Contest-Solve bent steering box mystery

[65swb45]

So amongst my several dozen steering box cores I unearthed this 'gem' of a column with a double bend in the column tube. I did not remove this column from a vehicle or purchase it as an individual component. It came as part of a huge bulk purchase when I bought out Midwest Landcruiser in 1990. So I don't know the real back story here.

The contest is to provide the most ENTERTAINING story of how this column got bent. Knowing what it takes to remove one of these properly should provide enough marginal tech to keep the thread in tech. Contest will run until Dec 31.

Prize? TBD! At a minimum, it will include one of the oil filter coolers I have listed in the classifieds. Depending on how things go, I might be inclined to sweeten the pot with some Mark's Off Road shackles or skid plates.

 

[47coeman]

Mark
That sure Us a puzzling question for sure it wasn't a light tap to put a kink in that solid steel rod, be fun to try and come up with a story.
Best Skip Landon

 

[Downey]

Ok, here's my guess- - -vehicle was involved in a collision/immediate stop, 350 lb. driver slammed into steering wheel, his inertia over powering the dashboard and firewall clamps/mounts, so steering column tube acted as a crush feature.

 

[Tigerstripe40]

I've felt my 'Cruisers frame and body flexing in relation to each other while wheeling, so my guess is that the truck was used in such a manner that the flex between frame and body was enough to have bent the tube. Probably a REALLY hard tip over.

 

[FF LC FREAK]

Hold my beer. Watch this. If Bo and Luke can do it, so can I! After jumping over the river, the frame buckled when the front end augered into the ground. That's the first bend in the column. However, that alone cannot stop a cruiser. It continued on out of control a dozen more feet fishtailing wildy where, sideways, it wrapped nicely around a big oak tree. Hence, bend number two.

And now you know, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story.

 

[jm599]

Came out of Bill Clintons rig. Monica had to crouch down really low, when he got pulled over for tail light being out.

 

[Downey]

I've felt my 'Cruisers frame and body flexing in relation to each other while wheeling, so my guess is that the truck was used in such a manner that the flex between frame and body was enough to have bent the tube. Probably a REALLY hard tip over.

I'm not thinking normal flex from normal wheeling, otherwise we'd all have bent columns, so I'd go along with the tip over idea..

 

[n0rth]

That came out of our farm truck we used to plow snow and pull stumps in the field with it. The first bend was from pulling on a stump when the chain broke and slamming into another stump tearing out the front axle, steering gear and mangled the frame. The second bend was from an attempt to straighten everything and piece the truck back together. After a lot of curse words and many late evenings of trying to get thing back together we gave up and sold the entire truck to Midwest Land Cruiser for scrap in the winter of 88.



Mystery solved through fiction...

 

[roma042987]

that happened when this idiot hit the wheel

 

[emac]

Hey Bo, I can't get the lid off of this setic tank. Hand me that old Jeep steering column we found next to the rust pile in the back field. That should get it moving!

 

[allan man]

that happened when this idiot hit the wheel

LMAO!!

 

[Michael B]

To remove the column from the vehicle everyone knows you just jack the rig up as high as it will go and then you just slide the column out the bottom. The bends happened when bubba got half way through the job (i.e. Steering gearbox is on the ground with the column still sticking in the cab) and leaned against the truck while drinking his beer. Thus knocking the precariously perch rig off the jack (no jack stands required because this will only take a min). Thus bending the steering column as you see it. It didn't do the firewall any favors either!

 

[Trollhole]

John Parker was a cheap man. To this day he has yet to own real glass windows in his house and uses plastic shrink wrap from some dumpster diving he did a few summers out back of Walmart. John lived on a windy hill on the outskirts of town and drove an old rusty Toyota Land Cruiser. It was beat up and wired together using an old TBI out of an astro van his ex wife had in the back yard. It ran great without a VSS or a knock sensor since John was too cheap to buy anything unnecessary. John drove the hell out of that FJ40 to every dumpster in the city looking for bits and pieces to keep his house and vehicle together. He was mean a a snake. Scared every kid and their parents to death and smelled of death as well from the years of dumpster diving.

