Interesting solution to an alignment problem

Hachiroku ãƒ�ãƒ�ãƒ*ク wrote:
> 1989 Mazda 626. I replaced the lower control arm on the pass side in
> December, and while it resolved the ball joint issue, the steering wheel
> was cocked to the passenger's side and pulling to the right.
>
> My computer decided to blow it's brains out last night, and I was up until
> 3:30AM putting the old one back in service and reloading Linux YET AGAIN,
> so when I got up at 10 I figured, I'm gonna PAY someone this time and
> relax, and get it lined up all at once. Every shop I went to..."If you had
> come last week..."
>
> It got up to 64 degrees in Massachusetts (they said t was going to be 46,
> so I had planned to do it today anyway, and 65 was just a bonus...) so I
> pulled into the yard, got the jack, stands and tools out and went at it.
> Wasn't as easy as the other one, and, see later for an aside question.
> The only thing I couldn't get out was the sway bar link from the old
> control arm, and AutoZone went from $4.99 to $18!!! But, it's all
> together, and...the wheel is STRAIGHT and the pulling is GONE! All I did
> was just put it back in where the other one was, and it drives straight
> down the road, no pulling, no nothing, just nice and smooth. I figured
> this might happen, but I was betting more on having the alignment go WAY
> out.
>
>
> BTW, there was something on the driver's side not on the passenger's side:
> a "Black Box" I had to remove to get the rear bolts out. It had no
> connections on it, just bolted to the frame, and appears to be a big
> magnet. It attracted my tools when I set it down.
>
> The car does not have ABS or 4 wheel steering (some did). Any ideas?
>
>
A TRACKING DEVICE !!!!!!!!
http://www.google.com/images?q=track...w=1169&bih=572

On Thu, 17 Feb 2011 21:12:29 -0600, Hachiroku ???? >
wrote:

>1989 Mazda 626. I replaced the lower control arm on the pass side in
>December, and while it resolved the ball joint issue, the steering wheel
>was cocked to the passenger's side and pulling to the right.
>
>My computer decided to blow it's brains out last night, and I was up until
>3:30AM putting the old one back in service and reloading Linux YET AGAIN,
>so when I got up at 10 I figured, I'm gonna PAY someone this time and
>relax, and get it lined up all at once. Every shop I went to..."If you had
>come last week..."
>
>It got up to 64 degrees in Massachusetts (they said t was going to be 46,
>so I had planned to do it today anyway, and 65 was just a bonus...) so I
>pulled into the yard, got the jack, stands and tools out and went at it.
>Wasn't as easy as the other one, and, see later for an aside question.
>The only thing I couldn't get out was the sway bar link from the old
>control arm, and AutoZone went from $4.99 to $18!!! But, it's all
>together, and...the wheel is STRAIGHT and the pulling is GONE! All I did
>was just put it back in where the other one was, and it drives straight
>down the road, no pulling, no nothing, just nice and smooth. I figured
>this might happen, but I was betting more on having the alignment go WAY
>out.
>

I rebuilt the entire front end on my old Pontiac, all new bushings,
ball joints, tie rods. I lined everything up by eye and when I took
it in for alignment all they had to adjust was the toe. I did the toe
with a tape measure but it was still off quite a bit. You should at
least have your alignment checked, if the toe is off very much it can
drive ok but will wear the tires out fairly fast.

