Today let's do a little course in emergency field mechanics ...
It was around 100 km from Tidjikia, Mauritania, after completing one quite nonstandard crossing of the Aoukar basin (
ClicK) that things started going the nonoptimal way. While driving I heard from time to time some very week but strange sound coming from the front right part of the vehicle. I stopped, checked everything I could quickly check and as I found nothing wrong, I kept going, paying attention on the possible new signs that would reveal the cause of the sound. It was very week, I was not even sure if the sound was real or not and after some km the sound completely disappeared. After cca 10 km I felt that a steering wheel jogged for a moment, it was as if something blocked the right tire for a moment. Alarm in my head went off, something was definitively wrong. Stopped, checked around the wheel, found nothing. Started driving, making sharp turns while watching the front right wheel, noticed no play, nothing. Continued driving, first slowly, then, after nothing showed for few km, continued driving with usual pace. After cca 15 km, I smelled the burning grease, stopped and it was apparent: front right knuckle was melting hot!
Begun cooling it, slowly poured small amounts of water on it, after an hour and cca 40 litres of water I could begin the work.
It was soon apparent that we have reached the camping spot for this day, maybe even for few days ...
The CV was touching and filing the stub axle, which consequently partly melted. I had to saw off parts of stub axle to release the disk brake assembly.
It was the failure of the outer bearing that was the cause of this. The bearings were changed cca 50 kkm ago and inspected just before our trip. I suspect it was the really rough driving in the north of Burkina Faso that took its toll here (we broke both rear OME springs there and you know they don't break easily), together with very difficult desert we just crossed. Whatever the reason, the vehicle had to be made mobile again, so on I went with disassembly, mostly cutting and braking half-melted parts.
Of course I always have a set of new spare bearings in the truck, but somehow I don't tow a spare LC behind me so stub axle was not among the parts I had in my reserve. So I hitchhiked to Tidjikia while the navigator stayed with the car and just as the night fell, I hitchhiked back. But without the stub axle. They were loaded with Hilux parts but short on LC station wagon parts (the Hilux stub axle is different, a bit longer. It may fit for emergency they said, but I wasn's sure it would). So on I went with the improvisation. I reused the old stub axle, cutting and bending it so it held the disk assembly with the new bearing.
So we changed our plans, a bit sad that we couldn't continue with the exploration of the Mauritanian desert, and went straight to Nouakchott, cca 600 km. The improvised repair held without a complaint. In NKC they bathe in LC parts, so I bought stub axle from a 105 series, profiting with
needle bearing upgrade I considered doing prior our trip but abandoned the idea because the high cost of the part at our Toyota stealership (107 EUR for one bearing
).
So kind regards from NKC at the moment.
Watch your bearings!
