New England B.S. Thread

Good morning all. It was a little rough this AM, think it has something to do with the Atomic wings I had last night...

 

Sounds like a night...

 

I do that sometimes. Just used them toward a new pair of Merrells last week. I had finally worn out my other ones and soon it'll be warm enough where I won't want to just wear boots everywhere.

 

Howdy sir!

Why thank you, thank you very much!

 

So I climbed underneath the '84 this weekend to swap out that U-joint and strap set and discovered that the broken straps were just symptoms of a bigger problem, lol. Turns out I found so much traction that I actually collapsed the spring perches on the axle, stretched the U-bolts on the front side, and wrapped the axle about 20-25 degrees.
Diff cover is supposed to be vertical.

Rusty spring perches went bad and collapsed, which let the axle move around just enough to start twisting, and when it did it stretched the U-bolts on the front sides. That loosened the grip even more, so when I got onto it pushing that snow pile it spun until it popped the universal joint's retaining straps. If you look closely at the U-bolt in this shot you can see where it's thinner right above the axle, where it stretched.


Whoopsies...

 

WOW

Looks like that girl may be down for a little bit longer. Is the welder that you have strong enough to weld those parts together correctly?

 

Holy chit... you better hope the snow is over for this season!

 

Yeah, shouldn't be a problem. Even if the Hobart mig couldn't handle it with 035 flux core, I've got an old Craftsman 220 stick welder that would have more than enough oomph. I'd just have to drive to Farmington and reclaim it from my dad, lol.

Meh. I've got the Kubota if we do get more snow. But I've got new spring perches on order from ebay (heavy-duty ones, too. The factory used either 1/8 or 3/16" and these are 1/4") and they should be here by this weekend. So after work tonight I'll back her in to the garage and drop the rear axle down. Tomorrow I'll take a lunch break and have the local Traction bend me some replacement U-bolts. If everything goes well I should have it back together by the end of this next weekend.

 

Yeah I think the stick welder would be a better bet. Good thing spring perches and u-bolts are common easy to get a hold of items now a days!

 

No kidding. I love the internet. Without it I'd probably be scrounging junkyards for a complete replacement axle.

 

Yeah you could have done 1 stop shopping if you had gone to a axle building site like Banes 4WD or Ruff Stuff or something similar

http://www.barnes4wd.com/Leaf-Spring-Suspension-Parts_c_12.html

 

True, but the last time I ordered from Barnes it took them like 3 weeks to actually get the product to me. It was an upgraded rear diff cover for my '99 (which I kind of needed in a hurry because the old one had rusted and was leaking oil everywhere I drove, lol) and It took them what felt like forever to actually get me the part.

 

That sucks

 

Yeah. It was a really high-quality product, and it fit and worked perfectly. It just took forever to get it. Seems like whenever I'm ordering parts it's something I need right now, lol. The parts people must think I'm hard on vehicles, but I've never really considered myself to be. I mean, I don't really beat on them, I just work them.

 

Bah why shave it? What's the fun in that

 

Working them is not beating on them but it does take a toll on them sometimes

I'm weird. I can't stand having any kind of beard or anything but I also hate shaving so it's a constant battle with me!

 

It's tradition at this point, lol. Every year for as long as I can remember I've shaved off my winter beard on the first day of spring.

Usually start growing it back in September or October, but there's no set date for that.

 

POWERRR!

 

It's so much easier to just grow a beard. Get some beard oil/ wax and it'll be nice and soft

 

I can't even stand to let it get that long. Once it starts growing it's bugging me