So....I took Fred to get new tires put on today - Ed story time!

[AR67GTX]

I can’t stand to take my cars to any shop for anything. I had new tires mounted last week and I put the car up on jackstands, removed the wheels, removed the Mag500 center caps, put all 4 in a utility trailer along with 4 new tires and hauled it all down to a tire store to have the new tires mounted and balanced. Another reason is my old car still has the LH lug nuts on the driver rear but not on the front due to replacement hubs and drums I installed years ago. I figured it would be a loosing battle trying to explain that to the mechanic and I might end up wig some busted studs or something.

Then after applying red line stripes and blacking out the white walls on the inside, and installing the wheel caps I put ‘em back on the car and hand torqued the lug nuts. And then I realized my toe was off since the last time I aligned it so I’ve spent a good part of the last 2 days in the garage crawling around on the floor checking/ adjusting as necessary - camber, toe and caster. I’m kind of pooped too.

 

[T Brashears]

Took the 65 to the tire shop around the corner from where I work for alignment before we started bodywork. Someone was pulling it out and ran into the wall of the garage door. Bumper,left fender,headlight bezel,front door,damage to rear door and quarter panel in front of the wheel. They told me the engine stalled and they couldn’t stop or steer it. The engine ran great,never stalled,and I had just driven it 16 miles to work. Oh,and it was manual steering and brakes! I asked for the bill,they didn’t charge me and their insurance paid for it. They had done alignments for me in the past including my girlfriend’s AAR to my specs. I won’t mention their name,I also won’t go back. A friend and I realigned it at his shop .

 

[moparedtn]

Took the 65 to the tire shop around the corner from where I work for alignment before we started bodywork. Someone was pulling it out and ran into the wall of the garage door. Bumper,left fender,headlight bezel,front door,damage to rear door and quarter panel in front of the wheel. They told me the engine stalled and they couldn’t stop or steer it. The engine ran great,never stalled,and I had just driven it 16 miles to work. Oh,and it was manual steering and brakes! I asked for the bill,they didn’t charge me and their insurance paid for it. They had done alignments for me in the past including my girlfriend’s AAR to my specs. I won’t mention their name,I also won’t go back. A friend and I realigned it at his shop .

Damn. man....geez!

 

[moparedtn]

All these horror stories stated here (and my own experiences at public shops) are exactly why I do all my own work on my cars including changing tires, balancing, and alignments. Something goes wrong, its nobody's fault but my own.

View attachment 1750669View attachment 1750670

I gotta get me one of those.
As in - all of that, including a shop addition big enough for it.

 

[moparedtn]

Well, it turns out that the alignment isn't....just....quite.....right.
Fred now wanders gently from side to side, with very little centering feel to him at all.
He favors the right just a tad, which I slough off to road crown mostly.
Also, that right front tire has a bit of a vibration at 60mph or so - same one that tried to leave the
car, remember?

So....back we go to the tire joint again this morning.
I might even be persuaded to adjust the steering box a tiny bit for slop....maybe.
Yes, I'm well aware of the possible pratfalls associated with that.

 

[Don Frelier]

Well, it turns out that the alignment isn't....just....quite.....right.
Fred now wanders gently from side to side, with very little centering feel to him at all.
He favors the right just a tad, which I slough off to road crown mostly.
Also, that right front tire has a bit of a vibration at 60mph or so - same one that tried to leave the
car, remember?

So....back we go to the tire joint again this morning.
I might even be persuaded to adjust the steering box a tiny bit for slop....maybe.
Yes, I'm well aware of the possible pratfalls associated with that.

Ed,

Before I even take it there I would jack up the tire in question, place a jackstand with a pointer to the outer rim edge and check for runout.
(The wheel might be bent at the lugnuts)

Sounds like it's toed out a bit that will make it wander.

 

[moparedtn]

Ed,

Before I even take it there I would jack up the tire in question, place a jackstand with a pointer to the outer rim edge and check for runout.
(The wheel might be bent at the lugnuts)

Sounds like it's toed out a bit that will make it wander.

