My Carnage From The Baja 500

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Hey Guys

Here are the pics and details of what happened.

We we coming home from a 4 day weekend in Baja for the 500, we spent most of our time in San Vincente but did quite a bit of exploring along the coast as well, near Erindira.

Anyway, on the way home, about 5 miles north of Ensenada i felt the truck pulling a little bit and making a clunking sound, being the paranoid person i am, i pulled over immediately to check out the situation. What i saw scared the shhheaat out of me. 2 lugs holding my wheel on and the other 4 studs were sheared clear off at the base, no good! Anyone that has come home from Ensenada knows how gnarly the drive is up through those hills with no guardrails or protection.

Anyway, we were only down for about 30mins before another race team pulled over to help! We all agreed we were in the death wish area where we were pulled over so we moved about 1/2 mile north to an opening, here we jacked up the rig, removed the wheel and assessed the situation. 4 of the studs were sheared off at the base and the 2 remaining studs were bent and damaged. Luckily the guys that stopped to help had a generator and a large welder. Due to the time (getting dark) and where we were broke, and lack of spares, the only option was to weld some beads onto the hub, tighten the wheel as best we could and limp home. Luckily the 2 studs that were left were opposites.

Anyway, it was quite a puckering 35mph adventure all the way home! Luckily we got home safely and the repair will begin soon, i am thinking there is some damaged internals as well, time will tell!

Huge thanks to the Vildosola racing guys that came to our aid, spent almost an hour getting us back on the road and following us all the way to Puerto Nuevo to make sure we were ok!! Kudos to them!!!

Here are some pics: (anyone have any spare wheels or front end parts??)

IMG_0609.jpg


IMG_0610.jpg


IMG_0611.jpg
 
Wholly crap Kevin you are a very lucky man. Mexico is not the place to have a bad accident. Nice trail fix though, it got you home and that is all you can ask. Happy to hear you are safe. Hope to see you in Big Bear.
 
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Newps said:
Whole crap Kevin you are a very lucky man.

Sure am, even bought a lottery ticket the second we got back to the US :D

Newps said:
Mexico is not the place to have a bad accident.

Your not kidding! :D

Newps said:
Nice trail fix though, it got you home and that is all you can ask.

Yeah, one good thing about being in Mexico during the races is that some of the best fabrication talent in the world is there and most are always looking to help!

Newps said:
Happy to hear you are safe.

Thanks, me too! :D

Newps said:
Hope to see you in Big Bear.

Highly doubtful i am going but ya never know!

Oh, and before someone asks how i am going to get the wheel off, i havent figured that out yet! :flipoff2: guessing the grinder and plasma cutter will be getting a hell of a workout! :D
 
what do you think "caused" the breakage? Too many wacks on that 1000ft/lb impact wrench?
 
Taz said:
what do you think "caused" the breakage?

No Clue, guessing the PO overstressed them, i had a BITCH of a time getting them off when i first tried to remove them!!

Taz said:
Too many wacks on that 1000ft/lb impact wrench?

Hell No! I never tighten my lugs with one!
 
Kevin,

Glad you limped home ok, good luck with the repair. sorry all I can add is moral support. :frown:
Smit
 
Holy Shiat! Best news is that you are ok. Hope a cruiser brother parting out a truck can help you.
 
good for you! nice call and nifty repair.

(Postmortem quarterbacking for collective wisdom enlargement: would it have been cheaper to have somebody go back to the US, buy the parts and come back to get you while you were holed up in a little cantina? Or do you think you can grind and reuse the hub?)
 
At first glance I was thinking "ooh those Baja recers have some cool welding technology that can weld aluminum to steel" :)

I used to carry wheel studs in my trail spare box and have started to do so again after breaking a couple on Ratpuke's truck at River Shiver.
 
Kevin, you are indeed a luck man. I know that drive well and I sure as hell would not want to lose a tire there. :eek: Glad all are safe. Racers are very cool down there the comraderie is great and they can be life savers. Did they use special welding rods or just go for it since you had nothing to lose. I ask because my dad came home a couple years ago from a ride and had gotten some welding rods that allowed you to weld aluminum and steel together. Don't recall what was special about their makeup to allow that to be possible but a cool thing to have for just such an emergency.

I will cross my fingers that you can get the repair done in time for Big Bear even though I know that is a very long shot. :frown: Just a thought, you might want to replace all the wheel studs up front on both sides to be safe. If the PO torqued the sheot out of them once he probably did it more than that and who knows what kind of shape they are in. Good luck.
 
A die grinder with an extension and a small cutter and you might be able to get that off without buggering it up too much... if not too bad you may be able to keep the wheel as a spare... for what they did looks good... ...really nice trail repair...

looks like all you are out is a wheel, some studs and an axle seal...

anyone know if a fj60 hub will interchange may be a cheep fix...


