Ahhh Catman, seems like you missed me friend! That's a great feeling in the morning.....LOL! I did finally get up! I was up till 4 am working on a friends Sport Bike helmet he wanted clear-coated...
@Alexander......you know I really don't understand how these guys missed this unless they are uninformed about the suspension of the rear of these type of Maseratis. Is it your ball-joints or tie rod ends? I just want to make sure that we are talking about the same part. We did come up with a great solution I believe as an aftermarket replacement for the rear of our cars for the tie rod ends. To test your rear tie rods, if you jack up the rear of your vehicle just enough so that the tire is off the ground. Put your hands across from each other on the left and right side of the tire. Now use a movement where you push the tire with one hand, and pull it with the other. Go back and forth in each direction. The movement you are looking for that will give you a better illustration is if you were looking at your front tire as someone was steering it to the right and then to the left. Hopefully you can picture the tire going in and out of the fender well as your standing to the side of your car looking at it. That's the movement you are looking for in your tie rods if they are bad only it will NOT be that pronounced. Actually, it will be very slight. It will move just a bit. There should not be ANY movement. The rear tire should not move in any direction. It should feel solid like it's mounted on a solid axle car. If you are still confused maybe I can post a vid on it or something. It's nice to be informed about these things. The rear tie rod controls the toe in/out for the rear of your vehicle, it gives the rear of the car the proper alignment to race around as it does. If the tie rods are gone the rear of your car becomes sloppy, depending on how bad they are it will actually turn as your going down the road and cause you to tail spin as if someone was steering your car from the rear. This is why the rear Tie Rod recall for the Quattroporte was so serious. A few people spun their cars out on the highway and wrecked their cars because of the tie rod failure in the Quattroporte.
When we first came up with the solution for this people had many ideas that we built on, here is the one I settled for. Please follow the link below:
http://www.sportsmaserati.co.uk/showthread.php/11530-3200-4200-Spyder-and-GranSport-Aftermarket-Rear-Tie-Rod-replacement
I bulked ordered a bunch of material, and I only have 4 sets left now. I ended up putting up an ebay ad so that people could access this solution regardless if they knew of the forums or not. They are more expensive through ebay because I had to pay listing fees, however please let me know if you need them. I had a guy contact me this morning from Australia who plans to purchase all 4 and it will take me at least a two-three week period to get all the material again. It seems that you really need a set if we are talking about the same thing. A complete set which you can get the info of what that contains by the link above is only $200 USD. and if you want it in 3-5 days... shipping I think is $50 USD. I have had mine on the car for a few hundred miles and I am more than happy with them. You will not need anything else when you buy the kit. After you install it get an Alignment (ALWAYS necessary when removing suspension parts), then take it and give it your best shot. Throw it on the track, through the mountains, heck take it 4-wheeling if you want (not recommended). The butt in of the car won't go anywhere. When you hammer it at a light (also not recommend with Police around) the butt end of the car will squat down and push the car straight as it's suppose to......well until your tires become hot then it's going to be like driving on ice! You can PM me if you'd like, or ask any question here on the forum. If you have any concerns just ask them.
