A Near Catastrophy

[John Burke]

Yesterday, when pulling out of my MIL's driveway, the front end made a noise and started pushing gravel.....Nancy got out and looked and the front wheels were both pointed inward......The drivers side tie rod had come unbolted and dropped put of the steering arm.....WE had just come back from town and Nancy thought the car was handeling funny...Thank the lord it did'nt come undonewhile we were doing 65 down the hiway....I just can't understand how that came loose what with a cotter pin and all....anyway I found a Jesus nut to fit and got it together enough to get home.....WE also noticed another tie rod that looked loose as well as the pitman arm....Tues. It goes to my Mechanicic for a complete look-see at all that stuff....I am wondering if the power steering is to much for the old Dodge linkage???????...still fighting the cancer.....wends another heavy duty chemo.....starting to lose my hair now.....I go every 3 weeks...so I have 1 bad week and 2 preety good ones.......took the hotrod for a run this afternoon.....Lord was that great.....Nancy does all the driving as she does'nt trust me enoufg to do it.....Thats OK I can lay back and look cool....John

[55 Fargo]

John, glad to hear you didn't have the tie rod connection fail at high speed, someone is looking after you 2, thats for sure.

Sorry to hear you are still not feeling well, and I hope things get better in the coming days, all the best to you and your Family John, take care..............Fred

[TodFitch]

Never heard of a nut coming off if the cotter pin was properly installed....

Best of luck with the chemo. Seems like the people with a positive attitude do best and you obviously are one of those.

[greg g]

John great to hear from you. You folks have been on my mind a lot lately, wondering how things were coming. Your last post was regarding your upcoming medical situation, so I was wondering how things were. Good to hear you are up and about, even though its only in the co pilots condition. But a ride in the country is good for the constitutuion either way. Good luck with your continuing treatments.

[BobT-47P15]

Glad to hear you are out and about, John.

You can be the "back seat driver" now.

Sounds wierd about the steering.....hope the mechanic can sort it out.

Best wishes for success of your treatments. Bob

[Don Coatney]

John;

It was good to talk to you on the phone a couple weeks back. Glad to hear you are out and about hot rodding again. Dont worry about hair loss. You have a lot to lose:D

[randroid]

John,

Could the tie rod have been vandalism? Like others have said, that is an odd problem. Or, as Dezeldoc might say, you need to add more caster. (That's a joke because I've never even met the man but I like his philosophies and can imagine him coming up with something like that.)

Lady Lynn has amazed her surgeon and radiologist by not only surviving two flavors of cancer but living today without a trace of anything resembling it, and believe me they're looking for it. I hope all of your 'inconveniences' will pay-off for you as they have for her because it CAN happen. We will share a prayer for you tonight whether it's necessary or not because deep down inside we honestly feel the prayers from the members of this forum and from many other friends we've never met made a difference in influencing an angel to kiss her.

-Randy

[michael.warshaw]

baruch hashem

[James_Douglas]

John,

I had a discussion with a man, and several other people, at a recent car show on this subject. A cotter pin disappeared and the nut came loose on a tie rod on his car. He noticed the odd steering and checked it before the nut came off.

There was commentary to the effect that most of the cotter pins at the retail auto parts stores are cheep stuff that has replaced the higher quality standard stuff of the last 50 years.

I did some Internet searching on this topic and have found that others have had issues of late with retail cotter pins.

I have decided to order a complete set of cotter pins from a known manufacturer with pins that meet some kind of quality specification. The other alternative is to order an aircraft safety wire plier and a spool of safety wire.

I am glad everyone is fine.

James

[Normspeed]

I was just thinking about you today, wondering how you were doing. Great to see your post. I'm glad the tie rod chose to let loose at that particular moment. Odd that it would come undone with a cotter key installed.

Take care,

[knuckleharley]

John,

I had a discussion with a man, and several other people, at a recent car show on this subject. A cotter pin disappeared and the nut came loose on a tie rod on his car. He noticed the odd steering and checked it before the nut came off.

There was commentary to the effect that most of the cotter pins at the retail auto parts stores are cheep stuff that has replaced the higher quality standard stuff of the last 50 years.

I did some Internet searching on this topic and have found that others have had issues of late with retail cotter pins.

I have decided to order a complete set of cotter pins from a known manufacturer with pins that meet some kind of quality specification. The other alternative is to order an aircraft safety wire plier and a spool of safety wire.

I am glad everyone is fine.

James

Most likely the typical result of Chinese "metallurgy". It should be illegal to even sell anything from China in this country. There were airplanes falling out of the sky a few years ago because of counterfeit Chinese bolts that were improperly graded. It was a very big problem that was starting to get some press,and suddenly you heard no more about it. Thanks no doubt to our wonderful State Department and politicians who didn't want to embarrass China because so many of them get millions of dollars from the Chinese.

[Don Coatney]

My dad left me a huge cotter pin assortment from the 50's and earlier. I still have several of them. Last time I bought cotter pins was in the 70's and this was before I got my dads collection so they should be clean. I am set for life as I shoulod never have to buy another cotter pin.