Thread: 1972 Chevy K30 Longhorn Build

Tweet

Sorry to hear the wife's been ill. Hope she's back on her feet soon!!!


That was scary having the steering fasteners break like that. Did they break while the truck was stationary and you were turning the steering wheel?
Or was the truck rolling?

It really doesn't matter I guess.. those bolts just cannot break! Lives depend on so many parts every day. Glad to know you're still with us! 8-)

Originally Posted by Whiplash23T

Wow, that could of been nasty if that had happened out on the free way.

Yeah, it would not have been good.

Originally Posted by 34_40

Sorry to hear the wife's been ill. Hope she's back on her feet soon!!!


That was scary having the steering fasteners break like that. Did they break while the truck was stationary and you were turning the steering wheel?
Or was the truck rolling?

It really doesn't matter I guess.. those bolts just cannot break! Lives depend on so many parts every day. Glad to know you're still with us! 8-)

Thanks Mike. The doctor said it could be a month or longer before the swelling goes down and the pain goes away. Doesn't sound like any fun to me.

The truck was stationary and I was turning the wheel when they broke. I still can't believe they broke. After thinking about it, I should have known they aren't ARP studs. If they were, they would say it on the end and have a hex recessed in them to turn them in. These are probably just some cheap junk. I've had them too long to try to go after the seller so it's a lesson learned. Hopefully the studs come out of the knuckle without a fight............ Right Haha

glad your o.k. sounds pretty scary. Hope you wife is better soon, too!

Hope the Mrs gets better, just be at her beckon call and it should help. Glad you caught the steering on the 72 when it was parked. I am getting more weary of the Ebay crap all the time. I seem to be getting burned with it more than I used to. It amazes me how often steering breaks at slow speeds. My brother in law pulled into convenience store with his Chevy work van and the pitman arm fell off the steering box. He was not impressed.

Glad to see the steering mishap was in the yard. Prayers for a speedy recovery for the missus!

so its 45 years old and something broke?????? well the biggest load on the steering system from the driver toward the road is around the steering box or pitman. Things look a little rusty so while apart I think you should carefully go thru every component part of the spindles, ball joints, etc. Also on a 4x4, while in 4x drive , the u-joints will have a tremendous force generated when the joints are over about 3 degrees out of alignment. this over a period of time is like a sledge hammer hitting those components leading back to the steering wheel millions of times---how long should it take for a guy with a sledge hammer to destroy a few skinny bolts?????? Or a STUD with a sledge???????to destroy some toy studs?????? Need more coffee--------

Jerry, maybe try reading people's build thread before making assumptions. These studs weren't 45 years old. And I just installed new king pins in this front axle last late spring. Yeah, it is rusty. Why's that? Because I was driving it during winter and I should not have been. The liquid rust is terrible. I just couldn't stop driving it though. The rust shows that one or 2 of the studs were broken for a while other wise there would be no nasty rust there. All the steering components on this front end are new. Either way, these were sold as heavy duty fasteners suited for a rock buggy front axle. Obviously they wouldn't last 5 minutes on a rock buggy. I've never shock loaded this front axle so there is no reason they should have failed.

Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5

Hope the Mrs gets better, just be at her beckon call and it should help. Glad you caught the steering on the 72 when it was parked. I am getting more weary of the Ebay crap all the time. I seem to be getting burned with it more than I used to. It amazes me how often steering breaks at slow speeds. My brother in law pulled into convenience store with his Chevy work van and the pitman arm fell off the steering box. He was not impressed.

I've been on several service calls where tie rods or drag links have just fallen off a semi. They never seem to come off going down the road. Just during turning in a parking lot. I've had drivers put the tie rod back on the ball stud, wire it up and drive them home. Talk about sketchy!

I can vouch for that "fix"! But mine was a 100K pound cement truck trying to get into a jobsite and off load BEFORE the load CURED!

And yes, I have been inside a barrel running a 70 pound jackhammer overhead... 12 cubic yards of curing concrete.
That was the reason for making sure I could offload!

Ya should always carry 2 5lb pound bags of sugar in the cab if you get stuck and think your mud is going off throw in the sugar and it wont get hard

Originally Posted by ted dehaan

Ya should always carry 2 5lb pound bags of sugar in the cab if you get stuck and think your mud is going off throw in the sugar and it wont get hard

Seriously? How much longer will it take for the mud to cure and does it ruin the mud? That's interesting.

That got my interest also, so I did some quick research.

Sugar in small amounts retards set time of cement with some initial loss of strength during cure, and some overall increase in strength when fully cured.

Sugar added in large amounts (% of mix) accelerates cure with severe reduction in strength for fully cured.

Sorry Ryan-------I guess you don't want any help--??

Originally Posted by jerry clayton

Sorry Ryan-------I guess you don't want any help--??

Jerry, what kind of help is, "So it's 45 years old and something broke?" Then you go on to tell me about the loads on a steering system and when in four wheel drive. Which is not a problem here seeing how there is no front drive shaft. I always appreciate help. I have no problem with you explaining how things work so other people can learn too. I have a good understanding on how things work and how they were designed to be utilized also. I'll be the first to admit I do not know everything.

I read that post as non informative because you were just telling be I need to check out my steering parts because they take a lot of abuse. Even though you apparently haven't read any of this build thread to see all these parts have indeed been replaced. If you had, you may have known that this particular part/piece that failed, is not any OEM production piece any way. I can only assume they failed because they are cheap junk. And I will be checking out the front end as I will remove the knuckle off the axle to remove the broken studs. That should be loads of fun to remove those studs. Who knows, maybe they were too hard and that's why they broke? Like I said earlier, I should have known better to use unknown brand studs for this part.

I'll quit ranting now.

Ryan-I did not read thru 400 posts but did go back several pages looking for pics of the front axle/ steering components. I did respond to the post so as to enlighten others also. Trucks with big wheels/tires are extremely hard to turn the front wheels while setting still or moving slowly so that explains why others have commented about failures while going slow manovering--

My comments about the 4 x 4 u-joints having ab issue at angles other than pretty straight is for every body that reads the post. No where was I aware of it didn't have a front drive shaft------ And lots of rust around the joints so????? maybe joint was locked /frozen???????? I don't know how you put the studs in, but many times I've seen evidence that studs have been damaged by over tightening them as they are installed-( stress in the last thread to shank--weakest , most vulnerable spot)

While you have it apart, check other areas for damage because the broken studs at the spindle top is just the weak point and probably not the source of the trouble ( most of this is for others to understand )

I'm waiting to see the rements of the studs when you get them out--good luck-hope you used anti seize/ lube instead of lock tite.