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- #21
29 OCT 2022 - Lockwood Creek_Miller Jeep Trail
- Thread starter Ttoner80
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Brent,Its a jeep... need I say more.
So. I knew for a while I had something going on with the power steering pump but, wasn't sure what. Boy did we find out! Turns out the nipple for the fluid return was slowly failing. The very last obstacle on Millers is where the nipple finally broke off completely!
What this did was cause the Jeep to promptly pump all remaining fluid onto my front diff and then to the trail( not where it belongs sorry mother nature). I pulled up to an open area to inspect what was going on. As the rest of the crew gathered everyone pitched in to help in their own way. ( Me finding out I don't carry nearly enough tools) I Identified what the issue was and Rich and Dat took the lead on figuring out how to bandaid it enough to get us all out of there.
I ended up plugging the hole left in the reservoir with a foam earplug lol. Rich suggested we scavenge some other non essential rubber hose to extend the non pressurized return line back to the filler of the power steering box. The one thing I do have is extra fluids (it being a jeep I knew I would need these). So we dumped a whole quart of ps fluid in. Dat used probably a half a roll of duct tape to secure the hose from coming out of reservoir and to keep the ear plug from popping out of the new hole in said reservoir. Luckily the rest of the trail although being another hour or so of driving was easy fire road and paved roads.
I had made a call to my Pops and asked him to fire up the tow rig and see if he could rent a trailer. I made it to the McDonald's at Gorman. Odin and I had some dinner and My Dad showed up about a half hour later. We loaded up the rig and started the 2 hour trip home. Although uneventful some a-hole in a jeep tailgated us the whole way home!!
did he really need to be that close?! Lol.
Decided to park the whole kit and kaboodle in my yard like a redneck due to lack of parking on the street and let my pops drive my Camry home.
Thanks a ton for the fun day on the trail and all the help getting the rig patched up and down the mountain. This is the number 1 reason I love the club everyone regardless of race, creed or vehicle make is all treated like friends. Hopefully I'll get the motivation to get her all buttoned up soon.
I will post more pics of run in general in another post.
Thanks again all!
What this did was cause the Jeep to promptly pump all remaining fluid onto my front diff and then to the trail( not where it belongs sorry mother nature). I pulled up to an open area to inspect what was going on. As the rest of the crew gathered everyone pitched in to help in their own way. ( Me finding out I don't carry nearly enough tools) I Identified what the issue was and Rich and Dat took the lead on figuring out how to bandaid it enough to get us all out of there.
I ended up plugging the hole left in the reservoir with a foam earplug lol. Rich suggested we scavenge some other non essential rubber hose to extend the non pressurized return line back to the filler of the power steering box. The one thing I do have is extra fluids (it being a jeep I knew I would need these). So we dumped a whole quart of ps fluid in. Dat used probably a half a roll of duct tape to secure the hose from coming out of reservoir and to keep the ear plug from popping out of the new hole in said reservoir. Luckily the rest of the trail although being another hour or so of driving was easy fire road and paved roads.
I had made a call to my Pops and asked him to fire up the tow rig and see if he could rent a trailer. I made it to the McDonald's at Gorman. Odin and I had some dinner and My Dad showed up about a half hour later. We loaded up the rig and started the 2 hour trip home. Although uneventful some a-hole in a jeep tailgated us the whole way home!!
did he really need to be that close?! Lol.
Decided to park the whole kit and kaboodle in my yard like a redneck due to lack of parking on the street and let my pops drive my Camry home.
Thanks a ton for the fun day on the trail and all the help getting the rig patched up and down the mountain. This is the number 1 reason I love the club everyone regardless of race, creed or vehicle make is all treated like friends. Hopefully I'll get the motivation to get her all buttoned up soon.
I will post more pics of run in general in another post.
Thanks again all!
If it makes you feel any better, Travis - I broke too. With Rich's spotting, I was able to clear that last obstacle near the top of the mountain pretty easily. But once I made it past the obstacle, I stopped paying attention for just a second, and plowed right into a chunky rock sitting in the middle of the trail. It hit my right radius arm on the underside and put a nice gouge on it. It was a pretty sold hit, it basically stopped me cold in my tracks. I didn't really notice it at the time, but I bet the impact popped my right shock off at the axle mount. Once we started heading down the hill on that fire road, I did notice a tendency to nose dive on hard left turns and the few bumpy sections did cause some pretty nice clunks to occur. But I made it home without noticing what happened. It was only today when I went under the rig for a look-see and to check some bolts that I saw what had happened.
The threads on the shock shaft look pretty buggered up. Should I attempt to remount the shock as is, or replace the shock? (Bear in mind, I am still pretty new to wrenching on Land Cruisers, so I'd love some good advice on what to do)
The threads on the shock shaft look pretty buggered up. Should I attempt to remount the shock as is, or replace the shock? (Bear in mind, I am still pretty new to wrenching on Land Cruisers, so I'd love some good advice on what to do)
Well I am with you in the I forgot where they rock was club ( and finding it with a very solid part of my rig lol). As for the shock you could run a nut over the threads to see if it clears it up a bit. If you decide to replace then lucky for you shocks are very straight forward. Usually 2 bolts, one top one bottom. If you want you can look it up on YouTube to see if it's something you want to tackle.If it makes you feel any better, Travis - I broke too. With Rich's spotting, I was able to clear that last obstacle near the top of the mountain pretty easily. But once I made it past the obstacle, I stopped paying attention for just a second, and plowed right into a chunky rock sitting in the middle of the trail. It hit my right radius arm on the underside and put a nice gouge on it. It was a pretty sold hit, it basically stopped me cold in my tracks. I didn't really notice it at the time, but I bet the impact popped my right shock off at the axle mount. Once we started heading down the hill on that fire road, I did notice a tendency to nose dive on hard left turns and the few bumpy sections did cause some pretty nice clunks to occur. But I made it home without noticing what happened. It was only today when I went under the rig for a look-see and to check some bolts that I saw what had happened.
