cpadpl
Didn't anyone ever tell you, you can't change a fan belt with the engine running, it's like a machine or something! What beats all the belt companies actually have to print on the back " Caution: Stop eninge before replacing fan belt" or something to that likeness.

Those of you that have heard Jeff Foxworthy know what I am talking about.


I once was driving somewhere with my girlfirend and asked if it was all clear to make a turn. I thought she said GO but she actually said NO. Needless to say I had cars serving all over and horns blaring, man did I feel like an idiot.LOL.

 

KYFordFreak

I believe I was tightening/checking the clamp on the radiator hose or something of the sort. Needless to say, with a truck you've kinda of gotta be headfirst and diving into the engine compartment to reach down there, and you can imagine my surprise and sudden desire to remove myself once the engine turned over. Needless to say, my experience has been girlfriends and automobiles DO NOT mix. I don't know if wives are any better, I presume not. The worst thing is regardless of what happens it's always my fault because I did not "specifically" identify the word I was going to use to signal to turn the engine over. Any guy would have not budged at a "Think I fixed it!" or a "Finally got it!", they would wait until some clearly commanding ORDER, "Turn it over," or "Give it a go."

90% of my arguments start with her saying, "But you said...," and my reply is always, "I know what I said sweetheart, but what I meant was...." Then her reply is, "Well then that's what you should have told me..." Then I'm wrong AGAIN! Damn it all to hell....

 

I find most women respond to hand signals. Some times its a slap on the face , some times they actually do what you want them to do.

Regards

Jean Marc Chartier

 

My wife has no problems with instructions, but then again she knows the basic workings of a combustion engine.

Last time she helped me bleed the brakes on the car... you know... pump... ok, hold it down.... etc.

She complained a bit though that it was taking too long.

When you're married for .... almost 9 years your communication skills are kinda honed down.

Girlfriends prob. tend to misunderstand you more.

Pretty funny story you guys. Really makes me LOL.

 

Not to kill the good natured ribbing, but I'm trying to figure out what the hell is going on with my trucks steering/suspension. While going over small choppy bumps on paved roads, the whole truck seems to go from side to side and it's somewhat alarming. Sometimes the steering wheel(or column?) seems to move around as well, like it's trying to pull out of my hands. I also noticed a slight pull to the left or right while braking at low speed(on an upwards incline) Back around Thanksgiving of last year, I put on a set of the factory 17" wheels(with 275/60's), and I noticed this starting about the same time, or a week or so later. At the time I just chalked it up to the wider tires, the way they tend to feel heavier in the steering wheel. Now I'm wondering if the tie rods or balljoints were going bad, and the wider/bigger tires just amplified the problem. It's kind of spooky feeling the wheel seesaw back and forth in your hands, when before it was rock solid and rode right over the bumps like a truck is supposed to. Does this sound like I'm looking at some high dollar tie rod and/or ball joint replacement? I'm about to make a 1000 mile drive in a couple of weeks, followed by a 6 mile light offroad trip the next weekend. I don't even want to know the cost of being towed out of 6 miles of dirt road, LOL!!,,,,,,98


You guys are lucky!! I've never been able to get a wife/GF to "help" me at all

 

I just had a tie rod separate on the right hand side on my 1998 F-150 @ 135000km. My wife was driving the truck with my 5 month old daughter in the back. Luckily it was in town and not on the highway. I am extremely pissed off!!!! The first thing I did was take pictures and video of the condition of the failed components.
I had the truck towed to the nearest dealership, only to find that there was another F-150 right beside mine with its left hand tie rod dragging on the ground. What the @#$% is going on here!!???
The next thing I did was check for a grease fitting. None found. So logic would dictate that if something is made to be "maintenance free", it would be made to last a LONG time. Apparently the definition for LONG time in the Ford Dictionary is different from the one in Websters.
Anyways, as it turns out, the dealership had to replace both tie rod ends, and both lower ball joints. Oh, it gets better!!! I have to pay for the alignment. Apparently it is Ford policy that an alignment is a maintenance issue not a corrective issue regardless of the fact that the steering is dismantled to repair a design defect.
Just for the record I work for Ford in Oakville, Ontario, Canada and I called head office regarding the alignment issue. The executive customer rep told me that the alignment could have been thrown out by hitting a curb or a pothole. My question was "Could the alignment be thrown out by replacing steering components". Her reply was "Yes". My next question was " So why am I paying for an alignment if I didn't throw it out of alignment?" Her answer was "Well how do we know it wasn't out of alignment to begin with?" My answer was "How do you know it was. Do you think I purposely put the lives of my wife and daughter at risk just to get an alignment?" "No, but that's our policy and I can't change policy".
So there you go, that's how much Ford cares for your safety and the safety of your family. For the sake of $70 Ford is willing to lose my business and the business of my family and friends. How many thousands of dollars could that be worth to Ford? I , even though I am a Ford employee, am certainly not going to recommend a Ford product to anyone I know and I quoted that to the customer rep. Her reply...."Well I'm sorry to hear that". Is it any wonder we're losing market share to the rest of the world?
I would be very interested to hear of any other incidents involving tie rod end separation. Like I mentioned earlier, I am PISSED off about how I was treated and I feel that there is a definite safety issue involved here. The more incidents there are, the better chance there is of resolving this. There is no way that a tie rod should separate at this point in a vehicles life!!!
liddle_g@hotmail.com

 

I have a solution that will get fords attention, every one go out and get a sawzall or a hacksaw and find your local ford dealership and start cutting on every tie rod you can find, they will be too stupid to figure out why they are being chewed through so easily and will build them stronger to stop the alleged chipmunks from chewing through the tie rods.

