RPR
06-19-2006, 07:11 AM
Yes - it would have been better with pictures but I was in a very low tech environment so I have none.
I broke a sensible offroading rule over the weekend and went out to do some trails up near our summer place in VT on Saturday alone (with someone else in the vehicle, but only one vehicle). Nothing hardcore and I wasn't worried about getting stuck.
About 1.5 miles in on a trail that had turned into a track and then petered out to nothing, I reversed to do a three point turn in a partial clearing and head back the way we had come. The reverse turn was fine, the forward turn produced no results - rien - nada. The steering wheel spun around with no resistance while the tyres did not move. Problem.
Two years ago I had a power steering conversion done in Malaysia. At about the point where the Series steering box would have been, there is now a U-joint. The lower yolk is welded to the shaft going out to the power steering box. The upper yolk was not and had come unattached from the upper shaft coming down from the steering wheel. Had this happened 45 mins previously on the main road, we would have been dead. Note to self: check steering components more regularly.
I don't know whether the thinking/engineering in the original job was at fault but I am at fault for not having thoroughly considered the impact on the steering components in changing from 32" tyres to 36" tyres. I cannot tell exactly how the upper yolk had been connected to the upper shaft but the inside of the upper yolk appears to have been splined (and by now, de-splined), while the upper shaft was not splined and looks to have been very poorly cut (no idea whether that may have been a consequence rather than a cause of failure). The yolk body is a C clamp with a threaded bolt hole through it. Upon examination, there was no bolt, but there was some metalic crud inside the bolt hole (but not all the way through). It was not a sheared bolt. I couldn't clear it with a drift. The diameter of the upper shaft end that the yolk body was to clamp on seemed too small for the C clamp to hold to.
We walked out (and walked a buggery long way home!) on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday, I went down into Greenfield MA (closest civilisation) to try to get some shim stock to increase the diameter of the shaft end and give the clamp something to bite on. Not much open on Sunday. No luck at Home Depot, Autozone, or Advance Auto Parts (surprise). Needless to say, I have to get the truck out of the woods on Sunday.
Backpack filled with battery driven drill and a few other bits and bobs, I walk back in Sunday. Drill out the (quite hard) metal substance in the bolt hole, and try to close the clamp. At fully tightened, it isn't biting enough and the wheel is still spinning - but it's close. Undo the clamp and put several turns of multi-layer tinfoil strip around the end of the shaft. Pull it and seat it in the yolk body. Jam the upper steering shaft down into the yolk body, tighten up the C clamp and drive the biatch out to the road where it goes on the trailer.
Pictures would have been better, but there's today's tinfoil tech for you....:rolleyes:
I broke a sensible offroading rule over the weekend and went out to do some trails up near our summer place in VT on Saturday alone (with someone else in the vehicle, but only one vehicle). Nothing hardcore and I wasn't worried about getting stuck.
About 1.5 miles in on a trail that had turned into a track and then petered out to nothing, I reversed to do a three point turn in a partial clearing and head back the way we had come. The reverse turn was fine, the forward turn produced no results - rien - nada. The steering wheel spun around with no resistance while the tyres did not move. Problem.
Two years ago I had a power steering conversion done in Malaysia. At about the point where the Series steering box would have been, there is now a U-joint. The lower yolk is welded to the shaft going out to the power steering box. The upper yolk was not and had come unattached from the upper shaft coming down from the steering wheel. Had this happened 45 mins previously on the main road, we would have been dead. Note to self: check steering components more regularly.
I don't know whether the thinking/engineering in the original job was at fault but I am at fault for not having thoroughly considered the impact on the steering components in changing from 32" tyres to 36" tyres. I cannot tell exactly how the upper yolk had been connected to the upper shaft but the inside of the upper yolk appears to have been splined (and by now, de-splined), while the upper shaft was not splined and looks to have been very poorly cut (no idea whether that may have been a consequence rather than a cause of failure). The yolk body is a C clamp with a threaded bolt hole through it. Upon examination, there was no bolt, but there was some metalic crud inside the bolt hole (but not all the way through). It was not a sheared bolt. I couldn't clear it with a drift. The diameter of the upper shaft end that the yolk body was to clamp on seemed too small for the C clamp to hold to.
We walked out (and walked a buggery long way home!) on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday, I went down into Greenfield MA (closest civilisation) to try to get some shim stock to increase the diameter of the shaft end and give the clamp something to bite on. Not much open on Sunday. No luck at Home Depot, Autozone, or Advance Auto Parts (surprise). Needless to say, I have to get the truck out of the woods on Sunday.
Backpack filled with battery driven drill and a few other bits and bobs, I walk back in Sunday. Drill out the (quite hard) metal substance in the bolt hole, and try to close the clamp. At fully tightened, it isn't biting enough and the wheel is still spinning - but it's close. Undo the clamp and put several turns of multi-layer tinfoil strip around the end of the shaft. Pull it and seat it in the yolk body. Jam the upper steering shaft down into the yolk body, tighten up the C clamp and drive the biatch out to the road where it goes on the trailer.
Pictures would have been better, but there's today's tinfoil tech for you....:rolleyes: