Spare tire?

[Ziggy Moon]

Could be that your tire/s are bad, or out of balance. One could be separating.

 

[LucyImHome]

Yes, Ziggy, I thought about that. The tires are getting tired, pun intended. Dry rot is what gets em here in this heat. But this started all of a sudden. I just did the wheel bearings. I'm going back to shop tomorrow morning and do a more thorough description of the problem. Hope it isn't something major.

 

[Zil]

Some time as simple as a wheel balance or poor tires, dangerous. Sometimes front suspension and steering parts, very dangerous!<br><br>Aside. Please don't go on the road with bad tires.

 

[LucyImHome]

The test drive pointed the cause of the vibration to an engine issue. You could make butter with the amount of shakin'! So that's sorta good news, since they did the rebuild, under warranty. &nbsp;I'm sitting at Starbucks now, waiting for them to have time to see if it's safe for me to drive it to my park/sleep spot tonight. They can't look at it until this afternoon and can't get to working on it until tomorrow. If it isn't okay to drive, I'll be sleeping in their parking lot. Great. Right across from the topless bar.&nbsp;<br>He did find a bracket for the spare at a wreck yard. Pulled and delivered is $75. Not a priority right now. I think I'd rather spend a little more and do the front bracket, someday. If the engine issue doesn't cost me, I'll do 2 tires. Seemingly overnight, the back passenger side tire developed a crack about 10" long and 1/4" deep. Yikes! I don't like cheap tires, but...... here in the desert, tires don't seem to last very long anyway.&nbsp;

 

[offroad]

Have blown three tires in less than a year on my car.&nbsp; have a full size spare to change to.&nbsp; but was not smart enough to demand steel belted radials last time I changed rubber.&nbsp; Be smarter than me and get steel belted radials.

 

[Willy]

&nbsp;I'm a 2 tire kinda guy. Places I go can be rather remote and have had 2 flats on the same trip before (1 was an arrowhead puncture too.. tire shot to hell). Miles into the bush with no reception of any kind, and all crippled up to boot, means I gotta be proactive. ..Willy.&nbsp;

 

[LucyImHome]

Dear me, I'll be so happy when all the many issues this truck has are resolved. So the "issue" they say is a need for new spark plug wires. Okay. When a shop does an engine rebuild, replaces the spark plugs, wouldn't it make sense to do the wires too? Hmmm. Also of interest is that my gas use every time it's at this shop is between 1/8 and 1/4 tank.....while sitting at the shop. Alrighty then. I'd hoped to be able to do the wires myself, but not. They'll do it, using wires I bought. for $30. Other shop I asked at wanted $80. Sheesh.<br>I agree, Willy. I want to eventually have 2 spares. For now, priority is the 4 that meet the pavement, but going to do something on the front.

 

[LucyImHome]

The vibration wasn't a tire issue. It's an engine issue, as in swap the engine for another one, and while you're at it do the transmission. Oh dear. Cuz I haven't spent enough yet. I can drive it, local and light. May be awhile before I have the funds. Since I live in it, I don't have a lot of choices.... I did swap the dry rot tire for my spare. Somethin'.&nbsp;

 

[Willy]

&nbsp;What did they say is wrong with the engine? ..Willy.

 

[LucyImHome]

They rebuilt the top half($2200). I put maybe 300 miles on it and it "misbehaved". They did a compression test and said it's the rings. Bottom half. Arg. And they are concerned that since the transmission is having minor issues now, the added torque of a new engine will overwhelm it. My son has the same 302, he's rebuilt with high performance cam, etc. Shipping from Albuquerque to Palm Springs is about $150ish. So swap would be less than having the shop rebuild the engine they just rebuilt the top half of. I'd keep the existing engine. My son could rebuild it when he moves here, another 4-6 months away.&nbsp;<br>The work they did is under warranty, but I have to trust their word on it, that it's the bottom half. I think they're being honest, but then, I thought the guy I bought the truck from was too. My son wants me to take it to another shop to verify, but NOTHING here gets done without paying big. It's a very helpless feeling.

 

[Zil]

as a mechanic, I would never do the top of an engine until I determined the rest was serviceable. The repaired valves would put increased pressure on the rings. I would not trust the ones that did the head with out telling you of the problems to be.<br><br>How about a rescue engine and trans from a wreck?

 

[LucyImHome]

I had told them that if they thought the whole thing needed to be rebuilt, to do so while they have it apart. I did point out that I didn't have deep pockets, so maybe they were trying to keep expenses down. Well, how's that workin' now? They initially thought it was plug wires, when it apparently is rings.&nbsp;<br>Not much to pick from in the way of wrecking yards here. That's partly why my son thought he'd ship his freshly rebuilt engine here. I may just wait if I can until he moves here, then he can take over sorting this crap out. They are saying it's running on 7 cylinders but it's okay to drive, since it's only bad under 5 mph. hmmm

 

[highdesertranger]

imho they are feeding you a line.&nbsp; several red flags in their story the way you describe it.&nbsp; highdesertranger