Heads up .. Flaming River

[Chevy Kid]

Originally Posted by mfain

I can almost guarantee that part was made "off-shore". The issue is the quality of the steel that it is made from, regardless of the US engineering that went into designing the part. I lost the end of one finger to a "Made in China" coil spring compressor when the center exploded - just like the Flaming River part. Whenever I buy aftermarket parts that are significant, I try to ask the supplier where it is built. Some won't answer, but most are made overseas. As for GM, I just bought a "Genuine GM Parts" driveshaft carrier bearing, a set of oil cooler lines, a heater hose....etc-----"made in China, Mainland" stamped all over them. Disk brake pads -----"made in India". Truck wheel bearings ---- "made in Mexico". All of this stuff was in GM wrappers, but you can compare the stuff with the parts you are replacing and see the obvious quality differences. Not good differences! But what do you do? By the way, I use Woodward and/or Sweet steering components.

Pappy

Agreed. I have an '02 Chevy truck that had the GM steering shaft replace twice. When it was out of warranty, I replaced it with a borgeson shaft. 7 years ago. So it's borgeson American made for me.

That being said, I check all the cars regularly.

Tim

[EBMC]

I had been reluctant to "stir the pot" but if there is safety involved then thats whats necesary. An interesting thing happened to us about 3 years ago. As we were moving a car around the shop floor, Our new FR steering shaft broke at the tilt U joint. Granted the engine was off, there was no power assist so there was more load than normal, but its something that should have never happened IMO. I was given the ol' "we have never seen that before" and figure it was an isolated incident. 3 mos later a business 3 doors down from us had the same exact thing happen! He called and was also given the " we have never seen that before" we found the production dates on the steering shafts within the same month. I havent heard of this since,so Im hoping it was isolated incidents in a very short production run, as I havent heard or experienced problems with FR anytime else, but if these parts are made with inferior materials (I have no idea) then I think its something that needs to be brought up.

[Bryan O]

Who is John Galt?

[preston]

Wow the 3/4" diameter steering shaft twisted apart just from manual steering the car ? That is Holy Sh*t scary.

I say spread this news far and wide.

I've tended to stick with Woodward and Borgeson myself just out of a vague sense that they were serious on this stuff. I've put my steering system together several different ways over the years and I have always wondered in the back of my mind if everything was up to snuff or not. I started to safety wire even the little pinch nuts and set screws as well, no way I'm depending on loc tite to keep my steering in place.

[zz430droptop67rs]

After more than 15 years of use, my Borgeson joints and DD shaft with Ididit column and Ford R&P are still going strong and I trust them.



Maybe I'm piling on, but once I tried a FR column for a 69 Camaro and sent it back, it was inferior junk IMHO.

[Musclerodz]

I use IDIDIT columns and Borgeson joints so I have not seen this problem before in those. I have seen a autoloc universal fail, which is a chinese part.

[Matt@BOS]

I have a Flaming River column in my '69 Camaro. It desperately needs to be replaced. It has free play in it that feels like a loose tie rod end, and seems to deflect a lot when pushing the car around without power steering.

...and that is just one instance of poor quality.

[chassis crafters]

thanks for the heads up.

[bret]

I have a lot of experience with IDIDIT and Borgenson...never a problem.

Is Flaming River actually aware of the problem? If you need a contact there I can likely find someone there who cares.

[carbuff]

I have to admit this made me go double check which pieces I used on TOW. I thought I used the Borgeson joints and shaft, and I was correct...

Scary!