Steering rod brakes going down the rock!!!

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Spud

Spud

Joined
Mar 8, 2007
Threads
116
Messages
1,339
Location
In a van, down by the river
PIC #1
So I’m going down this steep rock, all of the sudden I am out of control. Rig went to the right and up embankment, (hit right at the yellow sign)…was riding on left tires and really thought I was rolling. I yell OH ****!! Really thought I was going over. My dog jumps in my lap, she thought we were done too. Then it went back left and came to rest against the left bank. May not look steep but it is. And the embankments are at least 3feet high.

PIC#2
Steering wheel just spins freely. Something definitely broke. Upon inspection I see broken steering rod, right at the end connecting to pitman.

PIC#3

Tried to use what I had to get it rigged enough to move it. I was totally blocking the trail and was worried that the truck would get messed with if I had to leave it too long.
So here is what I scratched together….



P1010011.webp
P1010014.webp
P1010018.webp
 
PIC# 1
Here is a view looking up the rock. It is fairly steep.

PIC#2
I cut off the end of the rod. Filed down a piece of rebar and hammered it into the end. I then cut a piece of pipe and slipped it around the rebar and end of the pitman link. Tried to clamp it, but clamps were no where near strong enough.

After a couple of hours of trying to band aid the *****, I realized I was not gonna get it done.

PIC #3

Had to go to town for parts, so I came back with this coupling.
It worked well enough to drive it out and I plan to replace the rod before driving it again. The coupling will go in the tool box, may come in handy someday.

The scary part about this is that I had this truck on the road the night before. If that had happened while driving I probably would not be typing this. I am thankful and definitely have learned a lesson about vehicle inspection…

Take a clue from this and look over your rig too….
P1010013.webp
P1010015.webp
P1010019.webp
 
Thats some pretty good trailfab right there.
Yer a lucky bastard it didnt pop on the road, good to see it happened on the trail. :cheers:
 
been there busted that... fortunately it was after recovering a mate and i was just trying to drive over a log to get back to camp.. i was counting my lucky stars as well as I had driven up a windy mountain range that afternoon to reach the 4wd park.

unfortunately i dont have any trick trail repair to offer, one of the other guys was on his way so i organised for him to pick up a replacement tierod and TRE's on the way there.. busted friday night, fixed by saturday arvo.. was good to do some wheelin too...

IMG_0665.jpg

IMG_0664.jpg
 
Pinion said:
Is that Dave behind you?
Click to expand...

Nope...I think Dave sold his 4runner some time ago to another YT guy.

That is my other truck...You should always wheel with 2 trucks.
 
brisveganbj42 said:
been there busted that... fortunately it was after recovering a mate and i was just trying to drive over a log to get back to camp.. i was counting my lucky stars as well as I had driven up a windy mountain range that afternoon to reach the 4wd park.

unfortunately i dont have any trick trail repair to offer, one of the other guys was on his way so i organised for him to pick up a replacement tierod and TRE's on the way there.. busted friday night, fixed by saturday arvo.. was good to do some wheelin too...

IMG_0665.jpg

IMG_0664.jpg
Click to expand...

This, (your issue), is tie rods...

Mine was steering rod...The end that attaches to Pitman, (where it comes out of gear box). Two altogether different pieces/parts.



***Although, Main reason for this post is to alert any others out there to inspect all your parts. I would hate to see or hear of this happening to someone else and causing injury and or death.

It was wrong of me to not check this stuff out thoroughly before driving it. Rig is new to me and has not been driven in a long while. I should have checked it better...I went through some stuff but missed this. I am taking this incident as a clue from the big man that I need to be more careful.
 
Glad you're okay. Definetly a sharting moment. Forget the pucker, I would have had to clean myself.

As eveyone has said steering and brakes are the most important items on a a truck that is 30+- years old. Just a good reminder to me that those components should be checked on a regular basis. Compormise nothing when it comes your safety.

BTW, check BTB Products website, they have nice replacment parts for steering. They are a little expensive, but the quality sure is nice.
 