I have though of replacing the tie rods with rod ends and DOM stock but did not think the truck would really need stronger steering arms, I guess I was wrong, so I have a new project.

 

Personally I think steering components should last 5 years or longer before needing replacement (not falling off and causing you to lose steering control).

I haven't looked at my 98's front end yet (too busy with work) but its on my to-do list the weekend after next.

How much does Ford save by not putting a 1/2 dozen grease nipples in the front end??

I guess the Pinto engineer was hired to make the steering components on our trucks.

 

The old saying,"They don't build them like they used to", comes to mind. I have owned several cars and trucks that were 20 years old or older, and hardly ever replaced any steering or suspension components while I was driving them. Why does the safety factor go up, and reliability seem to go down through the years. It only makes sense that both should improve together, right? Older cars will warn you with all kinds of slop (and for a few months!!) before a suspension part fails.,,,,98

 

Well, so the tie rods were replaced but the truck has been feeling terrible, very bouncy and it felt like it was going to fall apart! I brought it back into the dealership to have them figure out what is going wrong, they had it for 4 hours and couldn't find a problem, so I continued to drive it feeling very unsafe!

I thought it might be the shocks or springs (even though dealership said they were fine) so I brought it to a Midas shop and he pushed on it and it bounced two times and he said 'nope, not the shocks', but I decided to get new shocks anyway so I bought the edelbrocks, expensive, but I heard nothing but good things about them... Well, the shocks did make it feel better, but it still drive like it used to drive.

Yesterday morning, I got into the truck and started her up and began to drive out of my driveway, tapped the brakes and they locked up, everytime I'd just touch the brakes for the first few minutes of driving, screech! So again I called the dealership and they took me in this morning. They fixed the brakes, but also said my lower ball joints were bad. So they fixed the ball joints and amazingly I have my old truck back to normal! Why didn't they notice this to begin with or the 2nd time around? Don't know, they couldn't give me an answer why they didn't see it... grr, another $600 down the drain....

 

The pendulum has swung fully the other way at Galesburg (Michigan) Ford.

Wifie's Windstar was in the local Ford dealership for an ABS sensor problem. A service representative called me with news that the tie rods were bad -- and needed replacement.

Of course, I approved the repair.

When I looked at the parts which were removed from the van, I was troubled by the fact that they were not visibly worn.

Taking them back to the dealership, I obtained a new one from the parts counter -- and asked whether the ones I brought in were defective or not -- since they seemed as tight as the new ones.

The parts man rounded up another employee who professed to have front-end experience. He put the parts in a vice, and yanked and pushed on the old tie rod ends -- similar as to how he'd have done it if they were still on the car.

They were good ones, he told me.

When I discussed this with the service manager -- questioning why the tie rod ends were bad and needed replacement -- he disappeared for several minutes -- then returned with the news that they "squeaked" -- therefore they were bad.

When asked to produce some sort of Ford bulletin in support of that revelation -- he merely disappeared -- never to return for at least 15 minutes.

I got the hint, and left.

That's the last time I've been to Galesburg Ford in Galesburg Michigan - owned by Gene Simmons.

 

Never have I had this happen with any of my Ford trucks. I've had the rubber fail and ofcourse they were replaced with the greaseable Ford product replacement.
Today I noticed a funny sound on my truck and have had a funny pull to the left for a few weeks.

I think I will check mine tomorrow AM before I leave my driveway.
EDIT: Just checked, all OK.

Thanks,

Mike

 

Do yourselves a big favour and read this:

http://members.shaw.ca/pferlow/tierod_greasing.htm

Ford seems to think that a couple drops of grease inside the balljoint tie-rod ends is good enough. What a frikken joke!!

Open them up as per my instructions and get some darn grease in there!!!

 

RonLariot, I just went through the the same thing with my truck. But my tierod snapped flush with knuckle didn't just pop off.I ended up replacing an inner&outer on drivers side an outer on the passinger side plus a lower balljoint. I was lucky it happen in a parking lot because a couple of hours before I drove 150 miles at speeds of 60 to 70 mph it could of happen then.Ford Canada told me there is no problems wiht front ends onthese trucks

 

Why not merely stab the needle thru the boot and squirt away. If some comes out, so what.

If water gets in, so what again, since you've filled it with grease.

If you're concerned about the hole, crazy-glue a slice of the end of a pencil eraser over the hole (it will mark the spot where you poked it -- and you can re-poke it again later).