I think the Silver Bullet drives much better with four wheels compared to three. I got my car back on Friday afternoon with a new backing plate, wheel hub, brake drum, rim and center cap. I went back to the tire shop in Oakland on Monday morning and got a new tire mounted on the rim and put my spare back in the trunk.

I also found the missing nose trim I needed from a 2002 FAQ member and put it on Friday night. It was good to have some time with the car so we could have a talk about respecting each other and not causing near death experiences.

I’m still a bit sketched out driving the car still because I can’t figure out any logical reason why the wheel came off, so I don’t know how to prevent it from happening again. I jacked up the car this morning and made there was no play in any of the wheels. All of the lugs are tight. Of course, that’s how the car was the last time I had it jacked up.

It’s going to take some time for me to get my confidence back, I think.

And I did. Today on my way to work as I reached the High Street overpass on 880-south, the rear, driver’s side wheel fell of the car as I was doing about 70 mph. I had heard a “clunk” like a nut falling off about a minute before and I had just rolled up the window to listen for further sounds. I thought it was coming from the drive line, so I was paying close attention to it when the back end of the car hit the ground. Sparks shot everywhere in my rear view mirror as I watched my wheel roll past me in the fast lane, heading south at a high rate of speed never to be seen again.

The car was surprisingly drivable and I was able to move to the far right lane and into the shoulder. Everyone around me had slowed way down and gave me ample room. I called 911 (I think they may know me by now) and waited for the Highway Service Patrol to pick me off the road. They towed me down to 98th Ave and I called Dr. Kwan again at Beyond2. As he always does, he started to work his magic and found a tow truck that could take my car to Burlingame.

I’m still not exactly sure what happened. The wheel is gone, despite me looking for it for quite awhile under the bridge and along the freeway. The brake drum is gone. The hub is gone. It looks like the main nut and cotter pin fell off and the hub worked its way off the axle. The damage looks isolated to the wheel, and some paint on the wheel well. Of course replacing the wheel, tire, breaks, etc. won’t be cheap. We’ll see what Kwan has to say this afternoon.

I don’t know how many miles are on the Silver Bullet, but at almost 40 years old, I know it’s seen a few. The ride had been getting pretty sloppy lately and the alignment was knocked way out from the front end rattling around. It was time to replace a few things. I wasn’t sure exactly how much would need to be replaced, but I ordered the parts that I knew I would need and figured I’d get the rest when I started tearing the car apart. I talked with Ireland Engineering about suspension setups and settled on Bilstien HD shocks and struts, Ireland Engineering stage 1 springs and polyurethane bushings all the way around. My brother lives near Ireland Engineering and offered to pick up the parts on his way up for a visit.

Loaded with a bunch of parts, I drove the Silver Bullet up to Petaluma to work at Jen and Seth’s. We figured we could do the front and rear end in two days, and wanting to have the option of getting parts as soon as possible, I took Thursday and Friday off to do the work.

We started with the front end and soon discovered that I needed new tie rods, a center track rod and ball joints. Everything was still original, which meant we had to drill out the rivited on ball joints. We took the control arms to a machine shop for some help.

By the evening the front end was back together. On Friday we debated for over an hour on how to disassemble the rear end without dropping the car on the ground. After deciding to trust the jack points, we got the rear subframe out only to discover that I have the early long neck transmission. That means the mounts are different and the bushings I ordered would not fit. The subframe mounts did fit though and suprisingly, the rest of the bushings were not too bad, so they were left for now.

In went the rear springs and shocks and as we lowered the car, it settled quite nicely to be about 1.25″ lower than before.

The alignment was completely off since we just eyeballed it and the drive home Friday night was one of the scarriest experiences I’ve had. But on Saturday morning I headed to the tire shop and had Yokohama Avids put on the car and an alignment. Their computer didn’t have the 2002 in it, but I pulled the alignment specs from the 2002 FAQ and they used those.

Amazing! It’s a new car!

 My car finally came home today. 3.5 months later. I have a lot of trim work to do.

The Silver Bullet finally has paint. I should have it back Thursday or Friday if all goes well.