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I just wanted to thank you for the
excellent service. I purchased a
power steering filter for my Eldorado,
that wasn't even available anywhere
in Canada.
You had the part
in stock at less than half the price
that the dealership quoted me for
a special order. And you shipped
it to me the next day.
Thanks again,
Dale
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Upcoming Events
If you would like your event featured here, email us with details. |
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Alternative
Car Care Anniversary Show
1/8/2011
Hudson, FL
e-mail
Eagle Raceway
- End of Year Banquet
1/8/2011
Bennington, NE
e-mail
Cars for Hope
1/8/2011
Mesa, AZ
e-mail
Red Hill Hot
Rod Show & Shine
1/9/2011
Victoria, AU
website
Renegade Corvette
Club-5th Annual Open Car &
Truck Show
1/9/2011
Hollywood, FL
e-mail
Midwest Speed
Expo
1/9/2011
Springfield, IL
website
11th Annual
Street Fair, Car & Bike
Show
1/15/2011
Casa Grande, AZ
e-mail
Rogers Winte
Burnout Charity Car Show
1/15/2011
Mokena, IL
website
Winter Rod
& Speed Show 2011
1/15/2011
Salem, OR
e-mail
Jan's Beef
O'Brady's Cruiz-In
1/16/2011
New Port Richey, FL
e-mail
141 Speedway-End
of the Year Banquet
1/22/2011
Manitowoc, WI
website
Centerville
Super Speedway-End of the Year
Banquet
1/31/2011
Centerville, AR
e-mail
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All I Want for Christmas |
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All
I want for Christmas is two Centric
Calipers, two Raybestos Rotors, or
two Timken Wheel Bearings. Gee, if
I could only have my two Fords fixed,
then I could wish you "Merry
Christmas."
It seems so long
since I could say, "my car runs
well, oh my car runs well!" Gosh
oh gee, how happy I'd be, if I could
only get my Fords fixed up!
All I want
for Christmas is two Moog Coil Springs,
two Rancho Shocks, or two Deeza Ball
Joints. Gee, if I could only have
my two Fords fixed, then I could wish
you "Merry Christmas!"
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30
Days or 30 Minutes Before Christmas,
RockAuto Gift Certificates Have You
Covered |
|
Everybody needs something for their car or truck. A RockAuto
Gift Certificate lets the recipient
choose replacement parts like brake
pads or fuel filters; restoration
parts like a headlamp lens or new
carpet; or fun parts like a tachometer
or dashboard cover.
Gift Certificate
Purchase gift certificates and have
them shipped directly to you or the
recipient. Choose a shipping method
in the RockAuto shopping cart.
E-Gift
Need a Christmas gift in a hurry?
E-Gift delivery is free. Simply choose
e-mail as the shipping option in the
RockAuto shopping cart and your friends
and family can receive a great gift
via e-mail!
Click
here to purchase a Gift Certificate
today!
|
Forum of the Month
|
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OldIHC.org,
the world's largest web site specifically
dedicated to the older IHC trucks.
The Old International Harvester Truck
Special Interest Group fosters the
enjoyment and fun of restoring antique
IHC trucks. Through the OLD IHC SIG,
IHC truck restorers, owners and other
interested parties can exchange information
while maintaining the camaraderie
and good fellowship of an online-internet
based truck owners group.
If you are the
administrator or member of a forum
and you would like to see your website
featured in an upcoming newsletter
and receive a discount code to share
with your members, contact cynthia@rockauto.com.
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Repair Mistakes & Blunders
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I
couldn't pass up buying a nine year
old (at the time) 1990 Ford Conversion
Van I found dirt cheap that had blown
a connecting rod. I towed it home,
pulled the engine, and had the bottom
end apart on a table in the garage.
It sat all summer until I finally
found time in the winter to work on
it. Being cheap and low on money,
I decided to do the bare minimum of
replacing the gouged crank, piston,
rod, and bearings.
I got it all back
together around Christmas time and
made the test run. Everything was
fine. That is, until I tried driving
it further. Ten miles from home the
oil pressure suddenly dropped precipitously!
I towed it home. The next day I gingerly
started it for a quick double check,
and to my surprise, the oil pressure
jumped up to normal. I drove it back
and forth down our road, and sure
enough, after about ten miles, it
dropped again. I wanted to kick myself
for not installing a new oil pump,
even though the symptom didn't make
sense.
I unbolted the engine
mounts, dropped the pan a few inches
and was able to snake in a new oil
pump. It made no difference. Someone
suggested it must be pulling something
up against the oil pump pickup screen,
even though nothing but oil had come
out when I drained it. I ended up
reopening the pan on New Years Eve
in the bitter cold while everyone
was in the house having a nice little
party. I managed to contort my hand
around to get my fingers to the bottom
of the oil pan. Sure enough, I was
able to feel some small pieces of
something. I gathered a few up, extracted
my hand, and looked into my oily palm.
I couldn't believe what I saw. It
looked like 3/16" ball bearings!
I lay underneath the van rolling them
around in my palm trying to make some
sense of it. They weren't metal, but
were very hard. Finally I walked over
and put my hand under a bright light.
After wracking my brain for a few
minutes, I finally realized they were
wild cherry pits!
Apparently, a mouse
had climbed up the oil drain into
the valve area and had his lunch up
there a few times while the engine
was unassembled over the summer. A
couple of weeks later I had to do
it all over again, because more had
washed down into the pan.
It all ended well
though. We later drove the van to
Florida and back. Nothing beats a
conversion van for comfort!
Marshall in Michigan
Tell us about
your most infamous auto repair blunder
or unconventional fix. Use your woe
to help others avoid similar mistakes
or share off-the-wall solutions that
worked (at least for awhile!). Please
email your story to flamur@rockauto.com.