As it turns out, it was what I thought (about the alignment favoring the right side) - seems the young man
did indeed put a bit of "right" in it. Something about "if you pass out when driving, the car will naturally want to
wander off to the right shoulder" horseshit....
I made it known in no uncertain terms that this was NOT acceptable, that I wanted the alignment dead nuts straight -
and I wanted a touch of toe in for a return to a stronger centering nature, which he did; caster and camber remain in spec, too.

Fred has now returned to his dead straight nature; it even feels like there's less slop in the box, which the alignment
affects more than I suspected. I've had more than one guy comment on how straight the car is and how naturally it
tracks down the road and that has now returned, so I'm happy there.

As for the balancing, we took both front wheels off (which meant I got to go another round with those ^&%#@ center cap
retaining bolts) and balanced them again from scratch, with me watching like a hawk this time.
The balancing guy mentioned that there are limits to the "static" balancing he was doing (which he explained was putting
weights on the inside of the rims only; he didn't want to put them on the chrome outside rim), but nonetheless, the little
almost harmonic chattering the front tires were doing was all but eliminated this time around.
I wrestled the center caps back on, gave them an extra grunt on tightening...
Once back on the car (with me doing the torquing on the lugs once again), the "after" test drive was MUCH improved.
Now it's all about breaking these Coopers in (and monitoring early wear vs. the tire pressures I'm running).
Finally, the more I look at them, the more I like choosing to mount them white letters IN - it's in keeping with Fred's
decidedly grouchy/sans gingerbread nature, methinks.
I hate to be "that guy" that's so picky and brings his car back, complaining....but this time, turns out I was right to do so.


Fred looks proper from 20 feet away, eh?

 

[RemCharger]

Glad to hear it worked out.

As it turns out, it was what I thought (about the alignment favoring the right side) - seems the young man
did indeed put a bit of "right" in it. Something about "if you pass out when driving, the car will naturally want to
wander off to the right shoulder" horseshit....

This is not horseshit.

 

[moparedtn]

Glad to hear it worked out.

This is not horseshit.

Explain.

 

[T Brashears]

I wanted a new driveshaft for the 65 after the engine swap. Had one built at the shop that’s been doing our work for 30 years.
Installed it and started feeling it at 45,by 65 it was a paint shaker. Took it back,said they rebalanced it. Paint shaker. So I took it to another shop and just had them check it,the front end was pressed in crooked…It was out .025 at the front,.018 in the middle,the rear was none that mattered. I had them fix it and the other shop covered the cost$160.

 

[dart4forte]

No mention of you talking with the manager or general manager. Missed a teachable moment. All the employees should of been pulled together and briefed on the importance of attention to detail. ATA minimum the two squirrels that did the work should have been pulled aside. How do you align a car with loose wheels?

 

[not so famous bob]

Ok, back from the tire joint ....FINALLY....
Can't nothing be easy in this life anymore, I swear.
I'm exhausted - and I don't work at that store!

In chronological order:

Trunk full 'o' snakes! Off to the tire store Fred goes....
Not terribly busy - and I do have an appointment at 1pm for the alignment, so...
Removal and teardown of the wheels and tires commences, with me unbolting the center caps
personally.
(Answer to associated trivia question on cap retainer bolts: 3/8" socket, 1/4-20 threads BTW)
Old BFG's came off easily, new Cobras went on fine too - and balanced well, I was told...

(Here's where the trouble started....)
The wheel/tire combos start coming back to the car, where I await my turn at reassembling the caps back on.
As I got each done, I leaned the tire against the drum on Fred it corresponded to - and soon enough, a young
man came along to install it and supposedly torque the lugs.
(As I later was to discover, that part of things didn't quite get thoroughly done...conjuring images of a Ron White
routine, if you know which I'm referring to...)

Not knowing any better, I allow the car to be taken to the alignment bay next to us:

The instructions to the alignment tech were the same as last time I had Fred in there, some years
ago: check alignment, pull diagonals and most importantly, let's work up a list of steering/suspension
components in need of replacement (of which I was almost certain there would be).
Results? NO components in need of replacement (in fact, the tech was bragging on the original tie rods,
saying how good a shape they were in + how easy they were to adjust!).

