Trail MacGuyvering. When you absolutely, positively, don’t want to be there overnight.

Which is why there are two brackets, one in the front and one towards the rear. And much like the stock overload spring, you still have the brackets that come up and assist in retaining the leaf packs orientation without a bolt running across. Neither of which are present in the photo you posted

 

ok, well, you go ahead and not replace it or do anything to try and fix it if it fails on the trail.

I'd rather not take the chance, and I'm going to take the 5 minutes to try and fix it if I can.

 

amazing

 

I was gonna say, I took the retainer clips off my leaf packs intentionally lol. Well, the bolt going through them anyway. Rode and wheeled them that way for a couple years.

Some real mcgyver stuff is using a ratchet strap to hold your spindle in place to limp off the trail because the UBJ failed, saw that once and always keep ratchet straps in the kit now. Bailing wire is good for trail fixes too

 

Didn't happen with mine I just took the bolt out of the clips because the top leaf on my Expos would smack up against them and make a ton of noise. The clips still stayed in place without the bolt going through, they were held in at the bottom of the pack as well. I think the bolt is just there to adjust how tight they are, IDK. I don't have those Expos anymore and that was just one reason of many that I ditched them for Alcans.

 

Did a similar thing like this on my dirt bike. We were deep in a forest in baja, 30 miles of single track left to go before we got to Mikes Sky Ranch when I crashed and broke the petcock (fuel valve) Fuel spilling everywhere. Ended up pouring fuel in my camelbak and running the hose into the carb.

 

Not exciting but I had a rear exhaust hanger break on the trail, the exhaust was flopping around like

because the next hanger was like five feet further up the pipe.


Fixed it with simple zip ties

 

Zipties FTW!

 

No pics, but years ago I pretzled a tie rod on my Jeep XJ. I was able to get the handle from a hi-lift jack sleeved around the bent part so it was semi-straight. Got me off the trail at least.

 

x2. i cut my rears off to get more droop out of the pack. losing that retainer or bolt is absolutely no reason to be "stuck on the trail" over night

 

Trail fixes are only limited by your imagination. By the way I now have a spare fuel pump in my box of needfuls. I haven’t needed it but others have.

You should read Granville’s book. Not only does it have lots of great info but it’s entertaining as all get out.

 

I bought a 66 VW Westphalia on a Friday in 78, got married the next day and took off with my new bride from NC to ‘out west’ for our honeymoon. Somewhere down in the swamps of Louisiana, the generator light popped on and a quick look showed the fan pulley had separated from it’s hub. It was nearly dark but fortunately the first passing car stopped and gave us a ride a service station a few miles away. The station happened to have a several junked cars out back and one of them was a burned out VW bug. For $5, the owner sold me the pulley, loaned me the tools to remove it and took us back to the camper. The bolt pattern was the same but the offset was about a half inch off. I was able to find enough flat washers on various bolts to shim the pulley into a reasonably close alignment and we were soon back on the road. We spent the better part of a month roaming around the southwest with no further issues and the ‘fix’ was still in place when I sold the bus several years later.

Just luck that everything worked out so well but it sure impressed my new missus and we’ve had some great times together over the last forty plus years.

 

Sometimes helpful folks make all the difference. In the late 80’s I was headed down 395 after a trip that included Tahoe, Virginia City & Reno.

We stopped in Lee Vining to eat and while sitting there I saw coolant leaking from my Jeep. Turns out I had a pinhole in a hose.

The gas station didn’t have one. So a temporary fix was done and I headed to the NAPA store in Mammoth.

I had called and they had the part but would be closed before I could get there. The store stayed open and left the light on in the parking lot so I could make repairs. So there I was lying in the snow replacing the hose while the shop owner hung around in case I needed anything else.

Good people make all the difference. Treated the wife to one of the best hotels in Mammoth that night.

Yea, it was a good time looking back.

 

Bar of Ivory soap whittled into a wedge and shoved into the hole in my fuel tank stopped the leak in my Bronco while in Baja. A local taught me that one. Gas, oil and diesel won't dissolve soap. I keep a bar in my emergency kit now.

 

Shoulda, woulda, coulda kept the bus, worth so much more today! I made the same mistake with my ‘79 Westy

Oh yeah, I temporarily fixed a guy’s bus with crushed beer cans, duct tape and wire so he could shift it to get home over the Sierra. The shift lever kept falling off the linkage so I used the cans as a spacer to prop up the linkage so the lever didn't fall off. It was crude but it worked as long as he pushed down on the lever while shifting and it got him home.

 

Nice job. Also keep extra stainless steel zip ties in your trail kit, they don't melt!

 

Yep, they are good, but I still have a big role of bailing wire.

 

I’ll look for some of those too. I usually have a spool of bailing wire but we moved stuff around into the new bins for the bed and must have forgot to put it back in.

 

Removing the BOLT wouldnt allow this to happen. Removing/cutting off those two parts the bolt goes through would.

 

It gets worse - I had and sold a 77 as well plus a 62 big Healey, 62 Vette, 68 Camaro, 71 K5, 72 240Z, 74 FJ (put a SB Chevy in that one) and the list goes on. I've always had excellent taste in vehicles, just never enough sense to hang on to the good ones.