That was close!
 

Monday, as I was traveling from Charleston to Atlanta, I asked if something broke mechanically on the car, causing a wreck, would insurance pay for everything? Nothing happened and I came home in one piece last night.

But…. Today the front end felt funny as the day went on. When I got home just now, I looked under the truck and the nut on the right side tie rod was missing. DOH!

I reused the nylock nut working on the truck last weekend (in the heat), so it either worked its way loose or the nut behind the wheel forgot to tighten it. I’m going with loose nut behind the wheel.🥵🤯

Lesson learned. Double and triple check your work.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1690406699.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1690406699.jpg

yikes. glad you're ok

That should be a castle nut with a cotter pin.

Wow!
That was close.
I'm kind of surprised they don't use a cotter pin to help secure it, but that would only slow down the assembly line when it was built, so no, no surprise there.
Glad you survived to tell the tale.

Two things impressed me here:

1) That everything stayed together (well, kind of).

and

2) That you did what I suspect most people wouldn't: you pointed the finger directly at yourself. Good on you!

_

I think you can forget about winning the lottery.

A good zip-tie would have held it. :D

Yeah, I would be surprised if a nylock, even a used one, worked it's way off. You're probably right about forgetting to tighten.

I remember forgetting to tighten some lugnuts years ago. I noticed a noise, got out and looked around and didn't see a problem. Started going again, and then the noise started back up. I stopped again and me and my buddy were looking around. The sound was coming from the passenger's side, but since we couldn't find anything, my buddy decided to check the driver's side. What he found was that the front wheel only had 2 of 5 lugnets, and those two were about half undone. I tightened those two up and then snagged one each from 2 other wheels, so I had at least 4 lugnuts on each wheel which was enough to get to a FLAPS.

Exactly. He used his quota of luck up for a while.

Glad it turned out OK and you could tell there was a problem. I have no doubt that there's a huge portion of the public that would have kept driving until there was an incident.

Phew......you got lucky, brother!

Working in this heat has to get part of the blame here.

As you said....lesson learned....go back and double/triple check everything. Maybe even after you get a chance to cool the brain back down!

Had a torque arm on a f350 break at the weld where the eye is and drop down into the steering, preventing me from going right, as I was halfway thru a righthand turn. Near headon, everyone slowed and all ok, but the other driver must have thought I was drunk or high.

Same car as the lugnut issue in my previous post. I left the HS parking lot in my '65 Impala and was coming up to my turn. When I hit the brakes, the driver's side strut bar snapped in the middle at the rear of the threads (must have been 6" of threads). Hit the brakes and the car steered hard right enough that the car hopped the curb toward the oncoming lane. I let off of the brakes and the steering normalized. Hit the brakes again, and again the car was determined to turn right whether I wanted to or not. It was scary as sheisse. I did figure out before I got it stopped that if I was hard on the brakes, that the car was going to go where it wanted, but if I was light on the brakes, it was manageable. I can't remember if I managed to limp the car home by being really light on the brakes or if I just managed to get it stopped and out of the way and got it towed home (<1mile). I'm sure there were folks on the road that thought I was drunk or high.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1690419194.jpg

Definitely a scary moment when I saw the nut missing. I’m looking now, to see if I can find either a new nut or buy a new tie rod and use that nut.

Ha. I was following a pickup truck yesterday with a gardening trailer behind it. It was a 25-mph road (which people actually follow at around 25 mph). His right front tie rod fell off. I dodged it and noticed remaining right front suspension pieces dragging. He pulled over pretty quickly after that.

or a rusty old vise grip,

Nuclear power plant duct tape!

You should check the tapered bore and make sure you did not damage the surface, the taper is intended to lock together and if there are any dents in there it will not seat properly. Yes you were lucky.

Gawd's ball! Indeed, you were lucky.

Wow, seconds from disaster ! Glad you are safe !

The very hand of god held that in for you! Glad things didn't sideways!

That was Rocket's doppelganger.

I'd wondered about that.

https://www.vintagecampertrailers.co...-0214_orig.jpg

I'd assume that if the thing was as tight going in as prior that it should be "OK" but should probably be checked periodically for a while just to be sure.

I heard a bad sound coming from the passenger's side of my 356. Turns out it was my passenger. Getting rid of her was a lot harder than replacing lug nuts, I'll tell you.

I checked the bore with the flashlight/mirror and my finger and it felt smooth*

I installed a new nut off a new tie rod this morning and I’m back in business.

I don’t know if you can see it in the original picture, but you the top of the tie rod was hitting the backer plate on the brakes. I think that thin sheet metal was about the only thing holding it in. 🤯

* no lubricant was used!😂

Edit. I just happen to received new spindles Tuesday that have a 4” lift, and I will take off the 3” level on the struts, (which is not the best way to raise the truck up a few inches). That’s the project I had in mind for a cooler weekend or maybe September/October.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1690468072.jpg

Indeed. I've done stupider stuff than this. Today, when working on a car, I treat it as though it were an airplane instead. Retrace my steps. Make darned sure all fasteners are tight. Work from a cleaned-off work bench, keeping things in neat order there including and especially parts removed from the vehicle. The vehicle does not move until I have quadruple-checked everything.

I recently replaced the idler and pitman arms on my Tahoe. The nuts were what is called prevailing torque type. They are upset metal and not nyloc. I'm not a huge fan of nyloc nuts after the Reno air race incident. Especially reusing them.
I feel for you, I'm more likely to forget things during a project and have to double check/triple check. The other day I changed the oil - let the car off the jack/etc. and then realized I forgot to change the filter. Never done that before.

The older I get the more I find myself double checking and triple checking stuff like this when I work on my cars.

I usually do the same, but got in a rush, because there was a thunderstorm coming in, and I was exhausted from the heat that day.

Never again.

What’s strange is, I was worried about it Monday headed to Atlanta and kept playing in my mind that I finished it correctly. At one point on the way there or back, I retorqued my lug nuts, thinking that might be the noise.

LMAO!

harder, and likely more expensive.

Lucky escape !
Old boss taught me to:
1/ Complete the job.
2/ Clean and put the tools away.
3/ Go back with torch and mirror and inspect/quality check my work.
If using a torque wrench mark each faster immediately after final torque applied.

Tightening is far more important than the nut and retainer system.

Ask me how I know. :)