Include your mailing address and shirt
size (large or extra large) and we
will mail you a RockAuto "Do it yourself?"
t-shirt if we publish your story (see
the t-shirts under Extras in the catalog).
The story will be credited using only
your first name and your vague geographic
location (state, province, country,
continent, etc.) so you can remain
semi-anonymous! |
Automotive Trivia
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|
Torque
the lug nuts too tight and the lug
studs could snap off or the wheel
could be damaged. But how much do
lug nut torque specifications really
differ between cars?
A. Lug nut torque
specifications vary a lot between
cars and even vary between model years.
The torque spec for a Ferrari F40
is more than ten times the spec for
a Chevy Metro. The lug nut torque
spec for the Ford Contour varied by
more than 50% between the original
and final model years.
B. Almost all car
manufacturers specify lug nuts be
torqued to between 80 and 100 ft.
lbs.
Answer
below
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Put
the Wheels Back On & Drive Some
More!
|
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My
wife said the brakes on her ’87
Mazda 323 did not feel quite right.
I took it for a drive and found the
brakes did seem a bit odd and weak.
I planned to take the car’s
wheels off and see what was going
on with the brakes, but I had to run
one more errand and decided to road
test the Mazda a bit more. During
the return trip I made a right angle
turn. Suddenly there was a persistent
scraping noise and it was difficult
to turn the steering wheel.
I stopped the car,
got out, and found the right front
wheel was leaning at about ten degrees
from vertical. I thought an important
suspension piece like the ball joint
or control arm must have broken, but
home was in sight. In the driveway
the car stopped moving and the engine
only revved.
I pulled off the
hub cap and the spindle nut fell onto
the ground. Oops!
The CV half shaft
pokes through the steering knuckle
and then through the wheel hub and
brake rotor assembly. The spindle
nut threads onto the end of the CV
half shaft and holds the whole thing
together. The spindle nut fell off,
the wheel, hub, brake rotor, caliper,
etc. all slid down the shaft until
the drive shaft was spinning free.
The tire was rubbing on the inner
fender and the brake rotor was rubbing
against the brake dust cover.
I logged into my
RockAuto account like any customer
can and discovered I had removed and
replaced the spindle nuts when I changed
the CV joint boots three years ago.
This story really belongs in the Repair
Mistakes & Blunders section. I
made a mistake when I put the spindle
nut on, but I will attempt to share
the blame with the less than robust
nut design.
Our larger cars have
a spindle (hub) nut, a castle type
retainer that fits over the nut, and
a cotter pin that goes through a hole
in the end of the spindle. The only
way the spindle nut can come off is
if the cotter pin breaks or is missing.
Always replace the cotter pin!
The spindle nut design
found on our Mazda and many other
cars has a metal flange around the
edge of the nut. Take a tool or scrap
of steel and a hammer and pound that
flange into a groove in the spindle/drive
shaft. The bit of flange pounded into
the groove is all that there is to
keep the nut from loosening. I was
wimpy with the hammer and did not
drive the flange far enough into the
groove. Over three years the nut freed
itself from the groove and gradually
loosened. It is surprising that we
did know anything strange was going
on until we felt the funny brake sensation
a short time before the nut and wheel
fell off.
See what type
spindle nuts your vehicle has by looking
under Brake/Wheel Hub in the RockAuto.com
catalog. The moral to this story is
do not be afraid to pound on a little
Mazda’s spindle nuts with a
hammer. Periodically pop off your
hub caps and/or wheel bearing dust
covers and inspect your spindle (hub)
nuts to make sure they are not unthreading.
And if you drive a Mazda until the
wheels fall off, there is a good chance
you can put the wheels back on and
drive some more!
|
Don's
1958 Triumph TR3A |
|
When
I was 20 years old, I bought my TR3A
brand new in May 1958 and have owned
it all this time. I rallied it extensively
from 1959 to 1965 and then stored
it from 1972 to 1987. That's when
I started a three-year total body-off
nuts and bolts restoration. I have
driven "TRusty" over 105,000
miles since I completed the restoration
in 1990 and in 1997 with 94,000 since
my restoration, I was awarded 2nd
in class at the "Vintage Triumph
Register" national meet at Valley
Forge, PA with 96 points out of 100.
The car had been
stuttering. So my most recent order
from RockAuto was for some Autolite
275 plugs of the "non-resistor"
type and since then, my TR3A has been
running smoothly. By the way, every
time I drive "TRusty", I'm
20 years old again.
Don in Quebec, Canada
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Share Your Hard Work
Do you purchase
parts from RockAuto? If so, RockAuto
would like to feature you & your
car or truck in our monthly newsletter.
Please e-mail flamur@rockauto.com
with details.
Automotive
Trivia Answer |
|
Torque
the lug nuts too tight and the
lug studs could snap off or
the wheel could be damaged.
But how much do lug nut torque
specifications really differ
between cars?
Answer:
A. Lug nut torque specifications
vary a lot between cars and
even vary between model years.
The torque spec for a Ferrari
F40 is more than ten times the
spec for a Chevy Metro. The
lug nut torque spec for the
Ford Contour varied by more
than 50% between the original
and final model years.
(source: http://www.dormanproducts.com/documents4rb/WheelNutTorqueSpecsMASTER.pdf)
Back
up to trivia question
|
© 1999-2010 RockAuto, LLC - Madison, Wisconsin USA. RockAuto name and logo are registered trademarks of RockAuto, LLC. Manufacturer names and logos in the RockAuto catalog are trademarks of their respective companies and are used only to identify their products. All rights reserved.
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