An good old Italian friend and colleague of mine, Ciro Ferriero, often used to start a sentence with "I 'ava two news..." and you always knew what was coming next, the good news and then the bad news.
I'm going to do the same, but first, and not connected, I've noticed recently a very slight rumbling, almost a vibration, coming from the front, maybe the left side as you drive, in my case the drivers' side (its LHD).
I'm thinking a wheel bearing, because although I've had 3 axle rebuilds in the last 11 years of ownership, (for various reasons), the wheel bearings are original and have done over 400k km.
So today, I thought I'd jack up that end of the axle to have a feel for any play. Up it went and there's nothing untoward apparent, no play, it rotates smoothly and consequently I don't really know. I'll get someone elses opinion I guess.
However, looking at the inner tyrewall and wheel rim, there appears to have been some liquid coming from somewhere. A weep methinks, either oil or melted grease (the weather is still warm here). Any offers? Of course I don't mean the dampness around the cannonball dust seal, I'm referring to the bottom of the wheel (tyrewall and rim).
OK, all that aside, lets get back to the "two news".
The good news is the SUMO steering bars that Nick very kindly brought from the UK to me here are the right ones, so I set about fitting the bar that runs from the end of the Pitman arm down to the opposite front wheel.
Nick bought them from these guys...
I slackened off the ball-joint clamps, and got my pipe wrench on the old bar and wrestled it off. They're long threads on those ball-joints, and its a bit tedious to do especially as the threads were a bit rusted.
Just over half-way...
Not nice to see rusty threads, but they're in better condition than this photo makes them look...
Finally got to the end, and thankfully, both ball-joint threads has been screwed in evenly, something I was keen to be sure of when putting it back together...
Cleaned the threads up with a wire brush.... and tried on one of the pair of nuts provided with the SUMO bars, realising for the first time that the front rod and ball joints are smaller diameter threads than the rear of the axle tie bar and track-rod end ball jloints...
Wound on the locking nuts and smeared the threads before and after, with a liberal dose of general purpose grease...
Measured up both sides the same (about 60mm) ...
and then checked the new bar length against the original... surprisingly shorter, even allowing for the locking nuts, but hey-ho, no worries, just being sure to make allowance for that when setting up the final length, in situ...
Smeared grease into the threads in the new bar ends and on it went...
As Chris commented, not necessary at all, but oooh, theyre nice and shiny...
Job done! Very pleased with them, but because of the bad news to come, I didn't get to fit the track-rod SUMO bar, that will have to wait a bit.
Now the bad news part needs an introductory story, you're all asleep by now I guess, but here goes.
One of our days out with the UK posse, on the way to the salt mine, took us down a nice little "surprise" short-cut which has some interesting moments along it. It's a cart track, and after the difficult "bumps" part (that everyone romped through with no issues) there was a length of very rutted track, but hardened dry in the heat we've had, so it was a bit tricky.
I was in front, and very conscious of the usual advice, "never drive off-road with your thumbs through the steering wheel, you can break them if ruts or other obstacles snatch the steering over quickly..." that sort of thing...
I was riding with the wheels my side, up on the bank a little, but as almost always, they dropped down into the LHS rut and bang, the rut grabbed the front wheel, spun the steering wheel out of my grip, and slammed the wheel full-lock into the bank. It stopped sharp and suddenly (of course) and I caught my forearm on the steering wheel and actually got a burn off it, it had spun that fast.
I sat for a moment gathering my thoughts, we were only going at walking pace, so I didn't pay much attention, just one of those annoying things that happen, maybe they shouldn't, but they do.
OK, we pressed on, visited the mine and had a good day. On the way home, I noticed (for the first time) that when driving straight, my steering wheel was cranked some 30-40 degrees to the right. That's a lot I thought, what the hell has happened to cause that? Of course I remembered the rut episode, but for the life of me I haven't been able to come up with a reason why or how the the steering wheel had "re-positioned" itself so far to the right, it was a total mystery.
I had sighted up the bars, nothing bent, the Pitman arm looked perfectly normal (certainly not bent) and the tracking was true (track control arm not bent). It drove a lovely as ever, except for the 'new' position of the steering wheel.
