RockAuto.com

RockAuto May Newsletter

RockAuto Home

Parts Catalog

Customer Service

Privacy Policy

Past Newsletters

Email Subscription

RSS Feed

Another Happy Customer!

You continue to amaze me. I received my new alternator yesterday, once again, within a week of placing my order. That wouldn't necessarily be so astounding, unless you knew that we live in the middle of nowhere in northern Ontario, Canada. They call our area James Bay Frontier Country and we're considered "The far north" in these parts.

The real clincher is that even with the exchange on the currency, the shipping charges, and all costs included to purchase from RockAuto, our new alternator still worked out over $50.00 less expensive than if I ordered one from the local auto parts supply store. Furthermore, that would have only been a rebuilt alternator and not even a brand new unit, like I got from you.

So you're darn right that I'm a happy customer!

Kindest regards,
Cliff

 

Carlisle Events
RockAuto is the Official Auto Parts Store of Carlisle Events

Carlisle Events

2010 Schedule of Events:

Carlisle Ford Nationals
June 4-6

Carlisle All-GM Nationals
June 25-27

Carlisle All-Chrysler Nationals
July 9-11

Carlisle Bike Fest
July 23-25

Carlisle Truck Nationals
August 6-8

Corvettes at Carlisle
August 27-29

Fall Carlisle & Auction
Sept. 29 - Oct. 3

 

Upcoming Events
If you would like your event featured here, email us with details.

19th Annual Buick Race Day
5/31/2010
Flint, MI
e-mail

Vettes of Coastal Maine Bar Harbor Tour 2010
6/4-/6/62010
Bath, ME
website

Weekend Warriors Annual Car Show
6/5/2010
Grimshaw, AB, Canada
e-mail

16th Annual Inland Valley Street Rods Car Show
6/5/2010
Ontario, CA
website

Twentynine Palms Street Fair & Car Show
6/5/2010
Twentynine Palms, CA
e-mail

Make A Wish-Annual Midwest Hot Rod Show
6/5-6/6/2010
St. Louis, MO
e-mail

Mopars in Motion Events - Second Annual Mopar Car & Truck Show at Roberts Chrysler Dodge Jeep
6/6/2010
Meriden, CT
website

17th Annual Corvettes & Jaguars at Linden Hall
6/6/2010
Uniontown, PA
e-mail

3rd Annual Montana Hope Car Show
6/12/2010
Missoula, MT
website

Tri-Lakes Cruisers 9th Annual Benefit Car Show
6/13/2010
Colorado Springs, CO
website

North Country Cruisers Car Club Car Show
6/18/2010
Warroad, MN
e-mail

Mopars in Motion Events- Power Festival Car Show Swap Meet & Drag Racing at New England Dragway
6/19/2010
Epping, NH
website

Mopar Muscle Club of NM 2010 - 15th Annual Mopar Fest
6/19/2010
Rio Rancho, NM
website

4th Annual Dads & Grads Car Show
6/19/2010
Lexington, KY
website

Classics in Paradise Car Show
6/19/2010
Sparks, NV
e-mail

Good Shepherd School Classic Car & Truck Show
6/19/2010
Perryville, MD
e-mail

Historic Region Vintage Chevrolet Club-Annual Car Shows
6/19/2010
Trenton, NJ
e-mail

The Cars are the Stars Car Show
6/19/2010
Ellington, CT
e-mail

8th Annual Peace Classic Car & Truck Show
6/20/2010
Des Moines, IA
e-mail

Kent Island Cruisers-Fathers Day Car Show
6/20/2010
Stevensville, MD
e-mail

Route 66 Car Club 21st Anniversary Fathers Day Car Show
6/20/2010
St. Clair, MO
e-mail

4th Annual Club Redline Street Show
6/20/2010
Bemidji, MN
e-mail

Audi Northshore Relay for Life American Cancer Society Classic Car Show
6/21/2010
Port Washington, WI
e-mail

Moose Lodge 147 2nd Annual Car Truck Show
6/26/2010
Mooreland, IN
e-mail

12th Annual East Coast Early Broncos
6/26/2010
Manassas, VA
e-mail

Sweet Ride 2nd Annual Charity Car Show for Kids
6/26/2010
Sweet Home, OR
e-mail

Mopar Day in the Park 17 Car Show & Swap Meet
6/26/2010
Carmichael, CA
e-mail

18th Annual Freedom Festival Car Show
6/26/2010
Linton, IN
website

38th Annual Sloan Museum Auto Fair
6/26-6/27/2010
Flint, MI
website

 

Need a Gift for your Dad or Grad?

