tighten those bolts

[petevw]

i was leaning out my car tonight. data log and accelerate onto the highway, and pull off at the next exit. look at the run, adjust EFI accordingly, and go out again.

now everytime i hit the brake i felt a little thunk. i had the front end apart last week to drop another 1/2' and flip the tie rods. i noticed some play in the steering box. so i thought the slop was the slight thunk i was feeling.

after the 3rd pass up the highway, i slowed down at the off ramp, hit the brakes, felt/heard a LOUD thunk. heard something come off and hit the fender/kickplate/underside

downshifted hard though the gears, while killing the handbrake. got it on the shoulder. got out looked at the tierods/control arms/struts and gave them all a good shake. seems ok. got in the car rolled forward, hit the brake... THUMP. got out grabed the driver side caliper and gave it a SHAKE. the top bolt had FALLEN OUT

walked up the ramp, found the other bolt, tightened them both up (tool box in car), cursed at how stupid/lucky i was. got back in the car, hit the brake, thump was GONE. cursed again at myself
continued doing a few more runs, getting my AF at WOT from 12.2 to 13.8.

the only thing i can figure is, i tightened the bolts by hand, went to the other side installed the caliper, cranked them down with the strut/tierods and never went back to the driver caliper.

could have been way worse... don't really want to think what could have happened. i hit 100mph many times that night.

anyways, DOUBLE CHECK EVERYTHING!

pete