... A SMART Man Learns From the Mistakes of Others!
Hopefully you're all smart here, and will learn from the wisdom I just gained through hard-fought experience (and stupidity).
This isn't strictly CRX-related, but since it's Honda-related, and it's apocryphal, I thought I'd share this little piece of "D'OH!" with you.
A few weeks ago, I did a bunch of suspension work on my daily-driver, a 1991 Accord station wagon. I'd damaged the front suspension on a particularly vicious pothole a while back, and I'd finally gathered together all the pieces I needed to replace. I replaced the front lower crossmember, the little under-engine "cradle" piece that ties the front crossmember to the rear one, and both front lower control arms. The control arms I was just replacing because I was sick of the noise and roughness of the urethane bushings I'd put in them a few years back, not because they were damaged. Cast control arms are really tough, usually stronger than the structure they're bolted to.
Anyway, all went smoothly, until I went to put the Cotter pins back in the lower balljoints. I have a pack of assorted Cotter pins; I know I have it. I bought it, and it's in my garage. Somewhere, along with Amelia Earhart and Jimmy Hoffa, and my one missing sock. To make a long story even longer, I couldn't find those damn Cotter pins anywhere, so I decided I'd just re-use the old ones "for now". What's the worst that could happen, right?
That weekend, I drove the car 550 miles round-trip to see my folks on Mother's Day. Everything went fine. I drove the car to work and back on Monday, and everything was fine. Tuesday morning, I got in the car to go to work, backed out of the driveway, and heard a "clunk". "What the...?" I wondered to myself. Had I hit something? I looked around, but couldn't see anything I might have run over (no cats, dogs, or small children or bicycles lying in my driveway). I shrugged, put 'er in first gear, and started to let out the clutch, when I heard - and FELT - a "clunk-WHUMP!", and the front right corner of the car dropped to the ground. At that point, I *knew* what had happened, or at least had a good idea: my wheel had just fallen off!
I got out, looked under the car, and sure enough, the suspension was all apart at the lower balljoint on that side. What's more, the force of the wheel's sudden independence had also torn the passenger-side axle in half at the inner CV joint, so the car wasn't going anywhere under its own power (curse you, open differential!). I was able to get my floor jack under the car and get it rolled more or less back up into my driveway, and I grabbed the next car in line (Ruby, my '91 CRX DX) and hied my arse to work, a mere 20 minutes late.
I got everything back together over the weekend. I found the castle-nut from the balljoint lying in the road. The balljoint was toast - the joint itself was fine, but the threads were chewed up, as was the nut. The "used" Cotter pin was nowhere to be found. Apparently, it had broken off, fallen out, and at that point it was just a matter of time before the nut worked itself loose.
The lesson I learned is easy: NEVER RE-USE A $0.05 COTTER PIN! Well, that and "Clunk is never a good sound from your suspension."
I had a new balljoint pressed in, put a new nut on it, and put new Cotter pins in both sides, on the upper balljoints, lower balljoints, and the tie-rod balljoints. Hey, even if the uppers and the tie-rods hadn't been apart, why tempt fate, eh? The axle was no big deal; I had a spare in the garage (courtesy of a parted-out Accord that went to the crusher a while back)
All is now well again with the Wagon-O-Doom (or "W'Agony" as she's usually known around my house), but my, how she tries me. Or rather, how my own stupidity tries me sometimes. All in all, I think about how bad this COULD have been (losing a wheel on the highway at 80mph or so), and I feel pretty darn lucky. Of all the places for this to happen, my driveway is probably the BEST I could have hoped for.
So that's my story. Don't let it be yours. Use new Cotter pins every time!
Mike
Hopefully you're all smart here, and will learn from the wisdom I just gained through hard-fought experience (and stupidity).
This isn't strictly CRX-related, but since it's Honda-related, and it's apocryphal, I thought I'd share this little piece of "D'OH!" with you.
A few weeks ago, I did a bunch of suspension work on my daily-driver, a 1991 Accord station wagon. I'd damaged the front suspension on a particularly vicious pothole a while back, and I'd finally gathered together all the pieces I needed to replace. I replaced the front lower crossmember, the little under-engine "cradle" piece that ties the front crossmember to the rear one, and both front lower control arms. The control arms I was just replacing because I was sick of the noise and roughness of the urethane bushings I'd put in them a few years back, not because they were damaged. Cast control arms are really tough, usually stronger than the structure they're bolted to.
Anyway, all went smoothly, until I went to put the Cotter pins back in the lower balljoints. I have a pack of assorted Cotter pins; I know I have it. I bought it, and it's in my garage. Somewhere, along with Amelia Earhart and Jimmy Hoffa, and my one missing sock. To make a long story even longer, I couldn't find those damn Cotter pins anywhere, so I decided I'd just re-use the old ones "for now". What's the worst that could happen, right?
That weekend, I drove the car 550 miles round-trip to see my folks on Mother's Day. Everything went fine. I drove the car to work and back on Monday, and everything was fine. Tuesday morning, I got in the car to go to work, backed out of the driveway, and heard a "clunk". "What the...?" I wondered to myself. Had I hit something? I looked around, but couldn't see anything I might have run over (no cats, dogs, or small children or bicycles lying in my driveway). I shrugged, put 'er in first gear, and started to let out the clutch, when I heard - and FELT - a "clunk-WHUMP!", and the front right corner of the car dropped to the ground. At that point, I *knew* what had happened, or at least had a good idea: my wheel had just fallen off!
I got out, looked under the car, and sure enough, the suspension was all apart at the lower balljoint on that side. What's more, the force of the wheel's sudden independence had also torn the passenger-side axle in half at the inner CV joint, so the car wasn't going anywhere under its own power (curse you, open differential!). I was able to get my floor jack under the car and get it rolled more or less back up into my driveway, and I grabbed the next car in line (Ruby, my '91 CRX DX) and hied my arse to work, a mere 20 minutes late.
I got everything back together over the weekend. I found the castle-nut from the balljoint lying in the road. The balljoint was toast - the joint itself was fine, but the threads were chewed up, as was the nut. The "used" Cotter pin was nowhere to be found. Apparently, it had broken off, fallen out, and at that point it was just a matter of time before the nut worked itself loose.
The lesson I learned is easy: NEVER RE-USE A $0.05 COTTER PIN! Well, that and "Clunk is never a good sound from your suspension."
I had a new balljoint pressed in, put a new nut on it, and put new Cotter pins in both sides, on the upper balljoints, lower balljoints, and the tie-rod balljoints. Hey, even if the uppers and the tie-rods hadn't been apart, why tempt fate, eh? The axle was no big deal; I had a spare in the garage (courtesy of a parted-out Accord that went to the crusher a while back)
All is now well again with the Wagon-O-Doom (or "W'Agony" as she's usually known around my house), but my, how she tries me. Or rather, how my own stupidity tries me sometimes. All in all, I think about how bad this COULD have been (losing a wheel on the highway at 80mph or so), and I feel pretty darn lucky. Of all the places for this to happen, my driveway is probably the BEST I could have hoped for.
So that's my story. Don't let it be yours. Use new Cotter pins every time!
Mike
