wierdness at the Pearl (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Joined
Mar 15, 2005
Threads
322
Messages
3,082
Location
on stage
Website
www.barryhause.com
What can this be?

Here's what happened this evening:

Since it's nice and dry and the waters low I've been taking my canoe down to the Pearl river and fishing off and on the last few days after work. This afternoon I took some friends from out of town down there together with my two boys, the canoe and the dog. We drove through the usual up and down trails in the wood, managed to avoid the mud, then got out on the sand bar. I noticed the truck was laboring a little more than usual in the sand. I passed it off on the extra weight (5 adults, 2 kids oh, and did I mention canoe and dog--a little overloaded perhaps?). Still, we made it through, hung out, fished a little, drank some beer etc.

Then it happened. I decided to give my friends a little tour on the way back. Every thing was going fine till we hit the deep sand again. She started to lose momentum, slowed down, then finally stopped altogether. I asked everyone to hop out to reduce the weight to see If I could drive out. No deal. The rear wheels started to bury in the sand. I stopped revving for fear of going up to the axles. At this point I had my son Daniel recheck to make sure the hubs were locked. Yes, according to him. But when I revved, No front wheel action at all! Four wheel drive was definately not working. The rear wheel holes were getting deeper but the front wheels weren't moving. Its amazing how fast sand dissappears under your tires when your stuck! So I figured I broke my Tcase somehow. At this point I called Greg who said he be willing to come tow me out in a while (thanks man) and tried to figure out what was with the front axle. I checked the hubs again and behold! The left front hub was not engaged! Not sure how this happened. can they slip under stress if they're getting old? I reset the hub, put it in 4 low and DROVE IT OUT of two deep holes in 3 seconds, impressing my friends and myself. Awesome truck.

Here are my theories:

1) I bumped the left front wheel pretty hard coming out of the woods and it somehow unlocked the left front hub. We got stuck shortly after this. Can this happen when they wear?

2) some drunken riverats unlocked our hubs for laughs (not very likely considering what we had already gone through before we got stuck.

3) the hub was never unlocked in the first place but I lost power due to a vacumn leak which has suddenly resurfaced today after 3 months absence. My son accidentally turned it the wrong way. (also not very likely since I had power enough to get up a steep, sandy grade and some irregular terrain) The motor started to act funny as we left the river.

Looking for answers. I know it's probably time to rebuild the hubs. I definately need to deal with the vacumn leak. Anyone have thoughts about this? Has this ever happened to anyone else?

Sorry for the length of this post. I'm just trying to get all the facts straight before I tear into it.
 
Last edited:
snip

At this point I had my son Daniel recheck to make sure the hubs were locked. Yes, according to him. snip

Did Daniel lock them? When did you last touch the hubs? As you were getting to the mud?

My theory: Hubs weren't locked in the first place. The hub is pretty simple, it's either locked or not.

You will have the hubs apart when you do the front axle rebuild. That's a good time to look them over.

Ever since I made a mistake and drove back from Birmingham with the hubs locked :eek: I make a habit of locking right as I first need 4x4, then unlocking when I'm done. I don't leave them and say to myself "I'll unlock them when I get home" or "they are locked from when I was here yesterday".
 
The hubs must have been locked for us to get as far as we did. Proof is the minute they weren't we got buried in sand which we had already gone through with ease. I think I raked the left hub over a root and turned it. A minute after that I tried to go over a deep sandy spot with a fully loaded truck and sunk right in.
 
Quicksand?
 
Did you have to unlock and then lock again? Might need to take the outer part off and clean and lube the mechanism. Mine have been stubborn sometimes.

Later,
 
uh, Greg..........
phone.jpg
 
I like how your photos look like they were taken in 1968.
 
One of them old 35mm cameras, circa 2002
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom