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Another Happy Customer!

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

 

Upcoming Events
If you would like your event featured here, email us with details.

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


 

All I Want for Christmas

All I Want for Christmas

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!"

 

 

30 Days or 30 Minutes Before Christmas, RockAuto Gift Certificates Have You Covered

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

OldIHC.org

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.

 

 

Repair Mistakes & Blunders

Ouch!

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

Automotive Trivia

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

 

 

Put the Wheels Back On & Drive Some More!

RockAuto

Raybestos Part Number 8164014

Dorman Part Number 6151721

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
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

 

 

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

Automotive Trivia

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

 

 

 

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