>
>>
>>>It was the CV shaft on the drivers side. I replaced it today. I took it
>>>to a rebuild shop last Friday and got it back today, slapped her in and
>>>no more shimmie. I did the ball joint while it was apart, even though it
>>>looked ok, it had 30k on it and it's only $23 (moog)..they charged me
>>>$75 to rebuild my shaft, I thought that was fairly reasonable.
>>
>>
>> I agree! How did you find this rebuild shop? Yellow pages, or?? >>
>> DS
> I asked my good buddies at my local small town independent auto parts
> store if they knew anyone. They gave me a number of a guy who does it
> along with lots of other auto repair. Looks like the guy started out doing
> small auto repair out of his garage, but now has a legit small business,
> it's still in his garage though...WHen I asked him about "is putting new
> parts in enough..what about the housing getting wallowed out", he went
> into a back room, which appeared to me to be nothing but
> books/catalogs..etc, and showed me his spec book for Chrysler FWD axles,
> including specifications on the housing, he mic'ed the transaxle side
> housing, and it was in spec...seemed like a good guy..
> The local auto parts store is great too..so much better than napa or auto
> zone or the like..they warned me not to get the CV shaft from them as they
> have about a 25% return rate on the ones they can get..and the kinda of
> guys who, when I ask for a ball joint, they reach for the Moog book and
> the phone, instead of pulling the "Silver" brand off the shelf.
> I ask them why they only stock the cheap china crap...they say "because
> that's what everybody wants, the cheapest possible part" (even though in
> this case the Moog joint was only $4 more!)
True Story: I had a neighbor back in the mid 70's who made shocks for AMC. Since they only lasted about 10,000 miles he offered to provide, at his cost, a modified shock that would last much longer with an added nylon bushing to keep in the fluid. (His European customers insisted on this modification). His added cost was 5 cents a unit and they turned him down. Earlier I worked in a lab for a company that provided vinyl for convertible windows to Chrysler and AMC. They would not pay five cents a pound more for a modified product that would not yellow, split or fog. (I don't know how many rear windows they could make out of a pound of vinyl goods). The stuff we tested at the time from Japan for their cars was as good as we knew how to make.
Richard