"DeepDiver" wrote in message
...

It will be impossible for you to gather any meaningful data based on the
drivability of your current (damaged) bar, because you will never know the
true spring rate of that bar. Since it will have been subject to plastic
deformation (twice: once when damaged, and once when "fixed") and possible
heat treatment/tempering in the course of your bending it back to shape,
you'll have no clue as to the properties of that (now non-linear) spring.
It
certainly won't behave anything like an identical, undamaged bar.

It's unlikely that it will show any difference in elastic twisting after
being bent back. Young's modulus is a property based on the inherent
material property and the geometry of the part, not on residual stresses or
temper condition, in steel and most other metals. It probably will be as
linear as it was before bending -- up to the point of plastic deformation.
If there's a kink in it now, though, it will depend on how the bar is
supported when it's loaded.

--
Ed Huntress