[DeTomaso] Don't let this happen to you.

tony DiGiovanna tonydigi at optonline.net
Sun Aug 2 11:42:25 EDT 2009


Craftsman.
  -----Original Message-----
  From: Charles Engles [mailto:cengles at cox.net]
  Sent: Saturday, August 01, 2009 8:24 PM
  To: tony DiGiovanna
  Cc: detomaso at realbig.com
  Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Don't let this happen to you.


  Dear Tony,


               I am glad everything is OK.   Accentuating the positive, I am
glad that the 5/15" hex drive socket stayed put for rediscovery and
recovery.   Was it a SnapOn?  ;-)

                         Warmest regards,  Chuck Engles



  ----- Original Message -----
  From: "tony DiGiovanna" <tonydigi at optonline.net>
  To: <detomaso at realbig.com>
  Sent: Saturday, August 01, 2009 7:17 PM
  Subject: [DeTomaso] Don't let this happen to you.


  > Here's one for the annuls of luck:  Two week ago, I took the Pantera for
a spirited Sunday jaunt down the highway 10 miles and back through the
surface roads.  As I approach a red light under normal braking, in the last
15 feet, I hear a god awful grinding sound.  Something worse than a failed
wheel bearing but not as bad as the cluster gear I once broke in a Nova.
When the light turned green, I wasn't sure the car would move, but it pulled
thru the intersection just fine and I pulled into a parking lot.  Initial
visual turned up nothing obvious, but then I noticed my right rear brake
caliper fell off.  It fell off. O-F-F It fell off!  It was still there, and
connected, with no brake line damage.  Even the mounting bolts and washers
were still there, but there was no denying it fell off.  I got one bolt in
by hand and drove home 5 miles idling in 1st gear.
  >
  > Diagnosis:  One caliper mounting bolt backed out.  Once clear of
carrying any shear load, the braking force on the one remaining bolt was
enough to break it.  The bolts were stainless socket headed cap screws
provided in the aftermarket caliper conversion kit I bought two years ago.
They are now all carbon steel socket-headed cap screws and have loctite on
them.  All the bolts on the other 3 corners were still tight.
  >
  > In a related story, I found the 5/16 hex drive socket I lost two years
ago.  How does that happen:  A torqued bolt you want to stay in, comes out,
while a hex drive you accidentally leave behind stays put during the same
two years?
  >
  > Could have been a whole, big bad, bunch worse.
  >
  > Tony "Lucky this time" DiGiovanna
  >
  > _______________________________________________
  >
  > Detomaso Forum Managed by POCA
  >
  > Archive Search Engine Now Available at http://www.realbig.com/detomaso/
  >
  > DeTomaso mailing list
  > DeTomaso at list.realbig.com
  > http://list.realbig.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
  >



More information about the DeTomaso mailing list