Between design projects for clients that are willing to pay for my services, and the projects I choose to do for fun, I also do things that are a combination of fun AND necessity. One of those projects it the rebuilding and “restoration” - I am using that term loosely - of my 1987 Toyota FJ-60 Landcruiser.
This project is one of those that always seem to take a lowered-priority in the project cue but nevertheless, is one that becomes “critical” once it has been determined that, “this simply MUST not go on any longer!” So, with that, I am making a huge push to finish this job to at least get the truck back on four-wheels.
It all started with a front brake job…
The Culprit: My front brakes were getting worse. I could hear the beginnings of that ugly sound of metal sliding on metal. Ugh.
Now, many of you are probably wondering why I just wouldn’t drive my ‘Cruiser into Just Brakes or someplace like that and toss them the keys… well… you need to know me I guess. See, true Landcruiser aficionados cringe at the thought of some 21 year-old dufus hacking into your truck’s internal systems. I get nervous when someone younger than my ‘87 is attempting to “work” on it. Reverse age discrimination? You betcha! Dumb kids…
At any rate, I pull into the driveway in front of the garage, get the floor jack under there and get it up onto the jack-stands. I pull the front wheels, exposing the hubs and brakes and take a look. Wow. Worse than I thought. No problem, I think, this is just a day project. The first thing I notice are the gouges in the disks. Okay… a two day project. (granted, this is not a true two-day project in a brake shop, but, they don’t take as many beer breaks as I do while working…)
I take off the pin retaining clip, remove the lower pad retaining pin, pop out the anti-rattle spring, and
remove the upper pad retaining pin. Now, the brake pads simply lift out. I inspect them. Yikes! It is kind of amazing I could stop at all… I proceed to go ahead and start pulling the disks off too. Now, you hear all the time, “you gotta’ machine the rotors.” from the ding-dong at the brake shop. Always…
And, here is something a lot of you overlook and why I like to maintain control over the maintenance process: Brand new rotors are cheaper than the “re-machined” rotors from the brake shop. Yep. It is easier and cheaper to just buy whole, new rotors. And quit calling them “rotors.” They are “brake disks” or a “brake disc.”
While I have the truck up on the jacks, and the wheels off, I give the whole wheel compartment a look-see. I notice that I probably could use some new shocks too. No big deal, I will buy a couple of new ones when I go pick up the new brake pads. I pull them too. As I am laying out the parts in an orderly fashion on my workbench in the garage, I hear a loud SNAP! I quickly look back at the truck, fearing I have just heard the sound of a jack pin shearing, and expecting to see my truck falling over on it’s side… Nothing… silence… then, SNAP!
What the hell?
I slowly walk towards the front end where I heard the disconcerting noise. The jack stands are alright. No forgotten brake/wheel parts are laying on the ground. But I notice something: The front axle is about 6 inches closer to the ground than a few minutes ago. I lean in for a closer look.
After some curious wondering, I finally see the problem. And it is a big one. The front leaf springs have both broken and are now disconnected from the front shackles and are now un-attached, allowing the full weight of the front axle to now hang on the tie rods. Because I removed the shock absorbers, the axle as drooped way down and is putting a bunch of dead weight on the flexible front stabilizer bar and bushings. I quickly run the floor jack under the differential and throw some wood blocks under there to temporarily relieve the pressure on the front-end components.
Now, I am looking at two completely broken leaf springs and asking myself how on earth could that have happened?? I look closely at one of the broken springs… at the fracture and see that half of the kerf is rusted, the other half exposed, clean metal. I nearly freeze in the cold realization that my leaf springs have been fatigued and cracked for awhile. I have been driving around on nearly-broken leaf springs. The force reversal that acted upon the springs was all it needed to crack the steel the rest of the way… I immediately thought of what might have been the result of those leaf springs coming off as I flew down a highway at 70mph… can you say, “Nose dive?”
Once my heart rate subsided, I was now looking a a much larger project than I had originally intended.
But, the big question was why? Why did those springs fatigue-fracture like that? And why right at the shackle? The first thing I looked at was those suspect shackles…
You see, for proper suspension action, the leaf springs not only flex themselves, but rely on a pivot at the front and rear shackles where they connect to the frame. There needs to be movement at that joint. I tried to flex the remaining chunk of spring at the bushing, where it should easily pivot. No go. The pin that holds the springs through the shackles was frozen solid in there. I couldn’t even budge it with a 48″ cheater-bar. Egads! No wonder.
The entire weight of the front-end and resulting force from going over bumps and dips was being transferred right to the spring metal at the very end of the outer (longest) spring that attaches with the spring shackle. So, instead of that bushing absorbing and flexing the shackle to relive the strain on the leaf, the leaf itself was taking all that vibration and absorption directly at a singular plane. KABOOM. Airplanes have fallen out of the sky because of similar metal fatigue breakdown. This is going to be more than a two-day project now. Time for a beer…
Next: Putting it all back together.
