How bad is the damage?

[C3L81]

Went to my first car show of the year today. Car was running great, was a wonderful day weather wise and I was excited. The show was great and I got a plaque, hoorray. Driving down Route 7 and all of a sudden the road turns to ****, 65-70 Mph I hit what most would call a pot hole, but on all sides not just one tire. From there on in the car starts pulling to the left and shaking (not terriable, but shaking). Was on my third day of not smoking and bought a pack to ease the stress. Ok so what do you think I did? Hopefully it just needs a allighnment? Whats the worse prognosis? There is no rattling or anything making noise, just the bad pull and the shaking. God this sucks Im broke and cant afford much

 

[67HEAVEN]

Sorry for your problem. Messed up alignment sounds like a "for sure".

Also, you may have dropped some wheel weights, or have damaged some tire belts. Best stay on city streets until you get it checked out.

 

[C3L81]

The tires are the original Eagle GT's too. 25 year old tires could be a problem I imagine. Just cant afford to replace them right now.

 

[67HEAVEN]

The tires are the original Eagle GT's too. 25 year old tires could be a problem I imagine.

Absolutely they could be a problem. Keep your speed down until you can afford to replace them.

Twenty-five years old is too old for tires on a driven car.

 

[L48]

The pull to the left sounds like alignment. I guess I would look under there and see if you can see any obvious damage.

The shaking is a probably either a wheel weight off, a bent rim, or cords shifted in the tire. There is also a chance something stuck to the wheel though that is not likely based on what you described.

 

[vett boy]

Really sorry but i don't think it's all that bad. I understand money being tight,i've been there. Give up smokin' a while longer $$$

 

[gmjunkie]

Absolutely they could be a problem. Keep your speed down until you can afford to replace them.

Twenty-five years old is too old for tires on a driven car.

( WWJD ) What would the Junkie Do??? Get them 25 year old Tires off that thing!!!! The Life you Save may be Mine!! You probly broke a Belt in tire!! Those tires were bad for breaking belts new!! And a Broken belt WILL PULL Like a Big Dog!! You may have some other Damage too!!

 

[AKRAY4PLAY]

take a real close look at your lower a-arm mounting bracket. they are notorious for breaking welds. both of mine were broken and the only thing holding the passenger side on was the tension from the washers. after removing the retaining bolts, it fell off the car. you may have snapped one of the mounts with an impact like that. it will most deffinately cause a pull from major misalignment.

 

[C3L81]

Sold my blazer finally and have a appointment to put on 4 Firestone Firehawk indy 500's and Allignment tommrow. Hopefully that will be all she needs

 

[JJS]

Sold my blazer finally and have a appointment to put on 4 Firestone Firehawk indy 500's and Allignment tommrow. Hopefully that will be all she needs

I think you're going to like those tires, Randy. That's what I have on mine.

-John

 

[L48]

I just bought a set last year also. I am happy with the performance and the raised white letters look great.

 

[C3L81]

Yeah I accually considered them from the feedback on these forums. Seems everyone likes them and the price is reasonable. They are also the top rated tires in Dry traction, and since she doesnt go in the rain, I figured they would be perfect. I just hope nothing is broken under there and it just needs tires and Allignment.

 

[JJS]

Yeah I accually considered them from the feedback on these forums. Seems everyone likes them and the price is reasonable. They are also the top rated tires in Dry traction, and since she doesnt go in the rain, I figured they would be perfect. I just hope nothing is broken under there and it just needs tires and Allignment.

I bought mine (cheap) from TireRack.com. They were delivered to my door in two days, so I'd get a quote from them (online), then see if your local dealership will meet, or beat TireRack's price. I buy all the tires for my vehicles from the TireRack now. -John

 

[vett boy]

Hope this does the trick for you. Keep us posted.Remember good guys drive white.

 

[C3L81]