I know hind sight is 2020 but did you think of knocking out some of the rear studs and using them...??????

Anyone else know if they interchange?? just for future refference??
 
RAYJON said:
A die grinder with an extension and a small cutter and you might be able to get that off without buggering it up too much...

Yes, i am going to try that first!

RAYJON said:
if not too bad you may be able to keep the wheel as a spare...
that is my intent

RAYJON said:
for what they did looks good... ...really nice trail repair...

Yes, i was most impressed!

RAYJON said:
looks like all you are out is a wheel, some studs and an axle seal...

Hopefully thats it. The good news out of all of this was that after the big bear trip i planned an entire front end and brake overhaul with all new seals, bearings, studs, etc... This now is expedited! :D

RAYJON said:
anyone know if a fj60 hub will interchange may be a cheep fix...

Nope, not even close! Wish they were, i have 2 laying around!

RAYJON said:
I know hind sight is 2020 but did you think of knocking out some of the rear studs and using them...??????

Yes, but where we were located and the time of day it was, it really wasnt a good idea, plus i am not sure they are the same, pretty sure the fronts are pressed in via a large press!
 
slomo said:
Did they use special welding rods or just go for it since you had nothing to lose.

no, just some standard mig wire

slomo said:
I ask because my dad came home a couple years ago from a ride and had gotten some welding rods that allowed you to weld aluminum and steel together. Don't recall what was special about their makeup to allow that to be possible but a cool thing to have for just such an emergency.

Yes, i have heard of such a thing, but i much prefer this fix and the parts still may be salavageable

slomo said:
I will cross my fingers that you can get the repair done in time for Big Bear even though I know that is a very long shot. :frown:

Thanks, but there is ZERO chance of that happening!

slomo said:
Just a thought, you might want to replace all the wheel studs up front on both sides to be safe.

FOR SURE!!! All 24 wheel studs will be replaced before this truck is driven again!
 
e9999 said:
would it have been cheaper to have somebody go back to the US, buy the parts and come back to get you while you were holed up in a little cantina?

No, it was late on a Sunday, no where to get parts, cost of gas in all of the rigs we were driving would have costed about the same, if not more the parts if you made another trip to the US and back! :D And, by the time they got back, i would be way too wasted to drive!! :D

e9999 said:
Or do you think you can grind and reuse the hub?)

Going to try to
 
Boston Mangler said:
no, just some standard mig wire

Yes, i have heard of such a thing, but i much prefer this fix and the parts still may be salavageable

That is good to know. I was under the impression that using regular rod or mig wire would give you something akin to pressing lumps of booger snot onto cast iron and expecting it to hold. I am of course refering to a non emergency situation. I am very impressed at the welding job, especially considering the dissimilar metals and the inability to prep let alone on the side of the toll road at night. :eek:

Boston Mangler said:
Thanks, but there is ZERO chance of that happening!

Sorry to hear that. We will have some extra fun for you! :flipoff2:


Boston Mangler said:
FOR SURE!!! All 24 wheel studs will be replaced before this truck is driven again!

I expected no less of you. :cool:




Lastly you are a very effecient poster. Nobody can accuse you of trying to boost your post count. :D
 
Hey Kevin, how's the repair going?
 
OLDGOAT said:
Hey Kevin, how's the repair going?

Well, unfortunately, they did a great job making sure the wheel wouldnt fall off and i wont be able to salvage the wheel or the hub when removing it.

The fix is going to require me to ground the welds off of the hub and in the process will destroy both the wheel and the hub. I knew this when we did the fix, i just had my fingers crossed i could save the parts, thats not happening.

Anyway, i am in no rush to do it and will be doing a complete tear down of the front end and doing the birf repack and the knuckles and all seals as well.

Thanks for asking.

Guessing i should be back up in a month or so.

Anyone got a spare 93-94 alloy?

Thanks
 
Ouch.:frown:

When are you going to do the birf repack? I'd love to watch this being done and help out in any way.

I'll also keep an eye out for an alloy.
 
Boston Mangler said:
Well, unfortunately, they did a great job making sure the wheel wouldnt fall off and i wont be able to salvage the wheel or the hub when removing it.

The fix is going to require me to ground the welds off of the hub and in the process will destroy both the wheel and the hub. I knew this when we did the fix, i just had my fingers crossed i could save the parts, thats not happening.

Anyway, i am in no rush to do it and will be doing a complete tear down of the front end and doing the birf repack and the knuckles and all seals as well.

Thanks for asking.

Guessing i should be back up in a month or so.

Anyone got a spare 93-94 alloy?

Thanks


seems like you should be able to save at least one of the 2, no?
 
e9999 said:
seems like you should be able to save at least one of the 2, no?

In theory yes. I am going to try like hell to save the hub, but i dont think i can. I will know more later on when i get motivated to start ripping into this thing

Thanks
 

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