I found this thread on another forum. Although many of you have seen his car on here, as his son posts here. http://ratrodsrule.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2191 Close one!
Scary stuff. I went off road once due to failure of an OEM part (at 65 mph). Not fun. Fortunately we just plopped into a snow drift and didn't hit anyone head on...
Ok so Don is on the Hamb and the RRT and he didnt post this **** on either board??? I never heard of that other board before but then i got a life and dont search for all the boards in the world.. .... Just kidding but it woulda been nice to see it posted here for us.. Dave
Maybe it's because you're not supposed to chrome suspension or structural parts on anything other than a trailer tramp!
You gotta sign up to that site to see the pics and for the life of me i can't bring myself to do it. Can anyone post em here?
That is dodgerodders Dad.That happened on his brothers blue T. It was this one.http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2279350&highlight=dodgerodder#post2279350
Bad part is, Speedway isn't that cheap... not that they don't sell quality ****, I love them, but they ain't the bargain ba*****t.
The type of failure would tell you a lot. A brittle failure might mean the embrittlement gremlins are afoot. A stress riser would be something else to consider. The chrome-less portion above on the polished shank looks interesting!
Looks like it may have been just a bad cast out of a thousand. That had to have been a VERY scary ride. I'm glad he wasn't hurt. I read Donsrod's thread on the NTBA website and saw the pics. I'm really hoping this was a one in a thousands event as far as the casting goes. There are a lot of cast and chromed parts out there. The fact that this doesn't come up more often should be some kind of relief. Oh, Speedway buys their pinion arms from Total Performance, according to a poster on the NTBA website.
Irony is that he's using a Corvair part to remedy the problem as the whole story reminds me of the two close calls I had in a Corvair; one on the interstate when the rear right axle broke loose and one on a downward grade, in traffic, when the brakes gave out. Neither fun, both, potentially, very bad. Glad everyones O.K. and, yeah, God's helping, no doubt!
That appears to be a casting of some sort. Real pitman arms are forged steel and will not fracture like that. I wonder if China is casting these in cast iron or some other cheap material. Scary.
Its not the only one that has a problem.If you are running one of these.I would take a real good look at it for real light stress cracks. Someone else has also found hair line cracks on one of these. This is Dons post on that. Here is the part number from the Speedway site: 7022930-CHR Corvair Pitman Arm, Chrome EA $84.99 After I posted this on the National T Bucket Alliance forum, another member posted this reply: My pitman arm is from Total as well. After reading that your's snapped, I decided to take a closer look at mine. I used an extra-fine sandpaper disc to clean it up a bit. I not only found a lot of small holes at the top of the arm, but also a small hairline crack at the same spot where yours broke ! So glad you're ok, Don ! Thanks for the warning. I don't think this will become something like Watergate, but it looks like others using the same arm should be careful. Speedway sent me an email too, and they are making this a priority Monday when they are at work full time he tells me. I hope these are just isolated cases. Don .
Maybe it was the "rat rod" rejecting the shiny new part like a post-op body does a transplanted organ. In hindsight he should have made it out of PBR cans and switch blade knives.
There's stories all over the web about chinese imports and their high failure rates. There's a few on this board too I believe. They sell grade 8 bolts that are barely grade three, and a lot of it is leeching into the high quality supply lines. I'll lay money down that it's a chinese part.
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