Rear tie rods and ball joint dust covers

CraigWaterman11 said:

Olly! hey brother no problem. I gotcha. I think you will be just as happy as the others including myself.

Drewf just sent you an invoice, and it was nice to have a beer with Chris, so I don't mind having another!

Funny story there we walk out to the GranSport after a beer and I have a big fat parking ticket on the car. I checked the ticket and the Meter Maid must have been watching me from around the block. $25 usd! In Cambridge the meters stop at 6-7 pm so you don't have to pay any longer. Boston is 24 hours. In either, case I would gladly pay it again to sit down with Chris. **** we could sit by the window and laugh when they stick it on there!

@Aredes thank you for the update!

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Heh! You got it, bud!

C

These are also the same for the 3200?
The kit you are selling is per wheel?

jluis said:

These are also the same for the 3200?
The kit you are selling is per wheel?

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Yes the kit will also fit the 3200 and, no, the kit is for both sides.

Here is what the kit looks like. I used to include 6 stainless steel washers but they really weren't necessary because the Ultra Performance Heim joints have more of an offset than the plain spherical bearing of the OEM part. So I include two washers now, one for each side that goes behind the Heim joint where the ball joint nut locks on the Heim joint.

may i answer to you until Tuesday?

Just as a side note, say hypothetically, I want to send a gift to someone in the UK. So of course I mark it as such but mark the value as $200.00 will you guys be taxed for that? This is hypothetical of course. Just want to make sure. I mean a gift is a gift regardless of the value in the U.S. and doesn't seem like much of a gift if you say it has no value. But, that being stated I wanted to make sure.

Mr.Cambio said:

may i answer to you until Tuesday?

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Yes of course no problem. I am re-ordering parts to fulfill the rest of the orders this weekend. I probably won't talk on the phone with Formula Dynamics until Monday or Tuesday. I will negotiate the orders I have now separate from that agreement. FD is putting the kit on the GS they have now and will be running the **** out of it. I am pretty confident about the outcome. I have someone who tracks their car with this kit on it.

I really appreciate the UK brothers so I wanted to make sure I gave you guys the opportunity before I hand the project over to them and no longer sell them.

CraigWaterman11 said:

Just as a side note, say hypothetically, I want to send a gift to someone in the UK. So of course I mark it as such but mark the value as $200.00 will you guys be taxed for that? This is hypothetical of course. Just want to make sure. I mean a gift is a gift regardless of the value in the U.S. and doesn't seem like much of a gift if you say it has no value. But, that being stated I wanted to make sure.

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If its a gift i believe the invoice must say it costs $0.
However you may insure it for any value you want for transport purposes.

Will you be sending as a private individual or as a company?

Hypothetically, if they were marked as 'personal belongings - returned to owner' then no duty or taxes are due. This would be the case I imagine, as they were probably originally loaned to someone in Boston for research purposes

If they are marked as a gift, and the TRUE value (as determined by Customs, not by you or I) is below £40, then no duty or taxes are due. Above £40, then VAT is certainly due, and duty may be due unless the determined value is less than £135.

Hypothetically, naturally...

jluis said:

If its a gift i believe the invoice must say it costs $0.
However you may insure it for any value you want for transport purposes.

Will you be sending as a private individual or as a company?

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This is the way of it. Mark it NCV 0$ (No Commercial Value)

Highly unlikely to be stopped especially if it from an individual to an individual.

Insure it for whatever makes sense, but the kicker that it is *commercial* value. After all, Craig, you're not making any profit.

Make sense?

C

See my earlier post C - this one is a tricky point, as Customs can determine the commercial value of anything, and in this case it might be suggested that two rear tie rods for a Maserati could be £3700 inc VAT.

They'll keep them until you cough up....

Hypothetically again, the 'personal belongings - returned to owner' route is better. And it's a standard HMRC phrase. Bit tricky though if half a dozen packages all turn up on the same conveyor belt at the same time at Royal Mail Slough - Heathrow Handling...

