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- Aug 31, 2006
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- Home of the Plow Special
I wasn't sure if I should post this here, or in the "things that kill my cub time" thread, because it really qualifies for either. Frankly, it's kind of an embarrassing story, so maybe I shouldn't be posting it in the first place!
So the short story goes, the daughter was headed into town (about 15 miles) to go to an appointment. At the last minute I decided to tag along to run some errands while she was at her appt. So we get into town in the Merc, I drop her off, and take off to run some errands. I get no more than 400 yards away, hit a big bump, hear a loud "POP!" and all H*LL breaks loose. While doing 30mph, the car comes to a GRINDING halt right in the middle of the lane of traffic with a cloud of tire smoke!
As I get out of the car (we're near a shopping mall, so it's a 4-lane road...45mph speed limit, with a WIDE concrete median dividing the 4 lanes) traffic starts instantly piling up behind me. As I'm waiving traffic behind me to keep them from slamming into the back of the car, I look at the front wheel and see this...
Bottom line the ball joint literally came apart while driving down the road. Ugh! Here is the view from the tow truck. (Haven't ridden in one of those for years)
All loaded up.
At that point it was just best to have it towed home so I could figure out what the heck I was going to do with it.
That afternoon I started tearing off old parts. Here's a close up of what the lower control arm looks like without a ball-joint.
Ultimately I ended up removing the ENTIRE front suspension as the lower A-arm bushings can be suspect on these cars. Both upper and lower A-arms, both shocks, as well as both inner and outer tie rod ends came off.
About a week later, the parts showed up from rockauto.com. They make something called a "front end kit" for these cars that includes all upper and lower arms (with ball joints), as well as inner and outer tie rod ends. I added in new front shocks for an entirely new front end.
As I mentioned, this was not only somewhat scary, but embarrassing. I'm somewhat of a car geek, who likes to keep things nice. Having major components of a vehicle fall off WHILE GOING DOWN THE ROAD is not some I would like to experience, or worse yet, have my family experience again! So, how does something like this happen. Well, this car exhibited no symptoms of a "loose" front end and drove just great with one exception in that it seemed like there was a bit of stiffness right at the "on center" point. I had researched it and found that the steering shaft coming through the firewall and going to the steering box runs very close to the exhaust manifold and will rust up (slip joint and U-joint) to the point that it begins binding. I had already replaced that part, but thought the dead spot in the steering was still part of that faulty design, I was wrong it wasn't. The issue was that the ball joints were dried up. This one looked like you poured black tile grout in it and let it dry. What used to be grease inside each joint was a dry hard crust.
Ultimately the car got put back together and is back on the road (driving like a dream now!) but it's definitely a learning experience for anyone driving an older vehicle. If there is ANY tightness or binding in a steering system, have it checked out!
So the short story goes, the daughter was headed into town (about 15 miles) to go to an appointment. At the last minute I decided to tag along to run some errands while she was at her appt. So we get into town in the Merc, I drop her off, and take off to run some errands. I get no more than 400 yards away, hit a big bump, hear a loud "POP!" and all H*LL breaks loose. While doing 30mph, the car comes to a GRINDING halt right in the middle of the lane of traffic with a cloud of tire smoke!
As I get out of the car (we're near a shopping mall, so it's a 4-lane road...45mph speed limit, with a WIDE concrete median dividing the 4 lanes) traffic starts instantly piling up behind me. As I'm waiving traffic behind me to keep them from slamming into the back of the car, I look at the front wheel and see this...
Bottom line the ball joint literally came apart while driving down the road. Ugh! Here is the view from the tow truck. (Haven't ridden in one of those for years)
All loaded up.
At that point it was just best to have it towed home so I could figure out what the heck I was going to do with it.
That afternoon I started tearing off old parts. Here's a close up of what the lower control arm looks like without a ball-joint.
Ultimately I ended up removing the ENTIRE front suspension as the lower A-arm bushings can be suspect on these cars. Both upper and lower A-arms, both shocks, as well as both inner and outer tie rod ends came off.
About a week later, the parts showed up from rockauto.com. They make something called a "front end kit" for these cars that includes all upper and lower arms (with ball joints), as well as inner and outer tie rod ends. I added in new front shocks for an entirely new front end.
As I mentioned, this was not only somewhat scary, but embarrassing. I'm somewhat of a car geek, who likes to keep things nice. Having major components of a vehicle fall off WHILE GOING DOWN THE ROAD is not some I would like to experience, or worse yet, have my family experience again! So, how does something like this happen. Well, this car exhibited no symptoms of a "loose" front end and drove just great with one exception in that it seemed like there was a bit of stiffness right at the "on center" point. I had researched it and found that the steering shaft coming through the firewall and going to the steering box runs very close to the exhaust manifold and will rust up (slip joint and U-joint) to the point that it begins binding. I had already replaced that part, but thought the dead spot in the steering was still part of that faulty design, I was wrong it wasn't. The issue was that the ball joints were dried up. This one looked like you poured black tile grout in it and let it dry. What used to be grease inside each joint was a dry hard crust.
Ultimately the car got put back together and is back on the road (driving like a dream now!) but it's definitely a learning experience for anyone driving an older vehicle. If there is ANY tightness or binding in a steering system, have it checked out!
