Farmallmilitary
Member
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- 16
- Location
- Las cruces nm
My family and I went camping out in the gila national forest with our m925a1 AKA Kong. Apparently it has been raining really good up there and it decided to pour while we were there. The first night it just sprinkled for about 3 hours so it wasn't too bad, then the next morning we were on our way along some dirt backroads exploring and stopped for lunch in a campground at the bottom of a canyon. As we were eating it started to POUR and I do mean POUR! We started cleaning up and got inside, as we looked outside we started seeing a river flowing down the canyon. For some reason the road followed alongside the river and crossed it about 10 times. Thing is we had to get out of that canyon before the entire canyon was flooded. The water was rising pretty quick and we didnt want to get washed away so I put in the plug in the bell housing and went for it. There were a few rises out of the crossings but the water was rising up to them. In some parts the water was at the top of the wheels and we were all getting worried if we were going to make it. At the 7th crossing I apparently hit a log and it snapped the tierod shaft. DANG! I didn't know what happened to it until we got to high ground and out of danger. It felt like a flat tire because it was hard to steer. I was amazed that it was able to keep on driving even though it snapped. We sat for a while waiting for the rain to let up and finally it did but if we had not gotten out when we did the truck may have been trashed.
Once the rain let up I examined it more closely and it snapped right where it screws in on the passenger side of the truck. Iwas able toget the piece of rod out of the tierod which I was amazed. There was one thread left on the shaft and that wouldn't have been enough to hold it together so I got a hacksaw blade out of the toolbox and carefully followed the thread halfway around the rod then I screwed it in and backed it out a few times to clean my so called thread. I then followed around again and repeated a few times in order to get about 3 1/2 threads on the rod. I had a tow strap to use as a measuring tape for alignment of the tires. I toed them out about 3/4 of an inch because as you drive forward it would push the rod together and not stress the threads as much. It took about 4 hours to get it put back together and it was getting to be dusk. So we crossed our fingers that it would hold and not snap again as we had to drive another 12 miles to get to a paved road and another 10 miles on that road where we could get to a house. But we weren't going to drive all that in the dark. So we slowly drove along (no more than 10mph) to find a spot to camp over night. We drove about 3.5 miles and then went to bed.
This morning we drove out very carefully down towards the main road when we saw someone coming along the road. He stopped and told us that some peopl went missing overnight right out where we were and said they were due back yesterday. Lets hope they are ok. As we were talking to him we asked if there was a place to leave the truck for a few days while I got a new shaft. He told us here was a place a little ways down. So we went on our way and got to the place the guy told us about. The fellow there was very nice and he let us use his phone and said we could leave it there for a couple days. So I called someone to come pick us up and bring us home. Just a 2 hour drive but still a ways.
Once I got home I tracked down a shaft here locally, so it looks like tomarrow I will go back up there and fix it. I thought going camping for a few days was going to be relaxing but apparenly not. Oh well we are pretty lucky that we just broke a tierod shaft rather than loosing the truck. I just wanted to share my adventure with you guys and what "fun" we had.
Once the rain let up I examined it more closely and it snapped right where it screws in on the passenger side of the truck. Iwas able toget the piece of rod out of the tierod which I was amazed. There was one thread left on the shaft and that wouldn't have been enough to hold it together so I got a hacksaw blade out of the toolbox and carefully followed the thread halfway around the rod then I screwed it in and backed it out a few times to clean my so called thread. I then followed around again and repeated a few times in order to get about 3 1/2 threads on the rod. I had a tow strap to use as a measuring tape for alignment of the tires. I toed them out about 3/4 of an inch because as you drive forward it would push the rod together and not stress the threads as much. It took about 4 hours to get it put back together and it was getting to be dusk. So we crossed our fingers that it would hold and not snap again as we had to drive another 12 miles to get to a paved road and another 10 miles on that road where we could get to a house. But we weren't going to drive all that in the dark. So we slowly drove along (no more than 10mph) to find a spot to camp over night. We drove about 3.5 miles and then went to bed.
This morning we drove out very carefully down towards the main road when we saw someone coming along the road. He stopped and told us that some peopl went missing overnight right out where we were and said they were due back yesterday. Lets hope they are ok. As we were talking to him we asked if there was a place to leave the truck for a few days while I got a new shaft. He told us here was a place a little ways down. So we went on our way and got to the place the guy told us about. The fellow there was very nice and he let us use his phone and said we could leave it there for a couple days. So I called someone to come pick us up and bring us home. Just a 2 hour drive but still a ways.
Once I got home I tracked down a shaft here locally, so it looks like tomarrow I will go back up there and fix it. I thought going camping for a few days was going to be relaxing but apparenly not. Oh well we are pretty lucky that we just broke a tierod shaft rather than loosing the truck. I just wanted to share my adventure with you guys and what "fun" we had.
