Dan Sherwood
06-03-2006, 10:45 PM
I'm sure there are others that have experienced this, and this one is number two for me, although the first one was rolling up to a stop sign at only 20 mph (but doing 80 on the interstate the day before), when the steering just was'nt there anymore.
I drove my truck to Phx the other day, with my son driving the 69 camaro. We drove reasonable to see what both vehicles were getting for mpg. At 65 mph most of the way, and the infamous Salt river canyon as part of the trip, we arrived without incident.
On the return trip I was alone in the camaro and doing 70 mph, on the way out of Phx on the state route 60, when I noticed the steering wheel getting off center, and then hearing a slight "ping" the steering was just gone.
I knew better than to jam on the brakes, and so with the car drifting to the right lane I let it slow to about 55 mph before hitting the first downshift, and then worked it down a gear for the next little while all the time looking for a "best" place to hit the brakes.
A car passed me with a look on the drivers face of wth are you doing sliding into my lane????
Luckily, about the time I hit the small curb that seperated the freeway from a 2 ft dropoff into the desert I had slowed to 15 mph and was able to hit the brakes hard to stay on the pavement.
It turned the wheels sideways and locked them right up, but amazingly, got me stopped with no damage to me or the car.
Apparantly, the castle nut holding the idler arm on, (and a few other nuts on the suspension and steering) had never had the cotter pin installed.
Considering what could have happened to my son driving down that morning, or to me that afternoon, I said a prayer of thanks for God listening to my prayer for safety the morning before we left! Makes me realize that sometimes if we see someone driving like a nut, maybe they've just lost one????????
I drove my truck to Phx the other day, with my son driving the 69 camaro. We drove reasonable to see what both vehicles were getting for mpg. At 65 mph most of the way, and the infamous Salt river canyon as part of the trip, we arrived without incident.
On the return trip I was alone in the camaro and doing 70 mph, on the way out of Phx on the state route 60, when I noticed the steering wheel getting off center, and then hearing a slight "ping" the steering was just gone.
I knew better than to jam on the brakes, and so with the car drifting to the right lane I let it slow to about 55 mph before hitting the first downshift, and then worked it down a gear for the next little while all the time looking for a "best" place to hit the brakes.
A car passed me with a look on the drivers face of wth are you doing sliding into my lane????
Luckily, about the time I hit the small curb that seperated the freeway from a 2 ft dropoff into the desert I had slowed to 15 mph and was able to hit the brakes hard to stay on the pavement.
It turned the wheels sideways and locked them right up, but amazingly, got me stopped with no damage to me or the car.
Apparantly, the castle nut holding the idler arm on, (and a few other nuts on the suspension and steering) had never had the cotter pin installed.
Considering what could have happened to my son driving down that morning, or to me that afternoon, I said a prayer of thanks for God listening to my prayer for safety the morning before we left! Makes me realize that sometimes if we see someone driving like a nut, maybe they've just lost one????????