I took DoubleMint to Potts with the CTB club this weekend. Had a great time, but did manage to break a few things. At the first good obstacle on the trail, I sliced the sidewall of the passenger rear tire.
While attempting to get off the obstacle so I could get the tire replaced, @CasterTroy noticed that my right front wasn’t spinning. @Jason W. used his X-ray vision to diagnose the situation as a broken axle shaft
. Seemed plausible so we set the hub free (and I rode around in 3wd the rest of the day).
**I took it apart tonight and it actually was a hub problem. Somehow the circle clip deformed enough to come out of the groove and jam up the hub gear. The hub gear was only partly engaged and the tips of the teeth got stripped off.
3wd wasn’t going to get me free since I was sitting on the rear diff, so Keith got the winch hooked up and it dragged me up to flat ground. That’s when I noticed that the bumper looked a little cock-eyed. Yep, those flippin slotted mounting holes. I’ll have to get it repositioned and weld it in for good.
The spare is a 35”, so we did a little switch-a-roo and put it on the axle end with the engagement problem so the different size wouldn’t be so hard on the remaining good parts. Not to self: get a full size spare.
Just as we had finished packing up the tools, @ncsutj noticed that the track bar nut had come loose. He tightened it up and we rolled on.
Not even 5 minutes later (or so it felt), the truck just died and wouldn’t restart. My first guess was that it was a fuel-related issue. I topped off the tank from my gas cans and tried again. Still no start. I thought the fuel pump sounded funny and @ncsutj recognized the sound as air suckage. He helped me pull the fuel cell apart, and sure enough, the fuel line to the pump had ruptured. We replaced it with with some line from the overflow tube and we were back in business!
I took the bypass around The Stacks section of the trail and one of the branches on the bypass broke off my radio antenna. It’s a good thing I never listen to the radio.
I also noticed that at some point, one of the steering ram fittings got crushed against the engine crossmember and was leaking. Nothing I could do about that, but the steering still felt good, so I just left it and rode on. (When I replace it, I’ll change the exit angle of the fitting to prevent this in the future.)
Back at camp, @77GreenMachine graciously let me cook my steak on his grill while I admired his new slide in camper. After some dinner and drinks, I was ready for bed!
*I know I’ve left a few folks out of this report because every single person in our group helped me to diagnose and fix DoubleMint on the trail. Nearly everyone else back at camp tried to feed me. I could have taken no food at all and still eaten like a King! This is a great group of folks!
I’ll write a gear-related post tomorrow. I tried a few new things; some worked and some didn’t.
While attempting to get off the obstacle so I could get the tire replaced, @CasterTroy noticed that my right front wasn’t spinning. @Jason W. used his X-ray vision to diagnose the situation as a broken axle shaft
. Seemed plausible so we set the hub free (and I rode around in 3wd the rest of the day).**I took it apart tonight and it actually was a hub problem. Somehow the circle clip deformed enough to come out of the groove and jam up the hub gear. The hub gear was only partly engaged and the tips of the teeth got stripped off.
3wd wasn’t going to get me free since I was sitting on the rear diff, so Keith got the winch hooked up and it dragged me up to flat ground. That’s when I noticed that the bumper looked a little cock-eyed. Yep, those flippin slotted mounting holes. I’ll have to get it repositioned and weld it in for good.
The spare is a 35”, so we did a little switch-a-roo and put it on the axle end with the engagement problem so the different size wouldn’t be so hard on the remaining good parts. Not to self: get a full size spare.
Just as we had finished packing up the tools, @ncsutj noticed that the track bar nut had come loose. He tightened it up and we rolled on.
Not even 5 minutes later (or so it felt), the truck just died and wouldn’t restart. My first guess was that it was a fuel-related issue. I topped off the tank from my gas cans and tried again. Still no start. I thought the fuel pump sounded funny and @ncsutj recognized the sound as air suckage. He helped me pull the fuel cell apart, and sure enough, the fuel line to the pump had ruptured. We replaced it with with some line from the overflow tube and we were back in business!
I took the bypass around The Stacks section of the trail and one of the branches on the bypass broke off my radio antenna. It’s a good thing I never listen to the radio.
I also noticed that at some point, one of the steering ram fittings got crushed against the engine crossmember and was leaking. Nothing I could do about that, but the steering still felt good, so I just left it and rode on. (When I replace it, I’ll change the exit angle of the fitting to prevent this in the future.)
Back at camp, @77GreenMachine graciously let me cook my steak on his grill while I admired his new slide in camper. After some dinner and drinks, I was ready for bed!
*I know I’ve left a few folks out of this report because every single person in our group helped me to diagnose and fix DoubleMint on the trail. Nearly everyone else back at camp tried to feed me. I could have taken no food at all and still eaten like a King! This is a great group of folks!
I’ll write a gear-related post tomorrow. I tried a few new things; some worked and some didn’t.
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