Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Well we've had trail breakages, what about fixing them.

We have had a 55 series split the xfer case into 3 and all gears fell out. Tow home but in a datsun 720 blew a CV so we ripped both cv's out and drove home 2wd.

Funniest I have seen whilst hacking is a mates 60 series ripped all hub bolts of at the rear so we had to pull out the axel and keep the crap out with a spare stubby holder that fitted it perfectly.

not much but a start.

Interested in any unusual fixes.

cheers

at the last XRCC the guys in the patrol [semmens bros? ] snapped the rear pinion off.
They welded it back together on saturday night and competed again the next day

A bloke we (Greg & I) went out with one night snapped the throttle cable on his zook at Mt Dissappointment, We ripped off the choke cable, cable tied it to the left over piece of the throttle cable, ran it straight out the window as a hand throttle, he drove home to box hill with an arm aout the window, prolly ablout 0 degrees as well.

snapped a rear diff housing , (zook)
75 series tailshaft fits inside the axle tube !!!
so that was cut & shut & used inside the housing !!!!!

welded it up , see-ya later !!!!!

& the time in my Rambler Hornet (350 chev)
broke accelerator cable ,
mate had some piano wire !!
hooked it up ,
only long enuff to go through firewall to passengers side of console !!!!

So , mate had to operate throttle !!!!

really not much fun , when you pull up at lights , car next to you wants to race
ya mate goes , YEP
lights go GREEN & he nails it !!!!!!

sideways with no control , yeehah baby !!!!!

Brand new water pump pulled apart at Narangba - clean off the shaft (too loose from factory).

Resolved with pressing the thing back together (ie ripping an aluminium can for a sliver of alloy to fill the gap then beating the $#!+ out of it with a hammer till it was nearly straight).


Engine drops a cylinder and starts spewing oil out of front main (after sucking down about a lake full of water). Resolved by driving it 50ks home then ignoring the POS until the next weekend.

Mechanical sympathy = 0

Sometimes you aint in the right mood for fixes, but you've gotta get home

Take mate ( ChevyMQ ) out for his first experiance at 4wding , let him drive....5 mins later he nails it as we get airbourne, snap rear drive shaft at the uni..... mate ( ChevyMQ) is super appologetic and preps himself for the long walk to get help, me... I grab a spanner and remove the rear drive shaft and tell him "relax.... we still have the front diff and you aint driving"

theres almost nothing that can't be fixed if you carry a fistful of welding rods, a wedling mask glass, and some heavy duty jumper leads. I've welded up trailing arms, leaf springs (not so successful - the welds don't break but the next leaf does), bullbars, etc. also always carry a cordless drill modded to run off 12v plugged into the vehicle, ie no flat drill batteries. must admit I've never welded up a diff pinion shaft but given the opportunity I'd give it a try.

something to think about: vehicle mounted/carried MIG welder using exhaust for welding gas (would only work with petrol exhaust) and a small 12v motor to drive the wire. could be made to work with a regular MIG handset. can modify an alternator to make a pretty good welder, or perhaps just use the reliable old two (or three) batteries in series trick for welding current.

I've heard of this technique many times with the battery welder.
How well does it work, and How long do the batteries last?
Could you do alot of welding before needing to recharge the batteries?

Bart

it works very well, in fact it works better than a 240v stick welder, because the supply voltage is DC so the arc is not self extinguishing as with an AC arc (twice every phase there is zero volts in an AC arc so it tends to put itself out). on average, fully charged 4WD 600CCA batteries you can weld between 10 - 20 sticks before the voltage drops to a point where it won't arc up any more. if you use the batteries in 2 vehicles and leave those vehicles running at a high idle, then you'd be welding pretty fast to drain the batteries faster than they get charged.

practice at home first - if you have any stick welding experience you'll find it easy.

I know what you mean about 240V stick. Got one of those...
So I can weld while the batteries are still connected and vehicles running??
Won't that fry something? Wiring the batteries up in series doubles the resistance on the load doesn't it?? Can this do damage?? to batteries or ignition systems.

Cheers,
Bart

dumbdunce wrote:theres almost nothing that can't be fixed if you carry a fistful of welding rods, a wedling mask glass, and some heavy duty jumper leads.

I love this method. I've used this a lot of times, mainly at home for body work and the like (thin sheet) I'm too poor (and have too many other tool priorities) to lash out on a small mig, my stick welder is too phat for thin sheet, so out comes the battery stick welder.You are dead right about the ease of the arc strike and maintain, great work with sparklers.

On one of the Simex Rainforest challenges - Chip and Huddy fixed a busted CV with a Cola bottle cap!

last night, on a run through "white timber", b#%@$t track in tassie.
i broke both u bolts on the drivers side of my mq. i had two spares and got all jacked up and ready to put the new ones in when, oh sh#t, no bottom plate. looked for it in the mud for about an hour. no success!. i ended up using my drag chain as a sort of 2 link suspension set up on that side, the vehicle ran home on the bump stops with the drag chain holding the diff in place and the winch putting tension on the drag chain. worked well!

have done similar on a HZJ75 with broken spring (welding the spring just made it break somewhere else). used a drag chain and a 3' long piece of 2" x1/8" square RHS to hold it all together, at a decent height (not ont he bumpstop) with the winch holding the end of the chain very tight. worked well enough to get out of the trail but we didn't think it was roadworthy so called a towie once got back to the road.

welded the pins back onto my shocks with 2mm rods and 2 batteries, welds better than my arc welder at home....so smooth.