Mark B
Donation Time
I had an interesting turn of events while driving yesterday. The drivers side lower ball joint failed from lack of lubrication over time, and fortunately I managed to stop the car with a fair amount of control and did an unbeliveable zero damage to the car. The tire sort of flopped over and the lower A arm gouged the hot blacktop and was fairly easy to control to a stop. No one hit me and I hit nothing.
I was puttering along on a straight section of road at about 20 mph, and it failed when I hit the brakes at the approach to a red light. At first, I thought I had lost a tire because the front side dropped and the horrible sound of the metal grinding into the pavement could have been the disc and backing plate. I immediately scanned around for a runaway tire a saw nothing, then saw the tire folded onto the A arm at a weird angle when I jumped out. The biggest stress was signaling other drivers away from the right lane for the next 45 minutes. Stunning how fast people approach the light and are oblivious to a vacated vehicle sitting in the lane in spite of me half in the road trying to wave them off. One young lady must have sat behind my car for nearly a minute before realizing there was no one in it. I was laughing and chatting with a very nice guy a few cars back who actually recognized it as a Sunbeam and was offering assistance. Hagerty, yet again, did a great job of making this one painless for me.
I swung by the shop where it was towed for repairs this morning, and they had two other cars in with the same problem, and one, an MGA had demolished the the entire right side of his car when his ball joint failed. The other, a TR had a fair amount of fender and sill damage, and had rammed the truck in front, taking a fair toll on the hood and wings way up by the windscreen. I feel quite lucky to have avoided any body or paint damage at all and the car will actually be ready to go be end of day today. They are going to install grease fittings on the hex nuts at the bottom of both joints so that I can prevent a re-play.
The Sunbeam gods were smiling on me yesterday, but I also learned not to put off my basic maintenance for too long. I had examined the ball joints in the Spring and concluded there was not much I could do to them, but I really should have paid attention to how dry they were. The mechanics thought there was a chance they might be orginal to the car based upon how they looked, but who knows with a car this old. Bottom line is lube them if you can and get someone to look at them if its beyond your expertise to judge their condition.
Best,
Mark B
I was puttering along on a straight section of road at about 20 mph, and it failed when I hit the brakes at the approach to a red light. At first, I thought I had lost a tire because the front side dropped and the horrible sound of the metal grinding into the pavement could have been the disc and backing plate. I immediately scanned around for a runaway tire a saw nothing, then saw the tire folded onto the A arm at a weird angle when I jumped out. The biggest stress was signaling other drivers away from the right lane for the next 45 minutes. Stunning how fast people approach the light and are oblivious to a vacated vehicle sitting in the lane in spite of me half in the road trying to wave them off. One young lady must have sat behind my car for nearly a minute before realizing there was no one in it. I was laughing and chatting with a very nice guy a few cars back who actually recognized it as a Sunbeam and was offering assistance. Hagerty, yet again, did a great job of making this one painless for me.
I swung by the shop where it was towed for repairs this morning, and they had two other cars in with the same problem, and one, an MGA had demolished the the entire right side of his car when his ball joint failed. The other, a TR had a fair amount of fender and sill damage, and had rammed the truck in front, taking a fair toll on the hood and wings way up by the windscreen. I feel quite lucky to have avoided any body or paint damage at all and the car will actually be ready to go be end of day today. They are going to install grease fittings on the hex nuts at the bottom of both joints so that I can prevent a re-play.
The Sunbeam gods were smiling on me yesterday, but I also learned not to put off my basic maintenance for too long. I had examined the ball joints in the Spring and concluded there was not much I could do to them, but I really should have paid attention to how dry they were. The mechanics thought there was a chance they might be orginal to the car based upon how they looked, but who knows with a car this old. Bottom line is lube them if you can and get someone to look at them if its beyond your expertise to judge their condition.
Best,
Mark B
