Friday, February 23, 2024

it's pretty cool to find a photo of a Charger R/T the same color as my Coronet R/T, with the same design of rims I just got last fall.


his Charger has better selected sizes of tires and rims than my R/T. We both have 426 cubes under the hood, him, the hemi, me the max wedge



by the way, to follow up on the last of things that were done:

I had to take it back to the shop that did the upgrade, for warranty work

The good news, the owner was super cool about being responsible for the scratched up rims, and paid to have them polished. 
They got the Hella hi beams connected finally
There was one spark plug that was shorting to a header tube, because both the headers were designed badly for the #3 spark plug, so, the engine wasn't running right. They used a thermal video thing, saw the problem quickly, and pounded some space into the header tubes
The vibration I noticed at 65 mph, well, I had to diagnose that myself. 
How come? That shop didn't do a test drive, they don't do a once over before turning over a car to the customer.... they simply have lower standards and expectations of considering a job done, than I do. 
So, the way I was given my car back the first time? Unacceptable probably to most people, in most places. 
Back to the vibration... which, you probably know, could be a tire, unbalanced rim, transmission mount, pinion bearing, drive train angle changed from upgrading from stock K member to QA1 tubular unit and dropped spindles (maybe) or u joints. So, I asked about the trans mount, if it, or the drive shaft angle was bad. The guy check both the mount and angle. Wasn't them. 
That's when I pushed and said, well, did you check further, to see if anything else was a problem, and I reach over and check the front U joint, then the pinion bearing, then the back u joint, and bingo. 
Well, I looked, and these are the zirc fitting type U joints, and I asked if he had a grease gun and if he would grease them up. Turns out, they were either never greased at all, or hadn't been greased in 20-40k miles. I've only driven it, 8k miles? Not sure, but it hasn't been many, in the 22 years I've owned it. Honestly, I've never had zirc fitting u joints, and the zircs my car had were all in the steering and front suspension, which was wasted when I got it, and there was no point to greasing the joints with torn up rubber sleeves/cups, whatever those are called, at the tie rods, pitman and idler arms (all replaced a couple years ago)
On the next drive home, the vibration was less noticeable. Time to replace those U joints!

5 comments:

  1. I prefer the zirc fitted u-joint, but others feel it creates a weak spot in the joint...but I've seen too many units with out the fitting simply over heat, dry out and fail.

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  2. On the new u joints, make sure the rotation pushes AGAINST the zirc rather than pulling and risking tearing it apart. JMHO.

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    1. Yes, I read about that a couple decades ago, to make sure that when in drive the push of the drive shaft pinches the zirc fitting, instead of tearing the u joint apart at the zirc.
      When I looked at the ones on my car, I was surprised to find that one was pinching, and one was tearing. So, who ever installed them wasn't paying attention, or wasn't even aware that it was important to factor in the hole the zirc has, in the structural integrity of the U joint

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  3. I like yours better.

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    1. thanks! It's probably the hood scoops!
      He has a nice air dam, and the rims and tires are well fitted. Look at the back rim on mine, WAY too small, damn it. That's a lot of mistake that though functional, will cost me a lot to fix. Not just the replacement, but the damn original cost of the rims. Plus, the bigger wider back tires.

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