OK, I admit that I should have tightened every nut on my GT6+ by now, but I only
did the rear suspension, where bolts kept falling out. And I've griped before
abut my "finger-tight" car.
But last Wednesday took the rag off'n the bush, as Uncle Jed used to say.
I was cruising down I-44 at about 70 mph, heading home, when there was a loud
noise and I suddenly realized that no longer was I moving on four wheels, but on
three wheels and the left front corner of the car's frame. Needless to say, this
is not a smooth cruising configuration. As I got the car slowed and parked in
the left shoulder of the highway, smoke was rolling into the car.
I got out and looked around, and saw that my left front tire was jammed up into
the wing of the car. I couldn't open the bonnet, the jammed tire made the latch
undoable. I had to get the jack out and jack it up before I could open the
bonnet.
When I finally got the bonnet up, I dreaded looking down to see what was there.
But when I checked it out, I could see that the lower A-arm bolt was gone, but
there really wasn't any damage that I could see. As I was staring at it, I heard
a whistle. Across the highway on the right shoulder was a friend of mine. I got
across three lanes of rush-hour interstate and he took me to get a new bolt. I
guessed as to the size. I was wrong, but it was close enough to get me to a
store in Washington, MO, where I got the correct bolt in grade 8.
So to assess the damage: LF tire now has a flat spot from skidding about 200
feet without turning; the bonnet/wing at the left latch is cracked from the
stress; the firewall right behind the LF tire got buffed to bare metal. Other
than that, the car is just fine. Pretty tough!
Well, now I've checked the other front suspension bolts. While I have the
interior out in a week or two I'll remove the driveshaft, get new U-joints,
and put in new bolts on the flanges. And they'll be tight...
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