Arnold:
From the amount of helpful responses you've already received on this topic,
I guess you could say, like our outgoing Commander-in-Chief, that "We feel
your pain". Still, apparently this hasn't been enough to solve the mystery
and the problem. This fact and the fact that you now appear all but ready
to sell the car in frustration leads me to another fact: Sometimes you've
just got to turn it over to a Pro.
I had a similar, if less severe "wandering" problem once upon a time with my
Amphi. Turns out it was just the crown nuts on the rear axles wanting a bit
more "heave-ho" than my heaviest 10 inch crescent wrench could provide. Was
it ME who diagnosed this? Hell no. It was a Pro: Billy Syx of East Coast
Amphicar. I'm lucky to live close enough in the scheme of things to Billy
and Randy's "Amphicar Compound" in Mays Landing for the occasional visit.
It makes for a guaranteed "real nice weekend" to hop in the Amphi and buzz
on over to Jersey via the Cape May-Lewes Ferry. It's a real pleasant
afternoon jaunt broken up with a nice little two hour sea voyage across the
Bay--just enough for the Amphi to really stretch its legs and blow out the
cobwebs, but not enough to tax it. Billy and Randy often return the favor
as our frequent houseguests here in Virginia, where we cruise the Potomac
and Occoquan Rivers, mount amphibious assaults on Mt. Vernon...that kind of
thing. It was during one of my visits there in Mays Landing, while imposing
on Billy to do that 2 minute magic brake adjustment he can do, that he
discovered the cause of my mild handling problems without even having been
clued in on the fact that I even HAD any handling problems.
Hence my suggestion: Why not call Billy Syx at 609-625-1015 and see if he
can squeeze in your meandering Amphi for a proper look-see this Winter.
Mays Landing is only 688 miles from your place in Johns Island, South
Carolina--that's just a full day's drive.
And yes, this has been an unsolicited and unpaid endorsement for East Coast
Amphicar, whose website is found at
http://www.galloweb.com/~amphicar/
Incidentally, while on the topic of websites, I should let you all know that
whatever gremlins have suddenly taken up residence on the Amphicar.net
server to screw up its navigation button labels and some of its other
formatting squeeds have still not been exorcised. I'm still working on this
problem with our service supplier's tech folks. Hopefully, we'll correct
the problem sooner rather than later. In the meantime, folks waiting for
ads to appear will just have to hang in there.
Best of Luck!
~Bilgemaster~
----- Original Message -----
From: "Arnold Hite" <
ahite@Charleston.Net>
To: <
amphicar-lovers@egroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2000 4:07 PM
Subject: [amphicar-lovers] Still Wandering
> You may remember I have a 64 white that wanders all over the road at
about
> 45 mph. I had taken it in for an alignment hoping this would fix the
> problem. The alignment shop workers were unwilling to do the alignment
> until I replaced a bad front bearing and an unspecified bushing. I put
off
> replacing the bushing because I was uncertain which bushing they were
> talking about, and the one I suspected looked really hard to replace.
Also
> that bushing requires three special Amphicar tools including one called
the
> "Special Reaming Tool." I did install a new set of bearings in the front
> end. Several of you reminded me to make sure the tire pressure wasn't too
> high in the front tires so I check that too. All was ready yesterday and
I
> took the wanderer out for a trial run. NO EFFECT. The car still wanders
as
> bad as before. I'm now convinced the problem is a bad bushing. I've
> jacked up both of my Amphies to compare the play in the front ends. The
> steering linkages in both cars are amazingly firm and free of play. Both
> cars have a little vertical play in the front tire assemblies. By this I
> mean if you grab the tire at the 12:00 and 6:00 position, and give it a
good
> shake, you can feel the wheel assembly give just a little. The right
front
> tire on the wanderer gives considerably more. I don't know why I didn't
> notice this last month when I started this repair.
> I told my wife that I've had enough, and I'm ready to sell this car.
> The other car is in much better shape but is being neglected. She insists
> that we continue the work until the wandering problem, and a few others,
> are resolved. She owns the car. I'm only the pro bono mechanic. I'll
call
> Huge next week to get trained on reaming out the new bushing.
>
> Arnold Hite
> Johns Island, SC
>
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