[DeTomaso] Pantera near disaster

[boyd casey]

The studs were (are 12mm x 1.5) the other side as well as the two front
wheels are perfect. . The alignment was done on a late model hunter machine
that uses a computer and lasers and gives a before and after print out and
the alignment specs were close to perfect.
My inclination is toward  untightened lug nuts. . The alignment tech asked
me for the lug nut lock key when I dropped off the car. according to Hunters
web sight there is a "wheels off" alignment that is sometimes done. The
alignment tech said he put shims in to align the back wheels. The final
straw is that I have directional wheels. On Saturday when I bled the brakes
(i had two people helping me) I noticed when I put the first rear wheel on
that I put the right wheel on the left side. I noticed it and mentioned it
to my friends (helpers) and switched the wheel to the correct side. My two
friends clearly remember this episode too. When I took my car off the tow
truck the wheel that was bad was the left rear and it had the right side
tire on it. So someone at the alignment shop appears to be covering their
ass. I have know way of proving it. I wasn't present when they did the
alignment. The shop is very popular and has a wait to get in. Since it is 45
miles from my house I dropped the car off their on Wednesday and picked it
up an Thursday afternoon. So I think some one screwed up and didn't tighten
the lug nuts properly. I don't think their is any thing wrong with the
design in fact I think is is superior to the stock design. the bearings are
better. The axles are stronger, the cv joints are mechanically  superior to
half shafts. The process to access the rear wheel bearings is simpler the
removing the rear bearings on the stock risers and does not require a press.
Another improvement this design has over the stock design is that a failure
of a half shaft ( which is non existent in this design ) but the failure of
a CV joint will not result in the loss of a wheel. You can completely remove
the CV joint and the wheel will remain in place. I am not an engineer but I
don't think Mike  knows enough about this design to draw any factual
conclusions about it being inferior or superior to the original design and
there is no conclusive evidence that this incident was the result of a
design flaw. I believe it is allot more likely that the failure was the
result of some human error in the assembly ( like lug nuts not being
tightened) When the replacement parts come I will reassemble the car and go
over everything with a fine tooth comb.
Boyd

On Sat, Aug 21, 2010 at 7:54 PM, Will Demelo <wdemelo at cogeco.ca> wrote:

> Mike has a good suggestion with looking at the other side. It may give you
> clues as to what is going to happen.
> W
> ----- Original Message ----- From: <MikeLDrew at aol.com>
> To: <boyd411 at gmail.com>; <detomaso at realbig.com>
> Sent: Saturday, August 21, 2010 7:15 PM
> Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Pantera near disaster
>
>
>
>> In a message dated 8/21/10 15 56 52, boyd411 at gmail.com writes:
>>
>>
>>  The alignment tech claims he did not take the wheels off so I
>>> have no way of knowing what the cause was. If anyone has any suggestions
>>> I
>>> would be interested in hearing any theories.
>>>
>>>
>> How about dramatically underengineered and wholly unnecessary replacements
>> for perfectly good stock parts?   I would never, ever take a chance with
>> ever running those new hubs assemblies even before this episode, but now?
>> One
>> would have to be suicidal to do so, I think.   Read what you wrote:
>>
>> " I could have been killed or the wheel could have come
>> completely off and the damage could easily have been well into the
>> thousands
>> of dollars."
>>
>> I have been very skeptical about this whole project from the start; when I
>> looked at the parts, they seemed pretty, but there doesn't seem to be any
>> true science behind them.   To me, it looks like somebody just started
>> with a
>> bunch of material and started whittling until the pieces that were left
>> resembled Pantera parts.
>>
>> Now, I can't honestly claim that I know the level of engineering analysis
>> that went into the design of the stock components, and I will admit that
>> the
>> stock axles leave a bit to be desired, in the long run.   But there's no
>> question that the stock components are superior, by orders of magnitude,
>> to the
>> home-made, cobbled-up affair that nearly killed you today.
>>
>> Curious--what does the other side look like at the moment?
>>
>> Mike (SO glad you learned your lesson the (relatively) easy way!)
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>