Boiled joints a la Bjorn

[cranetruck]

After a short test drive the other day to find out how the bogies behaved on the 8x8, I have discovered that the "sealed for life" torque rod bushings are frozen, just like the steering ball joints were (also "sealed for life").

The steering joints, were cooked in oil for 4 hours and loosened up. The procedure worked well and the steering ball joints are still perfect after two years.

The bushing end of the first torque rod wouldn't turn even at 100 ft-lb, so I decided to try the cooking procedure on it earlier today and it worked great, the torque required to turn the stud in the socket/bushing went from over 100 to about 10 ft-lb.
I heat the joint in hydraulic oil at 250°F for 4 hours. The lowered viscosity of the oil and the heat does the job.

There are six torque rods on each bogie and the total force resisting proper movement of the suspension was well over 600 ft-lb.

It'll be a few days before all torque rods are treated, but I'm hopeful that the wheels will follow the terrain a lot better than before. The shocks were removed for some improvement, but it wasn't enough....

 

[Recovry4x4]

Outstanding Bjorn. Are they in a tapered seat like the deuce?

 

[cranetruck]

Yes Kenny and "locked" with a bolt (the bushing/ball stud).
The other end is seated in a rubber bushing and those are still good as far as I can tell, but if not, they are available new and can be pressed in. The rods are made of aluminum, btw.

 

[Jones]

Bjorn, You're not reading the fine print...
"Sealed for Life" means when the seal breaks and the part dies, it's life is over--
and so is the warranty.
If parts weren't designed to break, how would they ever get to sell you new ones?

We need parts that carry a warranty like; "Guaranteed-- not just for life, but forever".

 

[cranetruck]

 

[drgreg]

Works good for chicken too.

 

[papercu]

Great and best of all, that will look good on your resume if you apply for the Chef job at the local KFC. Wayne

 

[cranetruck]

Well, I can continue this process now after finally getting one of the torque rods loose using a jack hammer. There isn't enough space to swing a sledge hammer here.

 

[Westech]

over kill but I like it !!

 

[OPCOM]

Nice work! The truck looks lot better than when I first seen it.

 

[Westech]

Hey Bjorn, did you put in the back up light? looks like the same junk on my LMTV.

 

[cranetruck]

Nice work! The truck looks lot better than when I first seen it.

Slowly but surely Patrick. First noticed that the torque rods were binding when driving over this little hill after taken the shocks off, which were my first suspects.

Got the backup light from Austin Weber, so who knows, HMMWV, FMTV or?