Thread: aframe joint check...

Ok Ive worked out why I had such a good day at sizzler the other week... Murphy was getting some credits up..

the lead up to this includes an unexpected 4x4 trip through a drain at about 80kph and into a paddock after some idiot ran out of traction and cut me off leaving my evasion options as

1. into the path of the oncoming semi
2. plough into him/her
3. straddle the ditch and hope to get it squared up before I hit the trees about 80m away

since distance is time, time is money and the oportunity for you to pull the get out of jail free card or for the RPG'ers among us roll for devine intervention/ skill check save I chose C.

good choice but I thought that Id spudded a bit hard so Id put it up on the hoist today to check out the damge...


1 nick in the side wall of a rear, a bit of bearing play on that wheel and a pretty scratch pattern on the muck on the underside of the vehicle from the tall grass i ploughed down.

so I double checked all of everything and started on the rear, typically snapped a bolt (one of the ones from the last batch of playdough bolts I got during the 100K service) so that caused hassles, dropped it all down and was torquing the wheel nuts when i heard "clunk"..

panic ensued the wheel came off the DTI came out the play was checked with the wheel off the wheel on and "what the" nothing. dropped it down again and retorquing the wheel nuts and clunk.... grrrrrr lifted it pulled everything down redid the bearings....

got to have it right this time...

"clunk"

I checked it from the otherside... and was thinking nufti you were just listening to the clunk transfering through the diff housing so I checked the other side... nothing wrong there... WTF.. and then i lent on the bodywork to have a think.... "clunk"


say whay thats not ment to happen.....

coke, think... that whistling sound your hearing is the penny reaching terminal velocity..

ball joint...

yep damaged,,, But not in the forwards and backwards direction youd expect. I checked that...it was clicking when pushed sideways.....

When it was up on stands as the axle had no movement relative to the ground nothing was flexing much.. on the rubber (and id just done a rotation so the rears were down by 10psi) there was enough give to let the balljoint clack.

I found I could easily replicate it by taking the top of the wheel and pulling it back and forth as though I was doing a wheel bearing check but with all of the weight of the vehicle on the rubber.

If yours is just a torack tractor that only does 20k Km a year in the city with an auto pushing it. no.

ok, no then