Was B3 Steering, Now Monkey Lads Return...

[TooManyAudis at aol.com]

The loose nuts on the ball joint are actually a pretty common  occurrence.  I 
did it myself when I last changed out the ball joints.   tightened it up 
before taking it in for an alignment... and two days later had I  the car back at 
the alignment shop because the ball joint bolts were loose on  the other side. 
 
 
the shop has been very good to me since then.  they gave me a free  alignment 
following that, then greatly discounting the next alignment (a few  weeks 
later) when it was discovered that two bent tie rods were causing all  sorts of 
problems.  I replaced the tie rods and they redid the alignment at  a very good 
discount because they took the blame for not noticing the bent tie  rods when 
I first went to their shop.
 
I do most all of the mechanical work myself, but I would certainly  recommend 
this shop to anyone else.  We all make mistakes, but these guys  did their 
best to make good on their work.  I think it helped initially  when I told them 
I had made exactly the same mistake before taking it to  their shop. 
 
-- Tom
 
 
 
 
 

>>>
Driving the car home from work last nite, some  pretty
serious thumping and banging on the right front had
started,  suggesting something was getting loose. 
After checking all recently replaced  parts, found that
the right ball joint nuts/bolts had gotten way  loose,
and the joint was now able to slide back and forth
within the range  of the adjustment slots in the ball
joint mounting plate! When I called the  fine fellow at
my local STS shop where I had the alignment done on
Friday,  his first response was that I was the guy who
had just done all that  suspension work, so.....  After
I returned from orbit following that  line, the next
one was they didn't loosen the ball joint bolts, "I
know,  cuz I was watchin' them do it".  I asked him how
they adjusted the  camber?  Him say  "if they didn't
have to adjust camber, they  wouldn't have had to
loosen them"!  I reminded him that I had  just
eyeballed the camber and the toe before I drove the
car to them (1.5  mi) and the chances I got any of
those adjustments right were zero, zip,  squa-tah.  At
that point he gave up and gave me to the manager.  I
demanded a realignment at no cost, and he  readily
agreed.

Sheesh.






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