On Feb 18, 12:45*pm, Ashton Crusher > wrote:
> On Thu, 17 Feb 2011 21:12:29 -0600, Hachiroku ???? >
> wrote:
>
>
>
> >1989 Mazda 626. I replaced the lower control arm on the pass side in
> >December, and while it resolved the ball joint issue, the steering wheel
> >was cocked to the passenger's side and pulling to the right.
>
> >My computer decided to blow it's brains out last night, and I was up until
> >3:30AM putting the old one back in service and reloading Linux YET AGAIN,
> >so when I got up at 10 I figured, I'm gonna PAY someone this time and
> >relax, and get it lined up all at once. Every shop I went to..."If you had
> >come last week..."
>
> >It got up to 64 degrees in Massachusetts (they said t was going to be 46,
> >so I had planned to do it today anyway, and 65 was just a bonus...) so I
> >pulled into the yard, got the jack, stands and tools out and went at it.
> >Wasn't as easy as the other one, and, see later for an aside question.
> >The only thing I couldn't get out was the sway bar link from the old
> >control arm, and AutoZone went from $4.99 to $18!!! But, it's all
> >together, and...the wheel is STRAIGHT and the pulling is GONE! All I did
> >was just put it back in where the other one was, and it drives straight
> >down the road, no pulling, no nothing, just nice and smooth. I figured
> >this might happen, but I was betting more on having the alignment go WAY
> >out.
>
> I rebuilt the entire front end on my old Pontiac, all new bushings,
> ball joints, tie rods. *I lined everything up by eye and when I took
> it in for alignment all they had to adjust was the toe. *I did the toe
> with a tape measure but it was still off quite a bit. *You should at
> least have your alignment checked, if the toe is off very much it can
> drive ok but will wear the tires out fairly fast.



You find decent instructions online for DIY alignment.

On Fri, 18 Feb 2011 11:45:50 -0700, Ashton Crusher wrote:

> On Thu, 17 Feb 2011 21:12:29 -0600, Hachiroku ???? > wrote:
>
>>1989 Mazda 626. I replaced the lower control arm on the pass side in
>>December, and while it resolved the ball joint issue, the steering wheel
>>was cocked to the passenger's side and pulling to the right.
>>
>>My computer decided to blow it's brains out last night, and I was up
>>until 3:30AM putting the old one back in service and reloading Linux YET
>>AGAIN, so when I got up at 10 I figured, I'm gonna PAY someone this time
>>and relax, and get it lined up all at once. Every shop I went to..."If
>>you had come last week..."
>>
>>It got up to 64 degrees in Massachusetts (they said t was going to be 46,
>>so I had planned to do it today anyway, and 65 was just a bonus...) so I
>>pulled into the yard, got the jack, stands and tools out and went at it.
>>Wasn't as easy as the other one, and, see later for an aside question.
>>The only thing I couldn't get out was the sway bar link from the old
>>control arm, and AutoZone went from $4.99 to $18!!! But, it's all
>>together, and...the wheel is STRAIGHT and the pulling is GONE! All I did
>>was just put it back in where the other one was, and it drives straight
>>down the road, no pulling, no nothing, just nice and smooth. I figured
>>this might happen, but I was betting more on having the alignment go WAY
>>out.
>>
>>
> I rebuilt the entire front end on my old Pontiac, all new bushings, ball
> joints, tie rods. I lined everything up by eye and when I took it in for
> alignment all they had to adjust was the toe. I did the toe with a tape
> measure but it was still off quite a bit. You should at least have your
> alignment checked, if the toe is off very much it can drive ok but will
> wear the tires out fairly fast.


That's what I was thinking today. The old snow tires, after 2.5 years,
would have made nice slicks...

On Fri, 18 Feb 2011 05:27:27 -0800, N8N wrote:

> On Feb 17, 10:51Â*pm, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:
>> Tegger > wrote:
>> >=?iso-2022-jp?q?Hachiroku_=1B$B%O%A%m%=2F=1B=28B?= >
>> >wrote :
>>
>> >> My computer decided to blow it's brains out last night, and I was up
>> >> until 3:30AM putting the old one back in service and reloading Linux
>> >> YET AGAIN,
>>
>> >I thought Linux was supposed to be more stable than a Swiss government.
>>
>> It is. Â*And if the computer itself dies, the easy solution is to
>> transplant the hard drive into a new computer and keep going. Â*So I am
>> a little curious what Hachiroku is doing...
>
> I've found two shortcomings with Linux over the years...
>
> 1) if your power quality sucks (to the point where you have several short
> outages every day) and you don't have a UPS, eventually things will become
> corrupt to the point where it won't boot.
>
> 2) I haven't had any luck with ANY proprietary video drivers with Linux -
> I've used both Intel and ATI and while ATI is *better,* it's still not
> perfect. Both my boxen have ATI video right now, thankfully. Intel on
> Ubuntu 10.04 is not pretty.
>
> nate


