Feb 2 - like dominoes

So .... I took the car to Tire Kingdom to check the alignment.

As I suspected, the rear control arms, which are basically plates with a bunch of holes in them for shocks etc., are worn. That's not really correct. They aren't worn, there's nothing to wear, but the two bushings in each are worn producing an extra degree of camber that cannot be adjusted out. The "in spec" camber is about 6 degrees and they are at about 7 degrees, giving the car a slightly wider stance. The only real issue is that there will be a little more wear on the inside of the tires over time.

The fronts are another matter. I had suspected that the tie rods might need replacing and I was half right (or left ?). They couldn't release the left tie rod so I'm left with a hair more toe-in and camber than spec. Again not a big deal. The bigger deal, for me, is that the steering wheel is slightly off middle when steering straight. I hate that.

The tie rods are cheap. I'll give that left one more work, as I did yesterday, using Kroil and a pipe wrench instead of the vice-grips that they used, to see if I can get it to turn. If I do, I'll take it back for them to finish the job. I'm also pondering simply replacing it or both of them. It's a DIY job, or so it seems, with the next stop being Tire Rack again, to finish the alignment, which has a six month guarantee.

In other news ... there ain't no other news. I did take the car out for a drive and it runs well, as might be expected, with the new control arms. Everything is very tight, like new.

I'm going to do the Gainesville 300k tomorrow, so I'll be leaving here around 2am for the 5am start. Don't expect a lot of blogging before I leave !

Onward.