However, upon looking a little closer today, I found out why...
Can you believe that??? WTF??
The shaft from the steering box that the Pitman arm is splined onto, is twisted, like a piece of candy...
Those that have followed some of my 80 series issues will remember that this shaft sheared on me about 6 years ago, and I had the shaft replaced with a new one OEM, costing me an arm and a leg (380 Euros IIRC) just for the shaft.
And now the bloody thing is twisted...
not happy. More to come I'm afraid, 'cos while looking up at the shaft, I saw this...
Bloody hell, a fresh crack around the weld where the "turret" thingy attaches to the chassis, under the steering box, where the Panhard mounts....
I check regularly all around the steering box-to-chassis bolts, because 80s have a habit of cracking chassis at those mountings, and they are OK (I checked again today) but the Panhard mounting-to-chassis welds have cracked.
So, another couple of jobs to do, and not easy ones. The Service garage I use can do the steering box (third re-build) with a new shaft. Someone said to use a shaft for the hundee, they're thicker, can anyone confirm that and that it would fit?
The welding will have to be done a Dan the bodywork and painter guy, he's a dab hand with a welder, and knows what he's doing, chassis-wise.
So it's been a day of mixed feelings, pleased with my SUMOs, yet pretty p!ssed with the candy-bar shaft and the cracks.
It didn't get much better. I moved on to find out why my rear locker doesn't work. I found a broken wire to the plug on the detent switch, and when I pulled the plug off, I fount that one of the connector tabs in the switch had corroded away. S now I need a new detent switch and a plug with some wire tails in good condition, to splice back into the loom. Does that switch have anything to do with the operation of the actuator? I'm thinking not, it just tells the dash light to come on to confirm that the diff lock is engaged, I think. Can anyone confirm this please?
The other wires to the locker actuator are in a bundle and plug in close by, but I couldn't get that plug apart, it was like it was glued solid. I'm guessing those terminals/connections are just as bad as the detent switch terminals, so I gave up and reassembled it, rather disheartened with my day.
Time for a beer with Chas.
I'm going to do the same, but first, and not connected, I've noticed recently a very slight rumbling, almost a vibration, coming from the front, maybe the left side as you drive, in my case the drivers' side (its LHD).
I'm thinking a wheel bearing, because although I've had 3 axle rebuilds in the last 11 years of ownership, (for various reasons), the wheel bearings are original and have done over 400k km.
So today, I thought I'd jack up that end of the axle to have a feel for any play. Up it went and there's nothing untoward apparent, no play, it rotates smoothly and consequently I don't really know. I'll get someone elses opinion I guess.
However, looking at the inner tyrewall and wheel rim, there appears to have been some liquid coming from somewhere. A weep methinks, either oil or melted grease (the weather is still warm here). Any offers? Of course I don't mean the dampness around the cannonball dust seal, I'm referring to the bottom of the wheel (tyrewall and rim).
OK, all that aside, lets get back to the "two news".
The good news is the SUMO steering bars that Nick very kindly brought from the UK to me here are the right ones, so I set about fitting the bar that runs from the end of the Pitman arm down to the opposite front wheel.
Nick bought them from these guys...
I slackened off the ball-joint clamps, and got my pipe wrench on the old bar and wrestled it off. They're long threads on those ball-joints, and its a bit tedious to do especially as the threads were a bit rusted.
Just over half-way...
Not nice to see rusty threads, but they're in better condition than this photo makes them look...
Finally got to the end, and thankfully, both ball-joint threads has been screwed in evenly, something I was keen to be sure of when putting it back together...
Cleaned the threads up with a wire brush.... and tried on one of the pair of nuts provided with the SUMO bars, realising for the first time that the front rod and ball joints are smaller diameter threads than the rear of the axle tie bar and track-rod end ball jloints...
Wound on the locking nuts and smeared the threads before and after, with a liberal dose of general purpose grease...
Measured up both sides the same (about 60mm) ...
and then checked the new bar length against the original... surprisingly shorter, even allowing for the locking nuts, but hey-ho, no worries, just being sure to make allowance for that when setting up the final length, in situ...