You need to get an nVidia card. I was having a BIOTCH of a problem with
ATi cards, no accelerated graphics, couldn't adjust the screen size, etc.
I spent about 3 weeks trying different things (back in 2007, 8 and 9)
trying to get the darnm thing to work! I finally discovered that, at that
time, loading driver version 2.7, uninstalling, and then loading v2.3
worked quite well.

I bought a used nVidia card from the guitar player in the band, got my
flame-proof suit and prepared to do the usual battle after changing a
piece of hardware, took the ATi card out and plugged in the nVidia,
pressed the power button and...Ubuntu came up with a big screen that said
nVidia, got into the desktop and a box popped up saying "There are
proprietary drivers available for your hardware. I clicked "downlaod and
install" and that was it! Even with the wonky monitor I had, I had the
screen size and refresh adjusted in 5 minutes. I was also running a drive
with PCLOS, and it did the same thing, except I had to install the driver
manually ("manually" means opening Synaptic, searching "nVidia" and
clicking "apply".)

Even Windows had a better time with the nVidia card than the ATi. I used
to love ATi, but their driver support is not up to the task.


Intel is marginally better than ATi, but 'acceleration' seems to mean
something else to them...

On Thu, 17 Feb 2011 23:19:06 -0500, JoeSpareBedroom wrote:

> "Tegger" > wrote in message
> ...
>> =?iso-2022-jp?q?Hachiroku_=1B$B%O%A%m%=2F=1B=28B?= >
>> wrote in :
>>
>>
>>
>>> My computer decided to blow it's brains out last night, and I was up
>>> until 3:30AM putting the old one back in service and reloading Linux
>>> YET AGAIN,
>>
>>
>>
>> I thought Linux was supposed to be more stable than a Swiss government.
>>
>>
>
> It is, unless the computer is owned by an idiot, who also happens to be a
> Dell service tech who lives with his mother.


The Big Boys are talking about things here, and don't have the time to
explain it to you now.

"Hachiroku ????" > wrote in message
...
> 1989 Mazda 626. I replaced the lower control arm on the pass side in
> December, and while it resolved the ball joint issue, the steering wheel
> was cocked to the passenger's side and pulling to the right.
>
> My computer decided to blow it's brains out last night, and I was up until
> 3:30AM putting the old one back in service and reloading Linux YET AGAIN,
> so when I got up at 10 I figured, I'm gonna PAY someone this time and
> relax, and get it lined up all at once. Every shop I went to..."If you had
> come last week..."
>
> It got up to 64 degrees in Massachusetts (they said t was going to be 46,
> so I had planned to do it today anyway, and 65 was just a bonus...) so I
> pulled into the yard, got the jack, stands and tools out and went at it.
> Wasn't as easy as the other one, and, see later for an aside question.
> The only thing I couldn't get out was the sway bar link from the old
> control arm, and AutoZone went from $4.99 to $18!!! But, it's all
> together, and...the wheel is STRAIGHT and the pulling is GONE! All I did
> was just put it back in where the other one was, and it drives straight
> down the road, no pulling, no nothing, just nice and smooth. I figured
> this might happen, but I was betting more on having the alignment go WAY
> out.
>
>
> BTW, there was something on the driver's side not on the passenger's side:
> a "Black Box" I had to remove to get the rear bolts out. It had no
> connections on it, just bolted to the frame, and appears to be a big
> magnet. It attracted my tools when I set it down.
>
> The car does not have ABS or 4 wheel steering (some did). Any ideas?
>

If there is a wired device located near the magnetic box with a bright
yellow wire loom, it could be part of the supplemental restraint system.
Under normal conditions, the magnet holds a switch in the open position, but
in a crash, inertia overcomes the magnet's pull, the switch closes, the same
thing happens to another switch, and when 2 switches close, the air bags
deploy.

