Took a hit tonight, and the custom bumper held up great!

[Shdwdrgn]

I'm not too worried about it. My insurance company covers me even if she didn't have insurance, and I'm sure if there's any chance she DID, they'll find it.

[bartonmd]

Yeah, but it's a question of whether your company jacks your rates because she didn't have insurance, or if she was insured and your company doesn't have to pay anything. Worst case is that they get money from her insurance company to cover it, and still jack your rates, saying uninsured motorist.

Mike

[Regulator1175]

I can't see the pictures, I keep getting a virus alert for this thread. Anyone else getting the same thing?

[Shdwdrgn]

You know, somebody on another forum mentioned that recently. They were running Avast and getting a warning because my domain name is "sourpuss.net". It would be nice if they published some info to tell me what they *think* they found so I could look into it, or if they're just upset about my domain name (I've seen quite a few emails rejected for X-rated content because "puss" is in the name).

[HawkeyeC25]

I can't see the pictures, I keep getting a virus alert for this thread. Anyone else getting the same thing?

Nope, pics look fine for me.

Glad everyone was alright Shdwdrgn!! I've been there - not fun. Hope you get her back on the road soon!

[Shdwdrgn]

Oh she's back on the road, just not quite right yet... thus my question above regarding the knuckle piece. The left-turn radius is critical because usually when you're turning around in the road, you're doing it from the right side and making a hard left. I actually had to back up and take a second stab at a parking space this morning because of that slight difference.

[Regulator1175]

This is what it is giving me.

[Jrgunn5150]

FWIW, on the OP, about the chick driving with newly purchased vehicle to her insurance agent... If she already has insurance with them, they probably cover newly purchased vehicles. Mine covers anything that I buy, for up to like a week, without telling them about it.

Mike

It's also apparently a thing in some states, to claim you don't have insurance, and take the ticket, but keep your rates lower.

[Shdwdrgn]

Regulator, thanks for the screen shot. I sent a report to Avast to fix their shit (I used nicer words), will see what happens. I've been posting images from my domain to forums for years, never had this come up before.

Jrgunn, wouldn't surprise me, but they keep pretty tight records of insurance here in Colorado. The cops can look up your current status online now, because people would also get 1 month of insurance, get the yearly cards in the mail, then drop their policy... they have a card to show 'proof' but that doesn't mean it's valid.

[Jrgunn5150]

Have you figured out your knuckle issue? I believe they are cast steel, which would make me think they would shatter or crack before they twisted.

[Shdwdrgn]

Jrgunn -- Nope, you're the first person to respond about that, but I've seen the handle on cast-iron skillets get bent. That does make me wonder though, if it WAS bent, could it be close to shattering? I'll have some time to pull it apart again this weekend, and will look for signs of stress fractures.

[HawkeyeC25]

The steering knuckle will rotate until the front of it hits the tab of steel that protrudes off of the front of the lower control arm near the ball joint. This should be the steering limit. Verify that when you turn left it is making contact. If not, it might be a bent inner tire rod end.

[Jrgunn5150]

The steering knuckle will rotate until the front of it hits the tab of steel that protrudes off of the front of the lower control arm near the ball joint. This should be the steering limit. Verify that when you turn left it is making contact. If not, it might be a bent inner tire rod end.

Or the rack is bent, or the crossmember. I would suspect these thing's before a bent knuckle. For obvious reasons, they are made of pure beef on nearly everything on the road.

Any chance of getting it to a frame shop? Has your adjuster seen this?

[Shdwdrgn]

The rack was already replaced on Friday. It felt like it had skipped a tooth on the gear -- the wheel was able to turn nearly a full rotation further right than left, plus it was really gummed up in one spot. Obviously damaged, so it was replaced.

The folks at Big-O have looked it over but see no obvious signs of anything else being bent. Of course they don't have the instruments to precisely measure the frame, but wouldn't a bent frame have been obvious when they did the first four-wheel alignment?

From the exploded views I've found of the front wheels, there is a hub that bolts into the knuckle. What happens if that hub got bent and no longer sits square inside the knuckle?

[Jrgunn5150]

The rack was already replaced on Friday. It felt like it had skipped a tooth on the gear -- the wheel was able to turn nearly a full rotation further right than left, plus it was really gummed up in one spot. Obviously damaged, so it was replaced.

The folks at Big-O have looked it over but see no obvious signs of anything else being bent. Of course they don't have the instruments to precisely measure the frame, but wouldn't a bent frame have been obvious when they did the first four-wheel alignment?

From the exploded views I've found of the front wheels, there is a hub that bolts into the knuckle. What happens if that hub got bent and no longer sits square inside the knuckle?

No, you can get the wheels pointing straight if the frame they are mounted to is bent, sometimes. Like hangine a picture straight on a downward sloping wall.

If that hub were bent I would think you would experience alot of runout, bumpiness in the ride.

[Shdwdrgn]

All right, I decided not to wait and took a look at things when I got home from work. If the hub were bent, I would expect it to be a few degrees off from 90, and should be easy to spot against a square. I lined up the axle against several machined spots, and even the flat area where the rock-shield sits, but there's no obvious faults there.

So I looked around some more, and found something else... the bottom control arm. First, the hole where the pin goes through for the shock tower -- that is obviously out of round on the back side, I'd guestimate by 1/8 to 1/4". The other, more worrisome item is harder to describe... The control arm is shaped like a Y, and let's say the bottom leg of the Y is where the ball joint is mounted. That is a solid cast piece that is welded inside of the shell that makes up the top part of the Y. Follow me so far? Well, at the point where the two pieces meet, the shell is supposed to be a tight fit around the cast piece (as observed on the other new one and the two old ones), but it's not. There is about 3/16" clearance along the bottom side, which indicates something flexed in there.

Now my concern is that there isn't a whole lot of obvious welding holding these two pieces together, and the cast piece seems to only slide into the shell by a couple inches. So is there a chance the weld between these two pieces is compromised? My initial feeling is to replace the whole control arm again just to be safe, but is there any easy way to check if it's actually safe to be driving it until then? And if this piece HAS been bent, is that something which could cause the steering to hit the limiter early, and/or cause a new alignment to still want to drift left?

[Jrgunn5150]

Wow that doesn't sound good at all.

I do understand what you're saying, mainly because my own new control arms showed up today lol. I recall mine being plug welded on the "top" side, so you would see it looking down from above.

I can see how if it was bent forward, it would limit steering throw probably.

As for it being safe for driving, I would probably park it. If it's compromised, there's no telling, it might last forever, or fail pulling out tomorrow.

[Shdwdrgn]

Yeah I did see the weld seam across the top center, and that was the only one I saw, which made me nervous that it might rely on the integrity of the shell around it. Oh, and it would be bent backwards, but the geometry is so complicated I can't quite wrap my head around how that would effect everything else.

[Shdwdrgn]

Had them look over that control arm, he saw the things I was talking about so they checked over the welds real carefully and moved the wheel around seeing if anything was shifting, but said it appears to be solid and no sign of stress in the welds, nor does it appear to be out of square according to the readings they get from the alignment. We're still trying to figure out why the left turn is limited though, so he said give it a couple weeks of driving and then they'll check it over again.

[Jrgunn5150]

That's not much of an answer from them. I think I would be on my adjuster trying to get it to a frame shop.