them but if I can to my satisfaction then I will replace them. What other car do they interchange with if any? I have a number of cars that I can borrow them from if I have a match.

I've got a set of OE rods from a 70E. They do have some "dogleg" but I believe ends are straight. PM me if you need them.

I have bent plenty of them, they were all straight to begin with...

I have several sets and they are straight. Bent ones go in the scape pile.