It all came to an end when one night he was found passed out beside the local judges car with a rotten hose that had a burst hole in it. Seems John was not up on the times about ethanol and how it eats regular vinyl hose. John passed out from the fumes and came too locked up in jail. Come to find out John had been stealing every ones gas in the small town. For years this had gone on. Lots of folks had switched over to diesel because it would last days longer than the previous gas cars and trucks. Well the Judge slapped John with every law in the book. He banned John from ever dumpster diving again and was not allowed back in the town except to vote. At his sentencing John proclaimed he didn't need their things and would grow everything he needed. The towns people laughed because they knew while he could grow his own food he would never grow the things he needed to keep his vehicle going and have things to keep his house standing.

No one heard from John for years. When voting time came around everyone would wait outside the city hall listening for that old Land Cruiser to show up. It never did. 10 years went by and the Judge finally told the sheriff to go see what John had been up to. When the sheriff arrived he found to his amazement fields of new trees growing out of the ground with strange clear leaves. Around back John had dug a well and had been producing his own gas. He had rubber trees on the other side of a vegetable garden where he had been retreading his own tires on that old land cruiser. But by far was the strangest thing he saw was the steering colum of that old FJ40 was missing. Pieces of it had been planted out on the very top of his property and they were growing. There was even one completely made and ready for picking. Though the wind up on that hill had made it slightly crooked. So what you have there is the only known grown Land Cruiser part in the world.

What happened to John. We seems his clear leaf windows didn't work out very well and he died that first winter from the extreme cold. John wasn't that smart.

 

[65swb45]

Hold my beer. Watch this. If Bo and Luke can do it, so can I! After jumping over the river, the frame buckled when the front end augered into the ground. That's the first bend in the column. However, that alone cannot stop a cruiser. It continued on out of control a dozen more feet fishtailing wildy where, sideways, it wrapped nicely around a big oak tree. Hence, bend number two.

And now you know, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story.

Came out of Bill Clintons rig. Monica had to crouch down really low, when he got pulled over for tail light being out.

That came out of our farm truck we used to plow snow and pull stumps in the field with it. The first bend was from pulling on a stump when the chain broke and slamming into another stump tearing out the front axle, steering gear and mangled the frame. The second bend was from an attempt to straighten everything and piece the truck back together. After a lot of curse words and many late evenings of trying to get thing back together we gave up and sold the entire truck to Midwest Land Cruiser for scrap in the winter of 88.



Mystery solved through fiction...

Now that's what I'm talking about! Keep 'smiling coming.

 

[65swb45]

John Parker was a cheap man. To this day he has yet to own real glass windows in his house and uses plastic shrink wrap from some dumpster diving he did a few summers out back of Walmart. John lived on a windy hill on the outskirts of town and drove an old rusty Toyota Land Cruiser. It was beat up and wired together using an old TBI out of an astro van his ex wife had in the back yard. It ran great without a VSS or a knock sensor since John was too cheap to buy anything unnecessary. John drove the hell out of that FJ40 to every dumpster in the city looking for bits and pieces to keep his house and vehicle together. He was mean a a snake. Scared every kid and their parents to death and smelled of death as well from the years of dumpster diving.

It all came to an end when one night he was found passed out beside the local judges car with a rotten hose that had a burst hole in it. Seems John was not up on the times about ethanol and how it eats regular vinyl hose. John passed out from the fumes and came too locked up in jail. Come to find out John had been stealing every ones gas in the small town. For years this had gone on. Lots of folks had switched over to diesel because it would last days longer than the previous gas cars and trucks. Well the Judge slapped John with every law in the book. He banned John from ever dumpster diving again and was not allowed back in the town except to vote. At his sentencing John proclaimed he didn't need their things and would grow everything he needed. The towns people laughed because they knew while he could grow his own food he would never grow the things he needed to keep his vehicle going and have things to keep his house standing.

No one heard from John for years. When voting time came around everyone would wait outside the city hall listening to that old Land Cruiser to show up. It never did. 10 years went by and the Judge finally told the sheriff to go see what John had been up to. When the sheriff arrived he found to his amazement fields of new trees growing out of the ground with strange clear leaves. Around back John had dug a well and had been producing his own gas. He had rubber trees on the other side of a vegetable garden where he had been retreading his own tires on that old land cruiser. But by far was the strangest thing he saw was the steering colum of that old FJ40 was missing. Pieces of it had been planted out on the very top of his property and they were growing. There was even one completely made and ready for picking. Though the wind up on that hill had made it slightly crooked. SO what you have there is the only known grown Land Cruiser part in the world.

What happened to John. We seems his clear leaf windows did work out very well and he died that first winter from the extreme cold. John wasn't that smart.

OMG, the gauntlet has been thrown down! In the true southern style of the Rainman hisself.

 

[Dynosoar]

Mark, WOW! I can’t believe you posted this. I have a close personal connection to that steering column. Seeing it brings back many painful yet happy memories.

It all started back in the spring of 1966. Steven Shorelle, a high school senior from Pasadena, CA was on the eve of his high school graduation when he decided to enlist in the United States Marine Corps. This was to be expected as all the men in his family have served as Marines dating back to the War or 1812. This was a very difficult decision for young Steve as he was a pacifist at heart, and had vowed to never follow the family tradition of Military service. However, there was another family tradition he fully embraced, that was off roading.

Stevens’s father, Major Richard Shorelle, had proudly served in the Pacific theater during WWII. He was near fatality injured in the isle of Kwajalein on February 2, 1944. After a long and arduous recovery in Honolulu, Hawaii Richard returned home to Los Angeles, CA. Soon after his return in 1945, Richard purchased a war surplus 1942 Ford GWP (Jeep) for the hefty sum of $65.78. He started to explore the high desert and became a 4wd legend. But I digress.

Steve grew up in that jeep. He spent most weekends exploring and cutting new trails all over southern California. Steve soon had a deep abiding love of the outdoors and four wheeling.

Steven did his basic training at Paris Island and was soon headed for the Jungles of Vietnam. As a young PFC and Lance Corporal in Vietnam, Steven earned a reputation as a hard working grunt. Taking on the missions the other men (Boys) shied away from. One thing Steven always did prior to his missions was write a letter to his mom. In April of 1967, in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, Steven was asked to lead a patrol up hill 227. As usual he sat down to scribble of a quick letter to his mom. In that letter he mentioned to his Mom that when he get home from “This little Slice of Heaven” known as Vietnam he was going to spend his hard earned combat pay to purchase brand new 1967 Toyota Land Cruiser.

Well as these things happen Steven went MIA on that that mission. However, before that news made it state side Steven’s mom, Margret Shorelle, had gone out and purchased a brand new 1967 FST FJ40, from her local Toyota dealer as a surprise for her son whom she hoped to see very soon. The news made it back to the Shorelle family in a short while that Steve had gone missing. The family kept hope for a long, long time. His mom regularly started the Land Cruiser to be sure it was in good shape for when Steven finally made it home.

Unfortunately, Steven never made it home. But my grandmother, Margret Shorelle, Kept that land cruiser as tribute to her lost son. She used it to drive me back and forth to school and top get groceries. For those of you who have never driven a manual steering FJ40, you need to know it takes considerable arm strength to maneuver the wheel at slow speeds. This woman soon had forearms the size of Popeye’s. One day while parallel parking in front of my school she managed to turn the steering wheel so hard and fast she ended up completely bending the steering shaft. As a young mechanically inclined kid I swapped out that twisted mess and replaced it with a shiny new OEM unit. That bent mess sat on my side yard for years before I swapped it for some parts I ordered from Midwest land Cruiser in 1988.

It looks like that part made its way back to Southern California only miles from where it was originally twisted like a pretzel. Hey Mark, I would love to have it back to hang in my garage. It will forever remind me of the Father I never knew and the Grandmother who raised me.

Thanks

 

[3_puppies]

it all started when I let Bill Bixby borrow my rig. He was going hunting and wanted to find a monster elk. Of course he needed a cruiser as no other rig would go that deep in the mountains and make it back home. As he wandered far from civilization thru some prairies and over some mountains. He finally found the spot that no vehicle tracks have ever been laid down. He set up camp and dreamed of the biggest rack he would ever lay eyes upon. he wakes up the next morning way before dawn and heads deeper into the bush. He ended up getting a flat and in the process of removing a lugnut he scraped his knuckle and had an incredible hulk episode. Bill wandered down my driveway 2 days later, his clothes all torn and tattered carrying that steering column and no idea what happened. After searching for several weeks the rest of the rig was never found. That was all I had left of that FJ40.

 

[JohnnyC]

It all happened when one day....

My buddy and I came across this pink fluffy unicorn. It was an amazing thing to see the pink was so brilliant and clean and the fluffiness was like a 'my pillow' between my legs. So as we were standing there mesmerized looking upon this creature of unfathamable beauty it began to speak to us...

"I want to take you to a magic land" it said. We found ourselves completely enchanted by this creature so how could we say no... plus I would hate to disappoint the pink fluffy unicorn. I also didn't want to find out that they get upset and cry or better yet freak out and transform into a crazy killer or a blood extracting life sucker.

"Come with me" it said in a most enchanting way

So my buddy and I got in my buddies 67' cruiser and followed the pink fluffy unicorn of extream beautiful essence. As it was frolicking it was picking up speed... faster ... and faster

"Follow me" said the pink fluffy unicorn ... "Follow me ... follow me this way"

My buddy Marc was able to keep the cruiser somewhat close to the pink fluffy unicorn (he had a V8 conversion in his cruiser) It was getting much rougher a terrain and we found ourselves giggling and merry with delight at the pure happiness we were feeling as we were brushing past tree and rock.

"Follow ... follow me" it would say as the unicorn glared over its shoulder with an amazing twinkle of its blue gorgeous eyes

Suddenly without warning Marc was frantically pumping brakes to get the cruiser to stop. He did stop just in time to see this amazing rainbow before us. However the rainbow increased in height as the edge of the ground decreased. And decrease it did. It was a large drop off.

The fluffy unicorn of wonderfulness came over to the cruiser and plopped its hind legs on the hood and it's front legs over the front but ever so carefully balanced on the pto winch cable roller fairlead.

Glancing over its shoulder once more it said "we will go on the rainbow to magic land" we were feeling all tingly inside... can it be ... are we really almost there?

"My magic will make the cruiser do things you never imagined it could do"

I looked over at Marc and he at me and we knew this was going to be great.... He Floored it ... the 350 was screaming and we were as well with true delight... as the cruiser just leaped off the edge of the drop off we felt the weightlessness that only astronauts are supposed to feel ... and it was Great... it was wonderful... it was a big mistake

Marc was now screaming every profanity that existed... the rainbow was gone ... the unicorn was gone ... and we were gone off the edge of the drop off ... the lev-o-gauge mounted on the passenger door was pinned forward and we were flying down the hills edge ... we picked up speed as the front brake flex line burst!

Only God can save us now ... why did we listen to the pink fluffy unicorn... why did we get fooled by this purely evil animal. As my buddy was frantically dodging trees and careening off rocks it finally hit me ... "Shrooms"

Was it all a hallucination? But both of us having the same hallucination? Same thoughts?

Was the magic just bad gas? From fava beans?

I don't really know why things happen the way they do... it just does.

I woke in the hospital without knowing just what really happened. Marc and I never really talked about that night again. It happened and that's that. We still are great friends but no longer go to Metallica concerts together out of fear. Fear of the pink fluffy unicorn of evil delight.

Marc's cruiser BTW was a wreck... we tried parting out most salvageable parts... but... it was slim pickings. A cruiser guy on Craigslist picked up that steering shaft as well as several other pieces from my buddies totaled cruiser ... he was going to put it in a cruiser he was restoring for a customer.

So tell me Mark A ... did you buy this lot of stuff from a guy named Greg Mushro?

come to find out there is a song about the PFU's ... but don't be fooled ... they are evil little joy suckers

 

[V8FJ4078]

That column must have come out of the 1968 that originally was picked up by my uncle after it was fixed from an accident where the driver's side rear spring hanger was ripped off the frame. They wheeled it back in the early 70's and drove it as a daily driver. After he sold it 2 others owned it before a guy my father worked with bought it and drove it until they would no longer pass it for PA state inspection. The body had become so rusted that there were no body mounts holding it to the frame. Each day they left work and my father was following him when they went over the raised railroad tracks the back of the body would lift up off the frame and then set back down. He drove it until the late 80's when my father purchased it after they wouldn't put a sticker on it. When we pulled it apart to put a new body on it in the 90's the only thing holding the tub on was the steering column. Each turn that was made pulled on the column and over time the back and forth, up and down of the body must have caused bends in the steering. That steering column was so worn! With a 350 Chevy motor out of a checker cab, its was a wonder the body wasn't left behind when he pulled out.

 

[Tancruiser]

I'm thinking that column made a good winch point for a cruiser laying on its side tangling off a 60 foot overpass . It rolled as it was being pursued by police because it had a stolen ATM machine inside and an FJ40 is the perfect high speed get away car. Thats my story and don't ask me how I know this . Bill Smith.