Help! John or anyone else in the Des Moine Iowa area!

[40]

Denise and her dad  are having some trouble just East of Des Moines.Seems he has a wheel digging into the rotor and sheared off the lug nuts.Triple A is on thier way out but she is wondering if John or anyone else in that area might be able to recomend a shop.Her cell # is 734-673-6930.I know any help will be greatly appreciated....Thanks!

[jaybee]

I'm on my way.  Will update later.

[40]

Thanks John.....You gotta love this place!

[jaybee]

They should be on their way by now.  I left them at a shop/junkyard shortly after 4:30 and they looked to be almost ready to put the wheel back on and go.  Denise's Dad's car lost a right front wheel about 30 miles east of Des Moines.  Nice car, it reminds me a bit of Jay Leno's big block Roadmaster.  By the time I knew they were in need the car was already being flat bedded into town.  He said he was rolling along fine when his coffee cup started to vibrate.  That gave him a heads up that something was wrong and he was right on top of it when the steering wheel started to vibrate.  For some reason it broke all the wheel studs.  The holes aren't egg shaped and there isn't anything obviously amiss so it's a bit of a mystery.

When the wheel came off it dropped straight down and fortunately didn't tear much up.  There was a lot of contact between the inside of the wheel and the brake caliper, but apparently no serious damage.  The caliper messed up the chrome inside the wheel but it balanced easily.  Baer is going to overnight new hardware to a shop farther along the trip.  How's that for customer service?  The caliper and disk appear to be fine except for some cosmetic damage to the caliper.  I can't say I did much except run the wheel to another shop where it could be balanced.  The guy at the shop also found that both ends of the tie rod clamp were loose.  They wanted to push on as soon as they could get going but when there's a little time they might want to give the suspension a once-over to make sure everything is in order.

Excepting the cause of the meeting it was nice to meet Denise and her parents.  They're great people and I hoped I helped them in some small way.  I'm sure I'll run into them again some time when everything is in operating condition, I'll look forward to that very much.

[HotRodLadyCrusr]

It was my pleasure to meet both you and your son yesterday even if it was under these cirumstances.  Not only do we appreciate the moral support but also the ride for the wheel to the tire shop to get balanced.  It was nice to have a chance to chat while in the van.

No use me going into any details, you nailed it perfectly.  I haven't been able to get the wireless laptop working, I'm in the hotel lobby right now.  Hopefully I'll be able to figure out how to get the photos either from the laptop or camera to my photo hosting site and I'll then update with photos.

Again, thanks so much for your help.