truck fixing time... the answer to "what's that banging noise", that I didn't want...

nadams

So, last night I went to wash out the back of my truck, and pulled it forward up a bank, but a little off-kilter so it was flexing the truck (not enough room to pull it straight up the bank). As I was nearing my stopping point, I heard a "bang" from the back of the truck. "That's odd," I said to myself, "I've never heard that from there before." Thinking nothing more of it, I rinsed out the bed, pulled the truck down, and went on my business. For those wondering, the driver's side rear was EXtended, meaning the most space in the wheel well, when it was flexing.

Fast forward to this afternoon. I went to pull back into my driveway after work. You enter my driveway with a left-turn, and it slopes up immediately, so you're flexing a little when you enter (the same flex that I was getting last night on the bank, just not as severe). Sure as shat, when I pulled into the driveway, I got a "bang". I had to leave to run into town, didn't hear a thing until I got back to the driveway, and again, a "bang". Then, I'll be damned if I didn't have to run out to the store, and was greeting upon my arrival back home, to another "bang". At least it was being consistant... So I decided to crawl under and see what I could see to see. Unfortunately, this is what I found:



Driver's side, the far back spring hanger... or what USED to be a spring hangar, hah.





I think the source of the "bang"ing, might be these two boltheads rubbing on each other.



Look how uncompressed that bottom leaf is...

It looks a lot to me like this thing broke a while ago, and maybe I just now shifted it to where it's rubbing on that other bolt... or maybe I just broke it last night, I can't say for sure. As another aside, the reason I was washing out the bed of the truck is that I removed the winter weight from back there and wanted to get rid of the leftover grit. So I also uncompressed the springs bigtime last night (less about 300lbs).

nadams

I'm thoroughly confused. Are you drunk, or am I?

dorokusai

Just throw some JB Weld on it.

Demiurge

Nothin' a little duct tape won't fix.

disneyjoe7

Salt Rust....


That's why I live in South, not North.

VR3

Demiurge wrote:

Nothin' a little duct tape won't fix.

Demi - YOU SUCK - I was going to say that!!!

LOL

Sorry to see that - it dosnt look good though - good luck with the fix

Ricardo

Great pictures though....:)

sucks2beme

When I lived in upstate N.Y. , I used to have stuff like that all the time.
I had the driver's seat fall part way through the floorboard one morning on a 71 Dart. I aslo had a transmission bracket dissolve under a Ford LTD. In Dallas, the only thing to worry about is changing brake pads every year.
Looks like you're gonna need a torch to get that out!

[Deleted User]

That other leaf is supposed to be like that. It is a "helper spring" that doesn't come into play until you have a heavy load. As for the spring hanger, a can of WD-40 and a couple hours and you'll be fine.

[Deleted User]

nadams

Josh,

Yeah, I know that the helper spring doesn't touch the rest of the leaf pack, but it's got a much larger gap than the helper on the other side. The springs are definately unloaded...

Stopped at the shop this morning. They looked at it and said that nothing else was broken, but both of the rear spring shackles need to be replaced (one per side). So the estimate is $250 for the whole thing. They'll be doing it on Monday because they can't get the parts 'til then .

nadams

Here's what the other side looks like:

ohskigod

if you catn do it yorself, get that fixed. I was never a big fan of having my suspension goofy, especially in a truck.

250.00? sounds good to me

nadams

I don't think I'm going to attempt to do it myself... The shop's not trying to rip me off, that's for sure. I looked at the estimate, it was $43/bracket and 2 hours of labor at $55/hr. Then some misc nuts and bolts to round it out. AllData Pro says 1 hour per bracket, and Autozone sells the brackets for $42, so I think the price is fair.

Tour2ma

Also looks like you need to drop a couple buck for a can of Rustoleum...

Fireman32

looks like my truck. Time for a trade in

nadams

A trade-in just for that? Some people are a bit wasteful when it comes to vehicles...

disneyjoe7

nadams wrote:

A trade-in just for that? Some people are a bit wasteful when it comes to vehicles...

Like you this alone wouldn't be large enough reason for trading in.


But looking back at picture's you need to pressure wash under you're truck for often, you need to remove all other rust and paint these area's. I'm more concern about the sheet metal vs. the frame it self. Not doing so you will be trading this in faster then you think.

nadams

Well, I got it fixed but it incurred some additional costs. They replaced both shackles, and when they removed the right-side shackel they found that the hanger on that side had a hole rusted in it, too. Tack on another $80some in parts and labor, plus a PA inspection (due at the end of the month anyway) and out the door we go. $373.75 lighter in pocket.

Driver's side shackel replaced


Passenger's side shackel and bracket replaced.

disneyjoe7

You still have some issue's with rust under that truck, I like the "Passenger's side shackel and bracket replaced" but don't like the drivers side braket. I think you saved $80 right now but will need to spend this $ later, for this braket IMHO.

nadams

I just did what they told me to do... He said the drivers side may look bad, but it's just surface rust now. The passengers side had a big hole in the top... he showed it to me. I'm sure he would've replaced it if he had thought it was an issue... after all, he would've gotten another $55 in labor. I'm hoping to get rid of this truck soon, as I'm going to be doing a longer commute once I start my new job next week, and it's just not fuel efficient enough for that. I may have saved myself $80 permanently

BIZILL

at least dude who did the work attempted to put anti-seize on the bolt, not that it'll really matter when the time comes to replace it again. just shows he's a decent mechanic.

Frank Z

Am I reading this correctly? You paid to have those parts replaced?

You need to top off the tank, load up on Twinkies and drive your a$$ over her so as I can slapsomesenseintoya! Turning wrenches on that would have been a breeze and a whole lot less expensive. There's mabe 440-60 worth of parts there...provided that you don't pay a dealer for 'em. PB Blaster for about $2-3 to penetrate the rust.....


ARGHHHH...next time something breaks.... post up, don't pay up!!

nadams

Err... I did post... before I took it to the garage, even.

It was much easier and less time consuming to pay my trustworthy garage to do it. Plus they give me free stuff in return

Frank Z

Yeah, but you could have spent the coin on something cool.

[Deleted User]

Gees! I'm glad I can do my own stuff. Almost $4 bills. I would've done it for $150 and offered you a beer afterwards.

nadams

If I had the time... i do alot of the quick stuff myself, like plug changes, oil changes, and stuff like that. The bigger stuff I take to the pros. I did put my exhaust on myself, and change my tranny fluid