I feel tempted to buy them as spares for that price.
How often does those things get worn?

I have a 3200 AC with less than 60k km and all suspension components seem to be from factory.

drewf said:

See my earlier post C - this one is a tricky point, as Customs can determine the commercial value of anything, and in this case it might be suggested that two rear tie rods for a Maserati could be £3700 inc VAT.

They'll keep them until you cough up....

Hypothetically again, the 'personal belongings - returned to owner' route is better. And it's a standard HMRC phrase. Bit tricky though if half a dozen packages all turn up on the same conveyor belt at the same time at Royal Mail Slough - Heathrow Handling...

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Yes, you undoubtedly have more experience. A large part is to not ship enough to attract attention. And while two tie rods may well be that costly it could well be argued that a couple of bits of threaded steel and some joints are more worth about £50.

However, caveat emptor and all that stuff

C

Can someone please enlighten my lack of knowledge and explain what these do and why and how easy they are to fit ?...

jluis said:

I feel tempted to buy them as spares for that price.
How often does those things get worn?

I have a 3200 AC with less than 60k km and all suspension components seem to be from factory.

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Well, I've just had to replace one on a Spyder with just 16k on it...

whereskeith said:

Can someone please enlighten my lack of knowledge and explain what these do and why and how easy they are to fit ?...

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Craig's a YouTube star

[video]https://youtu.be/Qe6rjBJGgCg[/video]

Certainly worth watching.

Okay Drew and Chris I will get it worked out. The information is greatly appreciated. I want to make sure I have all the information available to get it to you guys.

@Drew I don't know I would say a Youtube star. I definitely rambled a lot and it could of been much shorter. Additionally, I have Google Glass for videos now instead of a camcorder and tripod!. It makes it much easier when you are trying to accomplish something.

whereskeith said:

Can someone please enlighten my lack of knowledge and explain what these do and why and how easy they are to fit ?...

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So let me see if I can help somewhat in explanation of what they do.

Basically they stabilize the rear end of the car especially when corning. At one end of the hub is the ball joint, and the stud of the ball joint comes through the hub assembly and then the tie rod fits over the stud as it comes through the other end. As you can see in that video without the tie rod in place you can literally push the hub in and out at an angle.

So think of it this way. Say that both left and right tie rods were worn and needing to be replaced. I go to pass someone, or corner somewhere. When I turn the car the weight shifts, and instead of the rear turning into where I want it to go it slips the other direction. The results could be pretty bad. Actually Maserati did a recall for the rear tie rods of the Quattroporte for this same reason. Literally a person was driving on a highway here in the states and the rear end of the car turned out and spun the person down the highway as if he was steering the car from the rear wheels.

Here check the photos in this link I would repost the photos here but they don't belong to me. The first photo shows the rear wheel turned:
http://www.maseratilife.com/forums/quattroporte/20994-tie-rod-failure-recall.html

I experienced something similar but thankfully it seems the plain spherical bearings wear more uniformed and don't just snap. Well at least I think so because I haven't heard of anything like the Quat yet. While I was driving, I accelerated around a vehicle. When I tried to do so it was almost like the rear of the car let go, like on ice, before it caught, and I gained control. Literally like it turned slightly from the rear of the car. At first I initially thought it was one of the worst performance vehicles I'd ever driven. not realizing of course rear tie rods were a thing for the 4200/GS/3200's. After I checked it out I realized of course the car was unstable because the parts were obviously worn. My wife thought we were going to die to be quite honest. In any case, I hope that somewhat helps you understand what they are designed to do. Basically they stabilize the rear of the car and add performance by helping turn the car into the direction you want to be heading........well when they are performing like they are supposed to.

Craig - I'll take a set of these as well please.

MAF260 said:

Craig - I'll take a set of these as well please.

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Okay PM me your email address.

Sorry mate I am away from home now until the end of the month so can't arrange anything. Will PM you when back from the break.