big95xj

So i work at firestone. And this Jeep comes in it was an 88 Cherokee with i think about a 4.5 inch lift and 33s all hacked up and trail beaten. It had a winch on the front with a homemade mount. Any ways he needed a brake inspection. He said his pedal was fading away. Ok so no big deal, i take it on a test drive to verify the problem. SO im driving along and the road kind of goes from straight with a little quick left right turn straight agian. So i go around the left hand turn and start to turn the wheel to the right and the Jeep keeps going straight! At this point my heart is in my butt hole and i crank the wheel hard right. It finally makes the turn but not after sending me into the other lane in front of cars. I get back to the shop in this death trap, lift it up and expect to find the front end all sorts of jacked up but everything was tight. All except the gear box. If you remember the homemade winch mount, the bottom 2 bolts for the gearbox were close to tight but the top one it took probably a half an inch worht of tightening to get tight. I guess when i tried to turn the box just twisted instead of turning the wheels.

Sorry bout the rant but i just thought id tell someone who cares!

Anybody else have any near death experiences due to someone elses ignorance???

finneys98xj

Was it fun?

Teal96XJ

^^^

Doesnt sound fun lol......

jpdocdave

nice.....a long time ago i got in a customers durango that was towed in the night before. ticket said check front end. manager hands me the keys. i get in it, pull around the parking lot and when i turn the wheel nothing happens, then all the sudden a huge clunk and it still goes straight but its pulling all over the place. almost ran into a line of used cars on the lot, no steering whatsoever. the tie rod was broken off, thats why it was towed in. no one cared to inform me.

i've had a couple check brakes tickets like that also, when it should say, no brakes.

big95xj

No it was definatley not fun.

claygrassmann

yeah after i did my lift my tire fell off goin down the road cause like a dumb *** i didnt check the lugs again

BuckB91XJ

Nothing more scarey than turning the wheel and the XJ keeps going straight. I had to drive my son's 87 200 hundred miles home, in a rain storm, after I bought it....with wasted bushings at both ends of the track bar. ZERO fun!

mycherokee1989

HAHA! I would have **** myself! how the hell did the guy get it in there?

4xPhil

Whoa...........could have been really bad news!! Glad you got it back to the shop. Were you tempted to run over the guy?

Cliff

Ohh that's not fun at all I had the exact some thing happen to me only it was in a parking lot and not on the road. I used to work installing Boss snow plows and when you install them on older trucks you have to loosen the gearbox bolts. Well a guy I worked with loosened them but forgot to re tighten them I almost smashed into some parked cars as well. Ever since that happened I always drive cars around the lot first before going on the road.
Yeah I had a few of those as well its like WTF

muddeprived

So what happened? Did you tell the dude about it?

sluggy

there is a case going throught the courts in the uk, where a modified [badly from the sound of it] landrover ran into a river. the driver got out but his children drowned.

some people aught to really take notice of the 'bodging' they do.. you had a lucky escape mate.
j

big95xj

I actually had this happen to me about 6 months ago in a 1500 Chevy. It was lifted on 35s. The kid came in for an alignment cuase his tires were shot. Well i couldnt do the alignment due to his left front wheel bearing was toasted. So the kid took it home and did the bearing himself. It was a simple hub bearing, im thinking how do you screw that up, but he brought it back and everything was tight so i did the alignment. I got done and left on my test drive, a 2 mile loop that everyone has to take, i get right in front of the shop fixxin to turn into the driveway and boom boom boom the left front tire falls off! The kid comes out and says damn i knew i forgot something. Then his girlfriend had the nerve to ask me why i dint check the lugnuts. I just looked at her like she was a moron and told her i didnt even touch the lugnuts...
He drove it. I guess when you drive something long enough you dont even realize the problems it has. It just becomes second nature...
Yeah i told him about it all right. I tightened it up for him got a 5 hour job out of him for all the brake issues it had and sent him on his way!