[V8] I'm so sick of fixing things I paid others to fix

[MendezWerks]

That stinks. Good luck.



On Nov 12, 2009, at 6:57 PM, "Ed Kellock" <ed.kellock at msn.com> wrote:

> My black 93 had issues with it's steering rack.  The mounting spot  
> on the
> driver's side was cracked.  I had a shop weld it.  It cracked  
> again.  They
> welded it again.
>
> It's been about a year and the steering was feeling loose again.  The
> steering started loosening up again and the steering wheel wouldn't  
> always
> be straight after a turn.  This was happening to either side.  I  
> realized it
> wasn't renewed cracking recently when I was in a gentle curve and  
> went over
> a pavement seam and the steering wheel readjust itself in my hands  
> by about
> an eighth of a turn.  I was pretty sure that was a loose rack mount or
> something.
>
> So I went in today and found loose rack mount bolts, all 3 of them.  I
> started to tighten one of the pair on the driver's side and it  
> wouldn't
> torque to the proper spec but didn't feel stripped.  I backed it all  
> the way
> out and found that someone had used a bolt without a shouldered head  
> and a
> split washer.  As I "torqued" the bolt I was actually drilling into  
> the rack
> material with the split washer.
>
> I started looking for a flat washer and magically found that I just  
> happened
> to have a pair of brand new shouldered bolts of the exact dimension,  
> though
> a little longer than necessary.  The only thing they didn't have was  
> the
> ribs on the washer surface to keep it from backing out.  I used blue  
> loctite
> and torqued then to 40 (spec is 37).
>
> Prior to doing this I had loosened the passenger side mount to allow  
> the
> rack to be torqued down on the driver's side without trying to  
> narrow the
> bodywork.  I torqued it down at the end and all was well.
>
> I had a helper at just the right moment and found that there is  
> still some
> looseness in the steering system. The rack end of the driver's side  
> tie rod
> has almost no bushing left in it.  However, the steering feels  
> tighter than
> it ever has.  I do need to recenter the steering wheel now which  
> leads me to
> believe that previously the driver's side rack mounts were most likely
> torqued with the passenger side tight, which may very well have  
> caused the
> cracking in the first place.
>
> I also found a big silicone blob around the hall sensor on the  
> passenger
> side distributor.  It's running fine, so I'll tackle that another  
> day with
> some JB Weld.
>
> Of all the V8's I've owned, this one contains the most evidence of  
> monkey
> lad attention, by far.
>
> Ed
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