Looking at both failures, it looks like both of them broke at the end of the rod where the slots are. Is this because it was rusted out from moisture getting in there, and do you think you would have been noticed it during an inspection? Could it have rusted out from the inside without showing any signs of it from the outside? Especially the tie rod pictures, there doesn't appear to be any damage on the outside. I just redid my steering, but didn't really look at the rods real closely, I'm gonna have to go double check now.
 
ducktapeguy said:
Looking at both failures, it looks like both of them broke at the end of the rod where the slots are. Is this because it was rusted out from moisture getting in there, and do you think you would have been noticed it during an inspection? Could it have rusted out from the inside without showing any signs of it from the outside? Especially the tie rod pictures, there doesn't appear to be any damage on the outside. I just redid my steering, but didn't really look at the rods real closely, I'm gonna have to go double check now.
Click to expand...

something comes to mind when reading this...
If you inspect and something looks good/fine, then no-worries.
If you see something that looks like it could be suspect...Hey, it would not hurt to get a 2nd opinion.

Most shops or anywhere that does service will do "safety check" for no charge. If you are not sure on anything, go that route. Or get a reputible shop to check it out and pay them to do something like an oil change so they can make a bit of money.:cheers:
 
Spud said:
something comes to mind when reading this...
If you inspect and something looks good/fine, then no-worries.
If you see something that looks like it could be suspect...Hey, it would not hurt to get a 2nd opinion.

Most shops or anywhere that does service will do "safety check" for no charge. If you are not sure on anything, go that route. Or get a reputible shop to check it out and pay them to do something like an oil change so they can make a bit of money.:cheers:
Click to expand...

The problem is I don't know of any shop that would catch a problem that isn't immediately apparent from the outside, and I wouldn't want to rely on them to do so for my own safety. For example, if something was rusting out from the inside, unless you were looking for it, it could easily look good/fine, but fail at a bad time. I'm not saying that was the problem here, but these pictures gets me thinking of what else could possibly go wrong. I know for sure that a lot of metal parts can be rusted out until they were paper thin, but with no obvious signs from the outside. Honestly, I never thought a steering rod would just break suddenly like this, I would have thought that it would've gotten weaker until it bent first, at least giving some indication that it's going out. This is a real learning experience for me.

I'm glad nobody was hurt in these accidents.
 
ducktapeguy said:
The problem is I don't know of any shop that would catch a problem that isn't immediately apparent from the outside, and I wouldn't want to rely on them to do so for my own safety. For example, if something was rusting out from the inside, unless you were looking for it, it could easily look good/fine, but fail at a bad time. I'm not saying that was the problem here, but these pictures gets me thinking of what else could possibly go wrong. I know for sure that a lot of metal parts can be rusted out until they were paper thin, but with no obvious signs from the outside. Honestly, I never thought a steering rod would just break suddenly like this, I would have thought that it would've gotten weaker until it bent first, at least giving some indication that it's going out. This is a real learning experience for me.

I'm glad nobody was hurt in these accidents.
Click to expand...

lucky brake....no pun intended

this is usually called "duty of care" passing the responsability to a responsable party........dont know if they would accept blame if something did break if it was a free service.

awsome trail fix by the way spud!!
 
Lucky for you it turned out well. Too bad they didn't bend.

I used to have a Land Rover Discovery that I bent the steering rods while on a trail run. Pulled it out almost straight just to get home.

As replacements, I purchased heavy duty steering rods. The rods were incredibly thick...so thick the manufacturer had a pic of the truck lifted off the ground with a floor jack on the steering rod!

Who makes heavy duty replacement steering rods for the FJ40?
 
Spud said:
This, (your issue), is tie rods...

Mine was steering rod...The end that attaches to Pitman, (where it comes out of gear box). Two altogether different pieces/parts.
Click to expand...

aah yes so it is.. i added my pix as a reminder that it might not appear to be suspect..


ducktapeguy said:
Looking at both failures, it looks like both of them broke at the end of the rod where the slots are. Is this because it was rusted out from moisture getting in there, and do you think you would have been noticed it during an inspection? Could it have rusted out from the inside without showing any signs of it from the outside? Especially the tie rod pictures, there doesn't appear to be any damage on the outside. I just redid my steering, but didn't really look at the rods real closely, I'm gonna have to go double check now.
Click to expand...

the issue was rust with my tie rod, I have done a lot of beach work and it was easy for sand/mud/moisture to get into that slot, which rusted it from the inside out. the tie rod appears to be pretty thin walled tube to start with which didnt help.. either way.. glad you came out the other side unscathed.
 
Oh Snap!
 
Here I've been bitching about a cut sidewall! That's the kind of breakage I can do without. No thanks!
 
When you're looking to replace, look at BTB's relay rod it's solid man, heavy but solid. I think the TRE will snap off before the relay bends.

Kevin
 
Mr. Spud,
Anyone who can Trail-Fab like that could be Elected Gov. of OK or AR.........Nice job! :)
 
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