Excellent Timing

FTLComm - Tisdale - January 8, 2001

The next time you are having your car or pickup serviced and the mechanic says "You know you should consider changing those ball joints." This is what he is talking about. There are three components on every vehicle that determine if it is safe to drive, its steer and front end suspension, its brakes and its exhaust system. In this case the front end suspension gave out Saturday evening as this vehicle was rounding a modest turn on a Tisdale street. Though an inconvenience to the driver at the time this is a case of divine intervention. At the speed one travels in town the suspension of the left front ball joint merely causes a little embarrassment and a skidding stop. On the highway this could launch the vehicle into oncoming traffic or result in loss of control, a roll over and in either case the news would be very bad. The next time your vehicle is up on the hoist mention to the service mechanic to look over that front suspension system. He can check the front wheel's suspension by grasping the top and bottom of the tire and his motion will detect a system that is sound or about to let go. This driver was fortunate.