69 Chevelle Muscle Bar hitting frame

[WallaceMFG]

Hello,

I wanted to see if anybody else had seen this before. We've had the car running since May and have put about 1,200 miles on it. It has been to several autocross events with only one small issue. The instructions for the Muscle Bar say to use the existing sway bar mounts for the muscle bar, but with an extra hole added. We followed the instructions exactly, and we ended up having one of the mount bolts pull the threads out of the frame. We got that fixed with new bolts and nuts inside the frame to strengthen the mounts (PITA to get in there haha). We noticed that the frame had scratches in the powdercoat on the passenger side where the sway bar is close to the frame, but we assumed it was from the other issue and didn't worry about it. However, we've started to notice that there is sometimes a clunking sound from the front end when backing the car up or occasionally when going through parking lot entrances. I looked under the car and the scratches on the passenger side are worse, and there are some small marks on the driver side as well.

I have not contacted Ridetech yet, I just wanted to see if anyone else had seen this before. I know there is quite a bit of variation in these old frames, so there may be no fix. I don't think I can space the Muscle Bar ends out farther because I am already getting wheel rub at full lock, so spacing the ends out farther would make that problem worse. If I have time I'll try to get some pictures so people can see what I'm talking about.

Thanks for the help,

Nelson

[WallaceMFG]

Here's some pictures I was able to grab last night. It should be pretty obvious where the problem area is.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2015/11/20151118_183453_zpsixf96eev-1.jpg (http://s44.photobucket.com/user/hondaman117/media/20151118_183453_zpsixf96eev.jpg.html)

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2015/11/20151118_183500_zpsbxcxxyxd-1.jpg (http://s44.photobucket.com/user/hondaman117/media/20151118_183500_zpsbxcxxyxd.jpg.html)

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2015/11/20151118_183520_zpsk8bzglpp-1.jpg (http://s44.photobucket.com/user/hondaman117/media/20151118_183520_zpsk8bzglpp.jpg.html)

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2015/11/20151118_183530_zpsuuksxjey-1.jpg (http://s44.photobucket.com/user/hondaman117/media/20151118_183530_zpsuuksxjey.jpg.html)

[andrewb70]

Maybe it's because the bolts are loose on the driver's side?

Andrew

[SSLance]

I was just going to mention the same thing. Not sure why it is so hard to keep those bolts tight, twice now I have had to use blue loc-tite on them to help keep them tight. Before the loc-tite, while racing last year after I put the bigger center section on my Musclebar, I carried a tool with me to grid to tighten the bolts after each autocross run.

[WallaceMFG]

Maybe it's because the bolts are loose on the driver's side?

Andrew

I noticed those were loose, but it was hitting the frame right after I had tightened them before. Like SSLance mentioned, for some reason they don't want to stay tight even with Loctite. I think I'm gonna see if I can run a longer bolt and put a nut on the back side, I think there's enough room on the back side.

I talked to Bret Voelkel yesterday at the Good Guys and showed him my pictures, he's not entirely sure what's causing it, but gave me a few suggestions to try and even mentioned he could make me a new bar center section that is just a little longer than this one if I really wanted it. I'm going to try some of the things he mentioned before I have them make a new bar an see if it fixes the problem.