A buddy is putting a dropped axle in his 47 Stude truck. he decided to replace everything, so he ordered the axle, springs, brakes, steering arms etc. from MAS. After it was almost all installed, he tried to attach the tie rod and it was 1/2 inch too low, and hit the spring (axle is over the springs). I just happened to stop in while he was doing it, and after a lot of measuring, we decided to take the axle back out, and put it on the floor and do some measuring. It was indeed 1/2" higher on one end. He called MAS, and they seemed to not believe him, so now he's looking at either sending it back, waiting for them to confirm that it really is off, and then waiting for a new one, or just shimming it under the pad. I'm not bashing MAS, just a heads up to you guys to measure it as soon as you get it!
You can see the difference in the pic. Don't shim it up on one side, you'll throw off the camber settings. Send it in and have them send a new one.
A good heads up. A lot times you order and get pieces days,weeks, months ahead of the time you actually need them. It's a good idea to at least take them out of the box or unwrap them and do a thorough check to see if everyting matches what you ordered. A lot of companies have a 30 day return rule on their products. Frank
Ordered a IFS frontend from a major mfgr. one of the A-frames was not finish welded, just tacked. Somebody got called to the phone, or went to lunch and OOPS!, then somebody else didn't check the product as it was being packaged and OOPS! we got a bad part. Called them, they issued a UPS Call Tag, UPS picked it up next day and 2 days later we had the right part welded right and ready to go! That's Customer Service! By the way, the vendor was Heidt's, #1 in our book.
It should have never gone out like that in the first place, it's front suspension, not a freekin' hood ornament. That doesn't say much for their quality control if no one checked those parts before shipping. If the wrong person had gotten that, they might have actually put it on and killed someone! Heidts was just covering their own *** with that quick service.
What is this advanced planning you speak of? By the time I order something, I usually needed it two days ago, and end up paying extra to get it here as lickety damn split as I can. I should try that whole "work ahead" thing once. Just to say I did it. -Brad
Heidts was just covering their own *** with that quick service.[/quote] Much like they did when Cosmos had the a-frame tear away on his then-wife's frontend. Anyone remember that debacle? Just because you get a part or ***embly from a "recognized" source always inspect it throughly before installing it. Remember the phrase "**** happens", just don't be covered with it if things don't go as planned. Frank
wow thats F'ed up..dont do **** with it..send it back..they should make it right and also pay for the return shipping..if they dont believe it..send them that picture you can see it very well. ITS WRONG!
Either the fixture they used is adjustable,and they didn't get both ends set the same before starting,or they build them "by eye". Either way,not too impressive.
Yeah, that's what we thought too, but when we checked it we found that the screwed that up too! The camber was different by 1or 2 degrees, and when we placed the shim under it, it corrected it. So I guess their poor quality control worked in our favor this time. MAS was not very helpful and he didn't want to go through the h***le and time it would take to work it out with them, so he decided to shim, it and when he got it on the floor everything was fine. Anyway, maybe he just had some bad luck with MAS, but because of their response, you might want to think twice before you order from them, and if you do, CHECK EVERYTHING as soon as you get it. They're cheap, but I guess you only get what you pay for.
The Jalopy Journal