Well I have mixed feelings about how today went. First off let me say the car is Drasticly better which is the most important thing. I went to a Recomended tire dealer local. I got the price and Tires I wanted, and they were giving away baseball tickets if you bought 4 Dunlop Gt qualafiers in a certain size that just happened to be the size my wifes Impala needed. Took the Vette in at 3pm for 4 Indy 500's and a Full Allingnment. I asked them to check for any other damage and they told me everything was fine (A breath of fresh air) Around 4:30 they told me I was all set, and they gave me the allinment papers and described that they didnt have "time" to do the rear and it was only slightly off. Ok whatever I can live with that, they took some $ off the bill and I was happy. Went outside and checked out the new tires trying to ignore the greasy finger prints all over my investment. They looked great. Then I noticed they removed one of my chrome lugnuts on each tire and replaced them with one of those keyed fit lugnuts and saw they left a key on the front seat. I went in and asked the guy at the desk if he had my 4 lugnuts, he looked at me like I had 4 heads and I told him the scoop. He went on to tell me that they were always like that and the tech probably just left me a key for it. As if I dont know my frigging Corvette??!! I mean I would have been fine with it if they gave me my lugnuts back and didnt try to act like it was always like that. I kind of like the idea of them to prevent theft, but you never tell a corvette guy that something on his car was there when he knows it wasnt. Anyways, I thought to myself, screw it and took it for a ride to pick up my wifes impala and drop her off. She drove fantastic and only slightly pulled to the left (im going to bring it to somone else who has the "time" to Allign the rear) Hunky doory Im pretty happy. I drive her into the storage unit and walk around her one last time before I get the impala. Drivers side front -check, Driver side Rear-check, passenger Rear - rubber fill cap? opposed to my chrome WTF /sigh, passenger front, Same deal WTF/sigh. Hopped into the imapla and drove back. Asked the guy at the desk as I handed him the keys, can you check for my chrome fill caps? Once again, im wrong and they were always there, lol yeah ok. You better hurry up and give me those baseball tickets before I strangle your retarded ass. 35 min later the impala was done, I got my tickets and overall am happy with the price and products, but service was negative.


Most important thing is that the vette is ok, and im up for two car shows this week!

 

[Evolution1980]

There's two lessons learned here.

1) Never take your vette to a general shop, beit local or national chain. They have very little respect for their greasy hands and even fewer, if any of their guys, have worked on cars as old and as "different" as yours. I don't even take my daily driver to 'em anymore because there'd be grease all over the steering wheel, door handle, etc.
10:1 odds they didn't align the rear because they either didn't have the proper instructions for doing it, they didn't have the proper shims for doing it, or they couldn't break the bolts free without possibly breaking 'em.

2) When you are going to have tires done on the vette, just take them the tires. It's a pain, but find a way to get just the tires up there. I borrowed a friend's truck. And be sure to tell them ahead of time what exactly you want. E.g., no weights on the outside lip, put them on the inside and flat weights on the inside wall if they need to be as close to the outer lip. Be very specific that you want your chrome caps and valve stems back on. Don't let them BS you. YOU know your car. The grease monkeys wrenching on it and the manager don't. And they are used to customers not knowing their arse from a hole in the ground, so they stick to their guns as a way to make you doubt yourself.

We've all been there. One last thing... the alignment shop should ALWAYS give you the specs of the alignment they did so you have a reference point.

I know Warren is a bit far out, but if you want it done right by people that respect your car, take it to Backstreet Performance in Medina. That's who did my car and that's where I'm also going to dyno my car this weekend. In the 11+ years I've had my car, it has NEVER driven as well as it did after they aligned it last year! It's phonominal!

 

[JJS]

They would've been taking EVERYTHING off, and I would've gotten my lug nuts, and chrome fill caps back, or somebody would've been calling the cops. You should've went into the service area to talk to the moron that actually did the work.

 

[C3L81]

JJS

Sometimes you just have to relax and take life as it comes. I have issues with my temper, I used to be a cage fighter 5 years ago and im trying to learn how to control myslef now that I have two little girls. Trust me I wanted to snap that guys neck, but I cant afford to go to jail over some lug nuts and caps that I can get at the store for pocket change.

Evo

I will keep that shop in mind when I decide to do the rear. This shop was accually recomended to me by some corvette guys, infact there was a 67 in there getting tires at the same time as me. Who knows maybe the shops local around me are even worse then they are.

Oh well, she is riding much better, Im just glad there wasnt major damage

 

[JJS]

JJS

Sometimes you just have to relax and take life as it comes. I have issues with my temper, I used to be a cage fighter 5 years ago and im trying to learn how to control myslef now that I have two little girls. Trust me I wanted to snap that guys neck, but I cant afford to go to jail over some lug nuts and caps that I can get at the store for pocket change.

Evo

I will keep that shop in mind when I decide to do the rear. This shop was accually recomended to me by some corvette guys, infact there was a 67 in there getting tires at the same time as me. Who knows maybe the shops local around me are even worse then they are.

Oh well, she is riding much better, Im just glad there wasnt major damage

You're absolutely right, Randy. No sense going to jail over something as trivial as that. It just got my blood boiling a little bit when I read how this guy was telling you what "you" had on "your" car!

Evo gave you some sound advice, and hopefully pointed you to a garage that can fill your needs. I guess I'm spoiled here in central MA due to having a place like Ron's auto restorations (Fitchburg) to work on my car. They specialize in corvette restorations, and they're the only people I let touch my car.

Glad to hear there wasn't any damage to the suspension and that the car is running like new again. -John

 

[blackandred78]

When I got my 1978 it had a huge vibration at about 70 mph, and it was due entirely to the rear alignment. They are very camber sensative. I took an alignment recommendation from Dick Guldstrand (former Corvette racer and aftermarket supplier) and the settings were perfect. Rear camber is a huge deal with these cars.