My husband and I bought a 1966 120s(?) about 2 months ago. Last week I was driving it when the (bear with me, I'm not technical) part that connects the wheel to the axel broke from underneath me. The front left part of the car dropped to the ground and I fortunately made it to the side of the road. My problem is figuring out what is wrong and deciding if it is worth fixing. I then need a resource to fix it here in Portland, OR.

PLEASE send me an email to reply

casaundrag@ocp.org

WOW!!! I can't belive how resourceful this site is! Within 5min I had a response and a wealth of information! Just as an update I'm having a person at IPD fix the car and it will ready to go by noon tomorrow. Incredible! Thanks for the help.

-CaSaundra

Didn't the previous posts mention the Brickboard mandatory donation fee for services rendered? $100. $500 if correct.

Just kidding....IPD can be a bit steep...just watch out.

As for the BB, donations are being accepted right now...this site does cost a tad bit to run. And it has had a TON of traffic in the last whatever (4 years??More?? wow flies time).....some of us true idiots have been here way too long.

Good luck with the beast.

IPD balljoints-$64.00 ea. In stock and delivered to the customer TODAY.

Tow truck- $God only knows.

Labor- $60.00. Total. (that is $10.00 less PER HOUR than anyone else in town, and most won't even touch an Amazon).

Getting your Antique worked on between 7pm and Noon on a Fri/Sat.- Priceless.

Again- Pro Amazon charges $40.00- $50.00 Per Hour and is one of two shops in town that will even take your "Vintage Volvo" phone call. The other is Swedes and he is gooood!

OK OK THAT is a great labor rate!! And I have NEVER griped about the EXCELLENT customer service at IPD. A few of your prices are a tad high, relatively speaking.....but my post was more of a tongue in cheek mooch for BB donations, than a rap against IPD.

...that is a plug for BB donations:o)

I'm very proud of the Pacific Northwest Volvo community. Modestly speaking, shops like Swedes Auto Repair, Swedish Massage, Pro Amazon Repair, Alamo Auto, Peters Auto Works and GW Performance (to name just a few) in combination with the location of ipd make it one of the very coolest places to live if you own a Volvo. The endless possibilities available to us just tickle me.

ipd was mine LONG before I got a job there, if that make sense.

Rock on,

Definitely the lower ball joint. I had the same thing happen to me several years ago. I was wondering why the car had gotten so hard to steer, but was too busy to look into it. A broken lower ball joint sure gets your attention! You need to replace them both. They are available from several sources, including IPD (I believe) and RPR--both advertise on this site. Replacement is easy for anyone who has done any car work at all. I had never worked on ball joints before and changed them both out in about an hour, using basic tools. Any mechanic should find it easy, as would a number of D-I-Y type car owners.

You bought a 122 in Portland and you don't even know IPD?

Call them up and talk to Shayne or Cameron and they will

be able to tell you who can fix your car. Sounds like

a lower ball joint to me. Once they start to squeak, the

handwriting is on the wall. BTW, IPD will have the

necessary parts.

Hopefully not too much damage was caused by the wheel in the wheel well or the arm being ground against the pavement. I didged that bullet with my 1800e - I replaced them as the steering was getting stigg and they were squeaky - once I took them out I could see that the right one in particular was EXTREMELY close to letting go. Once they get water in them or go dry all that weight and all that movement just eats them up quickly.

Makes me appreciate the kingpin front end on my 544 a little - it may be more complicated and have lots of grease fittings, but it will never catastrophically fail like a ball joint will.

Mind you it is woth checking the wishbones themselves very carefully on any PV. Did some work recently on a P210 Duett and one of the top wishbones was so weak I managed to break it by putting it in a vice and pulling the thing with my bare hands.

The fact I'd been doing 70 plus MPH less than two hours prior to that in it gave me pause for thought to put it mildly.

Regards

I had a lower A-frame let go - about 3 miles from home. It was sagging

badly but I nursed it home without further incident. Pretty squirrelly

driving though! It was cracked along the bottom but not broken in two.

I think later 122 A-frames are a little heavier stuff than early ones.

If I remember right I put in one from about a 68 or 69 model and it

was at least 0.010" thicker than the one I broke.

I am surprised you had a top one go south. They have MUCH less

stress on them than the lower ones.