BTW, Toyota does not use magnets in its SRS.
--

Ray O
(correct punctuation to reply)

>>>
>>> I thought Linux was supposed to be more stable than a Swiss government.
>>>

I bought one of the early Asus eee computers loaded with Linux. This has
been
rock solid, does everything I want this small unit to do, and more. I
wanted Linux
because I had had a lot of trouble with Windows Vista, and did not want to
be
bound to a Microsoft operating system.

I doubt I am competent to set up Ubuntu on one of my desktop machines, but
am
going to try it when I get to a point that I can stand to lose the function
of one
of them (temporarily, I hope).

I want no more Windows, if I can avoid them.

"hls" > wrote in message
...
>
>>>>
>>>> I thought Linux was supposed to be more stable than a Swiss government.
>>>>
>
> I bought one of the early Asus eee computers loaded with Linux. This has
> been
> rock solid, does everything I want this small unit to do, and more. I
> wanted Linux
> because I had had a lot of trouble with Windows Vista, and did not want to
> be
> bound to a Microsoft operating system.
>
> I doubt I am competent to set up Ubuntu on one of my desktop machines, but
> am
> going to try it when I get to a point that I can stand to lose the
> function of one
> of them (temporarily, I hope).
>
> I want no more Windows, if I can avoid them.

The latest Ubuntu 10.10 seems its best version yet it's even better and
easier to install than past versions, as it actually installs itself with
very
little to basically no input at all from the user on almost every machine.
http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download

On Sat, 19 Feb 2011 00:13:49 -0600, Ray O wrote:

>
> "Hachiroku ????" > wrote in message
> ...
>> 1989 Mazda 626. I replaced the lower control arm on the pass side in
>> December, and while it resolved the ball joint issue, the steering wheel
>> was cocked to the passenger's side and pulling to the right.
>>
>> My computer decided to blow it's brains out last night, and I was up
>> until 3:30AM putting the old one back in service and reloading Linux YET
>> AGAIN, so when I got up at 10 I figured, I'm gonna PAY someone this time
>> and relax, and get it lined up all at once. Every shop I went to..."If
>> you had come last week..."
>>
>> It got up to 64 degrees in Massachusetts (they said t was going to be
>> 46, so I had planned to do it today anyway, and 65 was just a bonus...)
>> so I pulled into the yard, got the jack, stands and tools out and went
>> at it. Wasn't as easy as the other one, and, see later for an aside
>> question. The only thing I couldn't get out was the sway bar link from
>> the old control arm, and AutoZone went from $4.99 to $18!!! But, it's
>> all together, and...the wheel is STRAIGHT and the pulling is GONE! All I
>> did was just put it back in where the other one was, and it drives
>> straight down the road, no pulling, no nothing, just nice and smooth. I
>> figured this might happen, but I was betting more on having the
>> alignment go WAY out.
>>
>>
>> BTW, there was something on the driver's side not on the passenger's
>> side: a "Black Box" I had to remove to get the rear bolts out. It had no
>> connections on it, just bolted to the frame, and appears to be a big
>> magnet. It attracted my tools when I set it down.
>>
>> The car does not have ABS or 4 wheel steering (some did). Any ideas?
>>
>>
> If there is a wired device located near the magnetic box with a bright
> yellow wire loom, it could be part of the supplemental restraint system.
> Under normal conditions, the magnet holds a switch in the open position,
> but in a crash, inertia overcomes the magnet's pull, the switch closes,
> the same thing happens to another switch, and when 2 switches close, the
> air bags deploy.
>
> BTW, Toyota does not use magnets in its SRS.


It has the early-mid 90's automatic seat belt like in the Camry's. The
belt rides on a track and moves into place when the door closes with the
ignition on.