The threads on the shock shaft look pretty buggered up. Should I attempt to remount the shock as is, or replace the shock? (Bear in mind, I am still pretty new to wrenching on Land Cruisers, so I'd love some good advice on what to do)
Kids... this is why we cant have nice things.
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- #27
Katsuo70
If that’s att full extension it seems short and may need new shocks.
If that’s att full extension it seems short and may need new shocks.
I think it is at full extension. I wrapped it with a thin rubber mat and grabbed it with some vice grips, and couldn't get it to come out any further. The shock shaft itself has some nice scratches in it. I assume the shock is probably no good because of that alone. But as far as I can tell, the shaft didn't actually shear off. I bet if I chased the threads on the end of the shaft, I could remount it. Whether that is a good idea or not is another matter.
It's all academic at this point. Dobinsons is running a black friday sale. I've been wanting to upgrade the suspension anyway. New suspension stuff has been ordered.
- Thread starter
- #29
That is way too short for the droop on your rig. Yeah. Get new shocks!
Can you share a link for the dobinson sale?
Details in the Vendor Section - Suspension here on Mud: Dobinsons November 2022 Sale!! Nov 1-30 - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/dobinsons-november-2022-sale-nov-1-30.1297374/
Or just go to www.exitoffroad.com
Or just go to www.exitoffroad.com
- Thread starter
- #32
Katsuo70,
Did the nail or screw go through your rear tire? Hopefully not but if it does a single tire patch should do the trick.
Did the nail or screw go through your rear tire? Hopefully not but if it does a single tire patch should do the trick.
Thanks for the reminder. I don't know. Haven't had a chance to swap the spare on and take the tire with the nail in it to America's Tire. It is still holding air, but I know that doesn't mean much. I won't be driving on that tire because, well - the broken shock...
Right now I'm trying to figure out if I can reattach the shock so I can drive it safely to a shop to have the new suspension parts installed (when they get here). I know it looks like the shock shaft sheared off at the mount, but I'm not so sure about that. There's actually a threaded fitting on the top of the bushings and washers on the top side of the shock mount. It looks like the shock shaft just screws back into that fitting instead of going all the way down through to the lower side of the mount. Everything else is still in place - the normal bushings and washers are present both on top and below the shock mount. But like I said, I don't have familiarity with this stuff, and I have to get down there and take a better look at it to see what actually happened.
Right now I'm trying to figure out if I can reattach the shock so I can drive it safely to a shop to have the new suspension parts installed (when they get here). I know it looks like the shock shaft sheared off at the mount, but I'm not so sure about that. There's actually a threaded fitting on the top of the bushings and washers on the top side of the shock mount. It looks like the shock shaft just screws back into that fitting instead of going all the way down through to the lower side of the mount. Everything else is still in place - the normal bushings and washers are present both on top and below the shock mount. But like I said, I don't have familiarity with this stuff, and I have to get down there and take a better look at it to see what actually happened.
For anyone that wanted to see the jury rigged setup that Rich and Dat made up to get me down the mountain.
- Thread starter
- #35
Nastiest tape job I ever saw!
I'm in Mission Viejo, if you want to swing by and see what the stock mounting looks like. LMK if you think any photos would help.
Thanks, Joe. It was pretty easy to figure it out once I got in there and removed the shock - which I did a couple weekends ago. I don't know if it's like this on all FZJ80's, but with my shocks, there is indeed a threaded fitting that screws on the end of the shock shaft, which in turn is bolted on to the axle mount. My shock shaft did not shear off at all. It just pulled out of that threaded fitting. The hit it took when I plowed into that rock must have been harder than I thought for it to rip the shaft out of the fitting. Had I noticed that the shock shaft had popped loose, it might have been possible to just screw the shaft back in. Unfortunately the threads on the shock shaft got all chewed up from banging into the axle mount while I drove all the way down the mountain, and 50 miles home. It actually didn't ride too badly without a functioning shock on the front right. I was totally unaware that the shaft was just dangling loose the whole way.
I have since sent the shock in to Doetsch Tech for a complete rebuild, and it's already on it's way back to me. For being a very affordable shock, they are actually really nice. They offer a true 12.5" of travel and were custom-valved. They worked pretty well, however, I will not be reinstalling the rebuilt shock. I went ahead and took advantage of the sale on Dobinsons suspension parts and bought all new shocks and springs. My rig is over at Cruiser Tech right now getting the new suspension installed, along with having Cesar address a few other maintenance items. I am hoping to have it back in time to make it to Truckhaven.
I have since sent the shock in to Doetsch Tech for a complete rebuild, and it's already on it's way back to me. For being a very affordable shock, they are actually really nice. They offer a true 12.5" of travel and were custom-valved. They worked pretty well, however, I will not be reinstalling the rebuilt shock. I went ahead and took advantage of the sale on Dobinsons suspension parts and bought all new shocks and springs. My rig is over at Cruiser Tech right now getting the new suspension installed, along with having Cesar address a few other maintenance items. I am hoping to have it back in time to make it to Truckhaven.
