Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Suspension Suspension Failure ....

Scary stuff last night. Out for a late night drive with the girlfriend and while taking a corner the car suddenly jerked sideways a little and now the steering wheel is off center. Keep going till the next corner and it does the same thing only now the wheel is straight again. Pull over and look around the front end, all seems normal, so I figure something to do with the PS rack. Drive for about another hour and as we approach home the car does the same thing again only bigger. Going slowly I pull into my drive way and as I climb the curb there's this big clunk. I stop, put it in reverse, go about 2 feet and clunk grind bang bang bang. Even stopped with the brakes on something is banging and turning down below. Put the ATX in neutral and it stops, so I shut off the car and hop out. Left front wheel looks good and is pointed straight ahead. Right front wheel is jammed against back of the wheel well and turned about 45 to the right. I look under and can't believe that the A-arm has pulled the ball joint out of the steering knuckle and then the drive shaft has separated at the inner CV joint (that explains the banging). What is more unbelieveable is the bolt that holds the ball joint into the knuckle is still in there. I took it out today and it is so rusted and worn that it couldn't hold the ball joint anymore. Everything is back together now except for that bolt. I will go to Ford for some new ones (you bet I'm replacing the other side too) on tommorrow. If you can call it lucky, at least it failed in my driveway?!

Yikes! That's frightening! Did you get pics?

-Lance

Nah, no pics. I never think of that stuff when a crisis hits. I'd stand there gawking at the alien mother ship with a camera in my hand and never think to use it. I got the new bolts today and replaced both. They are an improved bolt, go figure. The old ones were worn 1.1 mm thinner than the new ones (about .040 inch). That's all it took. The old style bolt has a torx head while the new is a 15 mm hex head, rated 8.8 for strength and look cad plated. I would suggest everyone look at theirs and see if they need to upgrade. I can't imagine the effect highway speeds would have had on a failure like this. The bolts were only $2 each.

WOOW