He looks at me in amazement and asks if any of it was original - I answered "yep, quite a bit of it actually".
Other than all the ball joints and the idler (and new bushings on the front sway bar), the rest is as built on Fred.

Further, He proclaims that all Fred needed is a bit of toe adjustment (which also corrects a slight steering wheel
misalignment in the process) and to snug up the steering box a bit. Other than that, he's still remarkably "square".

Great news all around - and I go pay the bill, then bring the boys a little tip for their efforts, stopping to notice the
cute little snake logo on the sidewalls of the new Coopers:

Off Fred and I go down the highway.....when ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE....

You know how you have a sort of heightened sense of hearing right after getting your car worked on?
Yeah, mine picked up something very faint, right away - the faint sound of something metallic tinkling, immediately
followed by a
SHUDDER/violent wheel hop
from the right front - at highway speed, no less.
I immediately scrub off speed and make a beeline u-turn and pull right in the service bay of the tire joint....
and I am FUMING mad!
Somebody comes over and before they can speak, I bark at them to fetch me a floor jack and a torque wrench NOW!

Sure enough, the lugs on the right front damn near came off the car - and the center cap had been shaken so badly, it
was also in process of leaving the chat, too.
One of those dufuses (that I had just tipped, remember) had neglected to torque the lugs on the RF and it damn near
caused me to wreck Fred....DAMMIT!
Ok, this time I was going to do the work - which I did, removing each wheel from the car, checking the cap bolts, reinstalling
the wheel/tire and torquing all the lug nuts myself - twice.
Gee, nobody was anywhere near me this time as I went through the entire process....
But I was mad enough to hurt anyone who spoke up at that point, so that was probably a good thing.

Fred and I then tried going home again...
By the time I got him safely tucked away in the garage, I had gone over all the lugs AGAIN - not to mention, lowered
the air pressure in the tires from their 48-50 psi to a more reasonable 32psi.
At that point, I'm nasty dirty and exhausted, so I go to put the receipt for the work in the glove box - and the latch
on the glove box door promptly exploded into all sorts of little pieces.
Of course it did...

Fred's home, safe and in 1 piece. Ditto me, if not a bit worse for wear. All that matters.

(I really gotta clean the lens on my phone camera, apologies....)

dam man , they ought to pay you to having to fix their screw ups , you paid them to mess it up !!!
I`d be pissed too !!

 

[moparedtn]

No mention of you talking with the manager or general manager. Missed a teachable moment. All the employees should of been pulled together and briefed on the importance of attention to detail. ATA minimum the two squirrels that did the work should have been pulled aside. How do you align a car with loose wheels?

Everybody in that shop knows what happened, trust me. I saw to that.
In fact, when I rolled in yesterday morning, they scattered like rats, fearing I'd be all irate and breathing flames...
which I wasn't. To the contrary, I was there on a mission - it was going to get done to my satisfaction this time -
which it was...

I don't think the wheel was "loose" originally, but it certainly wasn't torqued - but yes, when he got it back on the
alignment rack and I saw the numbers on the display, I knew his story about wanting the car to "naturally wander off
to the right" upon imagined medical emergency or whatever was indeed horseshit - the toe wasn't just a little out of
spec, but rather substantially so.
That got corrected immediately and to my instructions - and the car drives righteously now.

 

[moparedtn]

dam man , they ought to pay you to having to fix their screw ups , you paid them to mess it up !!!
I`d be pissed too !!

Sure did the first time, eh?
(No, I didn't pay anything yesterday....)
Well, at least they got the white letters "in" on the tires part right...

 

[R413]

Ed, so glad you caught this before disaster.

This is why I bought my own tire machine and balancer. No more having idiots wreck my nice stuff.

I do my own front end alignments also. Others just fudge it up and tell you it's as good as old cars get.

 

[c body convert]

in NY it was common practice to split the caster so it would track straight in spite of the crown of the road...I've never heard of purposely making it pull towards the shoulder

 

[Curiousyellow71]

We have a bunch of stuff too align, cars, trucks, semi's.
So I got one of these coming. I will have to give a report after I give it a try. Honestly can't go worse then the last alignment. Uses your phone..guess I will see.
Gyraline: The DIY Wheel Alignment Solution