fireman0977
08-09-2002, 08:23 PM
My roommate has an '85 Toy 4x4 pickup, complete with 3" suspension lift, lockers front and rear, 4.88's, ARB bull bar and winch, headers, several engine mods, and 33's. A few weeks ago, we left for vacation, and while we were gone, his brother and cousin decided to take his truck "camping and off-roading." When we returned from vacation, he immediately noticed several things were wrong, including steering problems, an almost non-working clutch, and clashing noises coming from the front diff when the hubs were locked in. When the brother and cousin were confronted, they claim to never have noticed anything except a "clicking noise" coming from the hubs. They also claim to not know how any of the following happened.....(this is what we found when we tore it apart).....
The ring and pinion were trashed, but the locker, axle, birfields, and hubs were fine. However, all nuts on the hubs (inside and out) were either loose or gone. So were the nuts on the back of the trunion pack. (These were all nuts frequently checked by us to be very tight). The leaf springs were completely taco'd, almost in an "S" shape. The steering linkage was bent almost 3". The axle had crushed the oil pan, the torque-bar arm mount (on the axle) had crushed the headers, and the DRIVESHAFT had broken off the mounting bracket for the SLAVE CYLINDER, putting a quarter-sized hole in the bellhousing. The master cylinder was shot, the slave cylinder was shot, and so was the clutch itself. The front shock mounts had poked holes above into the wheel well fenders, the washer fluid reservoir had a hole in it, and the hood had come off of the hood frame in almost all places. The torque bar itself was also in the shape of a banana. We know what we have put our trucks through and it doesn't come close to this. Our question is (seriously), what could have possible done all of this? By the way, yes the truck did apparently drive home the 70 miles on the highway after all of this happened. No major body damage was noticed either. Weird, huh?
We are pretty sure they got some pretty good air but haven't got much out of them. So curious if anyone has ever witnessed anything like this or done this to their vehicle?
The ring and pinion were trashed, but the locker, axle, birfields, and hubs were fine. However, all nuts on the hubs (inside and out) were either loose or gone. So were the nuts on the back of the trunion pack. (These were all nuts frequently checked by us to be very tight). The leaf springs were completely taco'd, almost in an "S" shape. The steering linkage was bent almost 3". The axle had crushed the oil pan, the torque-bar arm mount (on the axle) had crushed the headers, and the DRIVESHAFT had broken off the mounting bracket for the SLAVE CYLINDER, putting a quarter-sized hole in the bellhousing. The master cylinder was shot, the slave cylinder was shot, and so was the clutch itself. The front shock mounts had poked holes above into the wheel well fenders, the washer fluid reservoir had a hole in it, and the hood had come off of the hood frame in almost all places. The torque bar itself was also in the shape of a banana. We know what we have put our trucks through and it doesn't come close to this. Our question is (seriously), what could have possible done all of this? By the way, yes the truck did apparently drive home the 70 miles on the highway after all of this happened. No major body damage was noticed either. Weird, huh?
We are pretty sure they got some pretty good air but haven't got much out of them. So curious if anyone has ever witnessed anything like this or done this to their vehicle?