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anybody in the portland, or area? my deuce broke down and i'm stuck!

sewerzuk

Member
524
10
18
Location
Seaside, OR
Thanks for all the help so far; I wasn't able to track down parts last night, so I got permission to leave the truck overnight in the les schwab parking lot.
Beerslayer may know where there is a donor axle, so I'm hoping for parts this morning.
If that doesn't work out, srodocker I will give you a call...
 

sewerzuk

Member
524
10
18
Location
Seaside, OR
rockwell axle

Thinking about picking these up; gives me more spare parts to work with. I have a friend here with truck and trailer that can drive me up to get them. Anybody know who this is? It's a 5 hour round trip for me...but probably worth the trip to avoid having to replace borrowed parts...
 

sewerzuk

Member
524
10
18
Location
Seaside, OR
Thanks guys! Got the donor axle apart at beerslayers house; the parts are in excellent shape. Heading back to the truck to put it back together now. Should be back on the road in under an hour...
 

quarkz

Supreme Galactic Cleric
Steel Soldiers Supporter
805
71
28
Location
Kennewick, WA
:beer: Awesome. Its always nice to have a Happy Ending........

So sewerzuk, does that now makes you a source for emergency axle parts in NW Oregon?????
 

sewerzuk

Member
524
10
18
Location
Seaside, OR
So sewerzuk, does that now makes you a source for emergency axle parts in NW Oregon?????
My shop, my skills, and my tools, always have been a source of assistance for people out near the coast! After this little event, I realize there are a LOT of good people out there who are willing to provide assistance to somebody they don't know...just like me!

What goes around DOES come around; last year alone I rescued an M35A3 with an electrical fire just down the road from my house, and did midnight repairs on 2 vehicles, and welded up one broken trailer tongue for free. All were people I didn't know, all were similar situations to mine...people miles away from home with serious issues and nowhere else to turn.

This was the first time I think I've EVER had to rely on somebody I didn't know for help...but I sure did get a lot of it! After my first post here, I received at least 10 phone calls from people willing to drive from as far south as Eugene, and as far north as Tacoma. SS members let me borrow tools, sourced some spare axles for me, and offered up a place to crash for the night. I think I took care of everybody with firm handshakes, gift cards, free meals, and cash.

Thanks to everybody here who contributed. Beerslayer contributed significantly by finding the used axles for me, and letting me borrow his driveway and several of his tools. Some guy who lived across the street from the parking lot I was stranded in let me borrow a jack, some air tools, and a budd socket without a single thought as to whether I would return them. The Les Schwab let me use their concrete pad for a full 24 hours, and even provided me with some free shop rags and brakleen. My friend Ben shuttled me around for probably 100 miles in my quests for tools, supplies, and parts; he also loaned me $400 to help pay for the axles, and he found a forklift to load the donor axles onto the bed of my Deuce once it was back on the road.
 

Jeepjake

Member
69
1
8
Location
Bend, OR
Sewerzuk,
Glad to hear you got her back on the road. I called a buddy yesterday who lives there in Milwaukee, but he didn't have any spare parts that would have helped ya. I am glad you posted a reply about all the folks that are willing to lend a hand, sure is comforting for us who haven't gotten into the hobby far enough to have a few "parts trucks" lying about. Sounds like you owe your wive a nice dinner too!:D

Cheers
Jeep
 

sewerzuk

Member
524
10
18
Location
Seaside, OR
Now that I'm back home and in front of my computer, I can explain what happened:

Let me preface this by saying that i am a relatively experienced wrench-turner and fabricator; I grew up on a farm, spent almost 9 years in the Navy as a nuclear ET, and have built dozens of off-road rigs. I'm also the assistant chief on my local fire department, and besides being a driver for all of our vehicles I also do most of the maintenance and repairs on them. I am good at finding problems with components WELL before they turn into something serious. Many of my friends laugh at my obsessive need to PM my vehicles, tools, and equipment.
But...I screwed up with my deuce.
Last March and April, I took the deuce through a series of water crossings and mud bogs. Following that, I drove it through the seasonal floods on hwy 101 just south of Seaside. I recently drained/refilled the gear oil in the axles, tranny, and tcase because I was worried about water in the oil. I also felt for excessive play in the wheel bearings when I had it up in the air (there was none). I did NOT pull the hubs and check for water/mud/sand in the wheel bearings. I also did not check the hub temperature on this trip (both the bearing grease and temp is something that I do religiously when I have a trailer on the road). This turned out to be a BIG deal.
I was driving up I-205 in heavy traffic. I did not detect any kind of abnormal noise, smell, vibration etc. During a slowdown in the traffic the brakes felt abnormally "spongy," although they still worked. I made a split second decision to get off at the West Linn exit, instead of driving the remaining 6 miles to my destination. When I pulled into the Les Schwab parking lot, I noticed a small amount of smoke and a hot grease smell coming from the right front wheel; after a quick inspection, I realized that I could actually see the entire brake lining; the hub/drum was almost 4" away from the backing plate. When I jacked it up, the wheel literally fell off. I could have easily lost the wheel at 55 on the freeway; especially had I not stopped to investigate the brake symptom. The only thing keeping the wheel attached was luck. The race on the outer bearing had gotten so hot that it welded itself to the spindle. The cage came apart, and allowed the hub and drum to work itself off of the spindle. The reason the brakes felt spongy is that the shoes were outside of the drum and had nothing to press against. After repairing the passenger side, I took apart the driver side and found the bearings to be in rough shape (although with some new grease, good enough to get me back home).
I dodged a major bullet. As a firefighter/EMT I'm well aware of the carnage I could have caused...I feel pretty lucky. This incident cost me a few $$ and that is about it.
Lessons I took away from this; wheel bearings on the Rockwells are a critical part to inspect; especially after a water crossing. And, hub/tire temps should be checked at each stop. And, in a vehicle as noisy as an M35A2, you may not notice a problem until it is too late.
The last thing I want to do is shed a negative light on the MV community, on my fire department, or my business. I almost did just that yesterday...I can say for SURE that I will be more cautious in the future.
 
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dodgedougak

New member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
418
0
0
Location
Joseph, OR
What a great lesson for all of us, yep even us professional wrenches! Thanks for the honest post-mortem and thanks to all who go out of their way to help a stranded SS. I think it is time to PM the hubs on my M35A2.
 
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