Dad and his future Grads

Father’s Day is coming up in June and this is the graduation season!

Brake parts or weatherstripping for that Chevrolet Corvair your Dad is restoring would definitely put a smile on his face! An Oxygen sensor, wiper blades, or fuel filter for the Pontiac Grand Prix your new graduate will rely on for the next few years would certainly be appreciated!

Start now and pick out the perfect parts for your Dad or Grad from the convenient RockAuto.com online catalog. Not sure which parts they need now or down the road? A Gift Certificate from RockAuto would be a great choice. Gift Certificates are available for any amount, easy to purchase, and even easier to use.

 

 

FREE Car Show Tickets

Due to overwhelming response, we are out of free Carlisle Car Show tickets. Thank you for your interest!

Want to attend a Carlisle car show? RockAuto has a limited number of free tickets available for customers. See the Carlisle schedule in the left column of this newsletter. If you have purchased parts in the last 12 months, email marketing@rockauto.com with your name and the contact information (address, phone, etc.) you use when you order parts, tell us which show you would like to attend, and how many tickets you want (up to two). If we have tickets, we will let you know and put them in the mail.

 

 

Forum of the Month

Ford Courier Collector.com is a website for owners and enthusiasts of the Ford Courier pickup sold in North America from 1972 to 1982. We love these quirky little pickups, and want to keep as many of them on the road as we can. We're working on getting as much information as possible up on the site, and we urge you to join the discussion forum for repairing, driving, modifying, restoring, and hotrodding your Ford Courier pickup. If you don't own a Courier...take a look and see what we're up to. There's not a lot of these old trucks around still, but through our resources, you can find one if you want one -- be it for a hotrod project or just a daily driver.

 

If you are the administrator or member of a forum and you would like to see your website featured in an upcoming newsletter and receive a discount code to share with your members, contact jessa@rockauto.com.

 

 

Repair Mistakes & Blunders

Ouch!

My first car was a new 1965 LeMans. I had worked on the farm that summer after my second year in college. Dad gave me a field of red kidney beans as payment, just enough to buy the car. Of course an engineering student couldn’t leave a new car alone. I had to upgrade to a set of gauges as in those days you only got “idiot lights” on your dash.

After visiting my girlfriend some distance away, I started back to school late at night (maybe it was early in the morning). I drove down some gravel back roads to keep me awake. After going over some bumps, the lights went off, the radio stopped playing and the engine died. The car would not start. So I made the decision to walk to find some help. Getting ready to lock the door, I slammed it. The lights came on, the radio started and I got back in and it started up, and I drove home.

The following day I found the primary wire I ran to the amp gauge had come loose and lost contact from the bumpy road. I made contact again when I slammed the door!

Dan in Alabama

 

Tell us about your most infamous auto repair blunder or unconventional fix. Use your woe to help others avoid similar mistakes or share off-the-wall solutions that worked (at least for awhile!). Please email your story to flamur@rockauto.com. Include your mailing address and shirt size (large or extra large) and we will mail you a RockAuto "Do it yourself?" t-shirt if we publish your story (see the t-shirts under Extras in the catalog). The story will be credited using only your first name and your vague geographic location (state, province, country, continent, etc.) so you can remain semi-anonymous!

 

 

Automotive Trivia

Automotive Trivia

Spicer is famous for high quality tie rod ends, ball joints, and other chassis parts. Raybestos is most famous for brakes. Why does RockAuto now strongly recommend that Spicer chassis parts installers switch to Raybestos chassis parts for every application from daily driver to heavy duty?

A. Raybestos will give ten NASCAR season tickets to the auto parts retailer that sells the most of their new Raybestos Chassis parts.
B. Spicer ball joints often have a simple black finish while Raybestos ball joints come in a jaunty blue.
C. Several years ago, Affinia, the parent company of Raybestos acquired Spicer Chassis from Dana. About a year ago, the Spicer Chassis name was changed to Raybestos Chassis. The same great chassis parts, the name on the box was just changed from Spicer Chassis to Raybestos Chassis.

Answer: C

 

 

Just in Case the Traffic Clears

RockAuto

Moog rack and pinion bushings

The tread on the right front tire was wearing away faster than the tread on the other three. The wear was most severe on the outside edge of the tire indicating the camber might be off, but there was also premature wear on the rest of the tread indicating the toe setting might be incorrect.

I asked my wife if she was driving her ’93 Ford Tempo fast into turns and cranking the steering wheel too far causing unusual stress to the right front tire. Her daily commute offers few opportunities to plow the Tempo into corners at high speed and I deserved the icy, don’t-blame-me look my wife gave me!

A front-end alignment on this Ford is limited to changing the toe by adjusting the tie rods. Camber and caster are not adjustable. If they are out of whack then a part must be bent or worn out. The ball joint, control arm, tie rod, stabilizer bar, strut and coil spring checked out okay. I went to the tire store to buy a new tire and asked their alignment technician to do what he could to align the Tempo.

The technician discovered the entire rack and pinion steering gear assembly was moving on its mountings. “Damaged or worn steering gear mounts” is the first thing my Haynes repair manual had told me to check. However, it was not enough to just yank on the steering gear with my hands. It took the force of the steering wheel cranking the wheels all the way to the right or left to make the steering gear flex away from the firewall.

The rack and pinion unit is clamped on the firewall at two points with rubber-like bushings. Oil residue, weather, sunlight, etc. can deteriorate the bushings, but it looked like the Tempo’s bushings had mostly just compressed with age. See the deep shoulders on the old bushing on the left in the photo.

This may be a case where bigger is not better. The right rack and pinion bushing causing the problems on the Ford was nearly 2 cm thick while the left bushing was much thinner. Thicker might just mean there is more opportunity for the bushing to be compressed over time. Looking through the rack and pinion bushing photos in the RockAuto.com catalog, it appears most car manufacturers switched to using thinner steering gear bushings by the mid ‘90s.

I put a set of Moog advanced thermoplastic, urethane rack and pinion bushings on the Tempo. The car went back to the alignment technician to have the toe adjusted. The new Moog bushings are impervious to oil and ozone and provide “NASCAR Performance” just in case the traffic clears and my wife gets a chance to really try out her Ford Tempo’s handling!

Tom Taylor,
RockAuto.com

 

 

Rob's 1970 Cadillac DeVille Convertible
Rob's 1970 Cadillac DeVille Convertible

This is the second Cadillac I have restored purchasing virtually all of the needed “hard to find” parts through RockAuto. In fact, I am about to place my order with you for the upper and lower ball joints, control arm bushings, and coil springs. It is a 1970 Cadillac DeVille convertible. Numbers matching 472 cid engine and turbo 400 transmission. My plans include a fresh paint job, new top and exhaust.

I purchased the car while living in Las Vegas. It sat in someone’s back yard, in the desert for several years. Due to an electrical short, the windows were stuck down, and the previous owner just left it that way. A few gallons of Simple Green later, I got the brown interior to be white again and it’s in surprisingly good shape. I fixed the electrical issues, threw in a new battery, radiator and water pump, and it runs great.

Thanks
Rob in Florida

 

Share Your Hard Work
Do you purchase parts from RockAuto? If so, RockAuto would like to feature you and your car or truck in our monthly newsletter. Please email flamur@rockauto.com with details.

 

 

© 1999-2010 RockAuto, LLC - Madison, Wisconsin USA. RockAuto name and logo are registered trademarks of RockAuto, LLC. Manufacturer names and logos in the RockAuto catalog are trademarks of their respective companies and are used only to identify their products. All rights reserved.