Was running an errand over lunch hour in the '68 beast, and heard a clunk as I pulled into the paint store. When I cautiously pulled out, steering felt ALL WRONG with a hard pull to the right. I stopped, took a look at the front passenger tire, and noticed that it was tipped WAAAAAY in at the top.

Popped the hood, and lo and behold, the front nut holding the upper control arm shaft in place was nowhere to be seen, and the control arm shaft had slipped rearward, allowing the front end of the shaft to drop out! :eek: :eek: :eek:

The guy who did the alignment for me is putting it back together and re-aligning the front end as we speak...dang, that was close! I made an 80 mile highway trip yesterday, and I'm forced to admit I was compelled to drop the hammer on the old big block a few times just to feel the roar...I can't quite imagine what might have happened if this had happened at 100mph!

Given that I didn't drive around on the thing after it happened, is it likely that anything was damaged? I just finished rebuilding the whole front end last fall before it was in for alignment. I worry that the sudden clunk could have messed up the front spindle or bearing...


-Roy

 

Same thing happened to a friend of mine last year, only it was the drivers side. Alignment shop forgot to torque the bolts. :eek: On his there was some damage done to the fiberglas inner fender & the radiator shroud. Take a close look around.

Jim

 

:eek:
hope theres no damage to the car.
could have gone really bad!!