Check your chassis!

[Roehm3108]

Hi All

I have been working on Rubik's Kube, replacing her springs as one had sagged after my last jaunt south, and as I was working on it I was reminded just how much stress our vans are under, as they travel.

To get to one of the spring hanger bolts I had to take off the drawbar, and found that the bolts holding the drawbar on had a definite C shaped bend in them, obviously caused by the stress of towing. As well, whilst taking the "U" bolts holding the axle to the springs, a couple of nuts were so loose that they hardly needed a spanner on them!

Which made me think that we spend a lot of time and effort making the upper parts of our vans ship-shape, and sometimes forget the ongoing maintenance of the most important part - the underside! It may "look" OK, but when did we last check if crucial bolts are not rusted or nuts not sufficiently tightened? Or REALLY had the braking system and hitches checked?

I had the experience when towing my Superb up from Ballarat that one of the bolts holding the van body to the front of the chassis was actually missing!

I'm also reminded of Reddo's recent experience with his drawbar cracking up.

Now for some of you guys out there I might be telling you how to suck eggs, but if you are a mechanical illiterate like me, it might just pay to attend to these matters and really check out the underneath on a regular basis. I'm replacing the drawbar bolts with high tensile bolts and locknuts on the "U" bolt, just to be sure.

Better to be sure than sorry!!!

Ray

[Don Ricardo]

Oct 11, 2009 17:06:06 GMT 10 Roehm3108 said:

Now for some of you guys out there I might be telling you how to suck eggs, but if you are a mechanical illiterate like me, it might just pay to attend to these matters and really check out the underneath on a regular basis. I'm replacing the drawbar bolts with high tensile bolts and locknuts on the "U" bolt, just to be sure.

Better to be sure than sorry!!!

Ray

Sorry Ray, if you use words like 'high tensile bolts and locknuts on the "U" bolt', you're disqualified as a 'mechanical illiterate'!! A mechanical illiterate is somebody who reads that and says "high what...??" - there are a few of us around! ;D ;D ;D

All that aside, your point is well taken. How often do we worry about what we can see, and don't even think of what we can't see? Minicamper's sagging draw bar last year, was another reminder to check things thoroughly.

Don Ricardo

[Deleted]

Hi Ray

Words of wisdom there mate.

Might i add : Check your towbar bolts too.
I was washing the chev after going up the Hunter Valley to collect that old Bondy last week.
Just happened to lean down on the towball and the gooseneck ( tongue) gave a wobble of about 1/2" to and fro.
Crawled underneath and "shock horror" 2 bolts on the right side where loose . 1 on left side was loose.. other on the left was none existent.

I put this down to the design of the bar and the constant "loading and unloading backwards and forwards" on the towbar while towing . It must have worked the spring washers loose.
Also The holes in the chassis rails are slightly bigger than the bolt diameter. Maybe that allowed it to start working itself loose under load.
I replaced all 4 bolts and used Nyloc nuts this time.

Anyway... no matter what. It pays to spend a bit of time under the car and van and just check everything. Shackle bushes, shockies , towbar bolts , tongue bolts.. then move under the van and poke and prod everything.

Cheers Ray and thanks for the timely reminder.
Reddo