Hey Guest!
Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
STOP!! Never post your email address in open forums. Bots can "harvest" your email! If you must share your email use a Private Message or use the 
smilie in place of the real @
Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
rick_ingram
Yoda
Offline
aRick and I were taught a valuable lesson this weekend during the Missouri Endurance Run (we did 13 checkpoints in 727 miles and about 18 hours).
We changed oil, checked fluids, tyre pressures, lubed the front end, etc, prior to leaving for St.Louis in the Duct Tape Special (aRick's 1974 MGB/GT)
While "off-roading" through a pasture (at the first checkpoint I might add), we hit some very rough ground, bottoming out several times. When we got back to a "real road" we noticed that the front left had changed both camber and toe-out. Other than an inspection (which we obviously did not do very well) we "pressed on regardless" and finished the rallye (in second place). That was at least 600 miles of hard running....after the damage had occured. There was not significant shimmy in the wheel: the car tracked fairly straight; the tire did not show any odd wear at the end of the rallye.
I talked with John Mangles this morning; he offered to open his shop to take a closer look at what may have happened. (What a guy! He had a used shock installed and we were on our way home in about an hour)
We were VERY lucky that we didn't have a catastrophic failure: the front two shock bolts were missing and the shock(s) of bottoming out had broken one of the rear mounting "ears" on the shock. Had we broken the other ear, I don't want to think what could have happened.
I'm not sure when the last time that either of us had checked the torque on these bolts...but you can be sure that it will be a regular maintenance item in the future.
Safety/Fast is still a motto to live by!
We changed oil, checked fluids, tyre pressures, lubed the front end, etc, prior to leaving for St.Louis in the Duct Tape Special (aRick's 1974 MGB/GT)
While "off-roading" through a pasture (at the first checkpoint I might add), we hit some very rough ground, bottoming out several times. When we got back to a "real road" we noticed that the front left had changed both camber and toe-out. Other than an inspection (which we obviously did not do very well) we "pressed on regardless" and finished the rallye (in second place). That was at least 600 miles of hard running....after the damage had occured. There was not significant shimmy in the wheel: the car tracked fairly straight; the tire did not show any odd wear at the end of the rallye.
I talked with John Mangles this morning; he offered to open his shop to take a closer look at what may have happened. (What a guy! He had a used shock installed and we were on our way home in about an hour)
We were VERY lucky that we didn't have a catastrophic failure: the front two shock bolts were missing and the shock(s) of bottoming out had broken one of the rear mounting "ears" on the shock. Had we broken the other ear, I don't want to think what could have happened.
I'm not sure when the last time that either of us had checked the torque on these bolts...but you can be sure that it will be a regular maintenance item in the future.
Safety/Fast is still a motto to live by!