Smeared grease into the threads in the new bar ends and on it went...
As Chris commented, not necessary at all, but oooh, theyre nice and shiny...
Job done! Very pleased with them, but because of the bad news to come, I didn't get to fit the track-rod SUMO bar, that will have to wait a bit.
Now the bad news part needs an introductory story, you're all asleep by now I guess, but here goes.
One of our days out with the UK posse, on the way to the salt mine, took us down a nice little "surprise" short-cut which has some interesting moments along it. It's a cart track, and after the difficult "bumps" part (that everyone romped through with no issues) there was a length of very rutted track, but hardened dry in the heat we've had, so it was a bit tricky.
I was in front, and very conscious of the usual advice, "never drive off-road with your thumbs through the steering wheel, you can break them if ruts or other obstacles snatch the steering over quickly..." that sort of thing...
I was riding with the wheels my side, up on the bank a little, but as almost always, they dropped down into the LHS rut and bang, the rut grabbed the front wheel, spun the steering wheel out of my grip, and slammed the wheel full-lock into the bank. It stopped sharp and suddenly (of course) and I caught my forearm on the steering wheel and actually got a burn off it, it had spun that fast.
I sat for a moment gathering my thoughts, we were only going at walking pace, so I didn't pay much attention, just one of those annoying things that happen, maybe they shouldn't, but they do.
OK, we pressed on, visited the mine and had a good day. On the way home, I noticed (for the first time) that when driving straight, my steering wheel was cranked some 30-40 degrees to the right. That's a lot I thought, what the hell has happened to cause that? Of course I remembered the rut episode, but for the life of me I haven't been able to come up with a reason why or how the the steering wheel had "re-positioned" itself so far to the right, it was a total mystery.
I had sighted up the bars, nothing bent, the Pitman arm looked perfectly normal (certainly not bent) and the tracking was true (track control arm not bent). It drove a lovely as ever, except for the 'new' position of the steering wheel.
However, upon looking a little closer today, I found out why...
Can you believe that??? WTF??
The shaft from the steering box that the Pitman arm is splined onto, is twisted, like a piece of candy...
Those that have followed some of my 80 series issues will remember that this shaft sheared on me about 6 years ago, and I had the shaft replaced with a new one OEM, costing me an arm and a leg (380 Euros IIRC) just for the shaft.
And now the bloody thing is twisted...
not happy. More to come I'm afraid, 'cos while looking up at the shaft, I saw this...Bloody hell, a fresh crack around the weld where the "turret" thingy attaches to the chassis, under the steering box, where the Panhard mounts....
I check regularly all around the steering box-to-chassis bolts, because 80s have a habit of cracking chassis at those mountings, and they are OK (I checked again today) but the Panhard mounting-to-chassis welds have cracked.
So, another couple of jobs to do, and not easy ones. The Service garage I use can do the steering box (third re-build) with a new shaft. Someone said to use a shaft for the hundee, they're thicker, can anyone confirm that and that it would fit?
The welding will have to be done a Dan the bodywork and painter guy, he's a dab hand with a welder, and knows what he's doing, chassis-wise.
So it's been a day of mixed feelings, pleased with my SUMOs, yet pretty p!ssed with the candy-bar shaft and the cracks.
It didn't get much better. I moved on to find out why my rear locker doesn't work. I found a broken wire to the plug on the detent switch, and when I pulled the plug off, I fount that one of the connector tabs in the switch had corroded away. S now I need a new detent switch and a plug with some wire tails in good condition, to splice back into the loom. Does that switch have anything to do with the operation of the actuator? I'm thinking not, it just tells the dash light to come on to confirm that the diff lock is engaged, I think. Can anyone confirm this please?
The other wires to the locker actuator are in a bundle and plug in close by, but I couldn't get that plug apart, it was like it was glued solid. I'm guessing those terminals/connections are just as bad as the detent switch terminals, so I gave up and reassembled it, rather disheartened with my day.
Time for a beer with Chas.
Serves me right for ordering a new set of tyres on Monday, all this is my penance! 
that was some thump to do that! I dismissed that as a possibility even before thinking of it. Lesson learned!
