Close call . . .

[Bill Cleveland]

I was out for a little cruise in the neighborhood and not far from home, as I approached an intersection for a major thoroughfare, I heard/felt a “pop” from the suspension. Alarmed, I pulled into a gas station to take a quick look-see. Nothing obvious was visible so I headed back home for a more thorough inspection, hearing another “pop” as I exited the gas station. Arriving at home I checked the front suspension points and found nothing loose or unusual. When I got down under the car to examine the rear suspension, I saw the driver-side radius rod missing a nut where it attaches to the frame. It is bolted to the frame bracket with a 5/8” grade 8 bolt. Upon closer inspection I saw that it was hanging on the bolt with only a couple of threads visible. Had it slid all the way off the bolt, the driver-side of my rear axle would have been located only by the coil-over shock, which wouldn’t do much to mitigate its fore/aft movement. Phew!!! That could have been a major catastrophe. Imagine cruising a major 4-lane thoroughfare when your rear axle decides to do the steering. I beat it up to the hardware store and purchased a pair of 5/8” – 11 nyloc nuts (one for each side). Why I didn’t use nylocs when I built it I don’t know. Moral of the story: doing a nut check once every Spring may not be enough. Be careful out there boys ‘n girls.
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(PS - On the finished car the rear RR attachment points are not visible due to the 5" channel.)
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[rbsWELDER]

Wow! Glad that you and your Bucket are okay!!!

[j2ctjc]

I heard stories of things like that on Hot Rods so when I built mine I used a little longer bolts and put the nuts on then drilled the ends and put cotter pins thru the bolts so nuts can't come off. Just a thought.

[rbsWELDER]

I put this checklist for Nutin' and Boltin' for the Carolina T's, some years ago. As we ready our cars for the summer cruising season, might be good to give the car the old once over!