Hello All:

1967 Volvo 122S wagon. A quick show of hands - who here read the 'Tech Tip' in the IPD 2007 Vintage Catalog regarding 'Common Suspension and Steering Woes' and thought about their lower ball joints falling apart? I did, and planned to replace all bushing, ball joints and shocks on the front of the car in three weeks when Wendy and the girls go to California for a month.

Do I need to tell the rest of this story?

Truth is, Wendy and I were away up in Rhinebeck, NY for our first weekend away without kids since our first daughter came along nearly seven years ago. The good news is we had a terrific weekend with Virginia but the horrendous noise coming from the steering and commensurate arm exercise required to steer her told me that I just needed to get her home and park her before things got bad - and I do not mean Wendy. I was only 30 miles from returning home tonight on the Taconic Parkway when it all went wrong. More good news - I got Virginia over to the side of the highway without hitting anyone or causing a disturbance. Even more good news - Wendy still loves me and - more importantly - still loves Virginia.

We were flat-bed towed back to Hastings-on-Hudson where she is now resting on a pair of jack stands in the parking lot outside my house. The kindly local constable has given me a few days to sort her out before he starts throwing around tickets.

A quick crawl under Virginia's driver side with flashlight tonight reveals the following: an amazingly light amount of scraping wear in the cup where the driver's side shock connects to the lower control arm, as well as the bolt end of said shock. A very slight ding in the crossframe member where the control arm slammed into it. A pretty mushy mess where the lower ball joint used to protude from the bottom of the control arm. Things are ground up pretty smooth down there. Compared against the healthy starboard side of the beast, the squarish knob at the bottom of the control arm is completely gone. I hope that is just part of the ball joint forced up through the control arm.

So, here is the question - what do I have to do to get her rolling again? I just need to be able to drive about one-half mile to get to my friend's garage here in town. Again, I was planning to rebuild the entire front suspension including all ball joints, bushings, new shocks, engine mounts, etc. in a few weeks anyway. I just want to get her running until then, no real mileage other than keeping the fuzz off my back.

Do I need an engine hoist to get the four ball joints replaced? The brake lines, etc. all look good but what else should I be checking? Does this kind of trauma affect the engine's mating with the transmission tunnel?

Thanks, as always, for your able help.

A quick word about Wendy - best wife EVER.

Cheers,

Jeff Pucillo