Brody
June 6th, 2012, 06:53 AM
This is just a reminder to everyone:
Any time you do a suspension lift, take an axle off, install wheel spacers or take off or modify ANYTHING on the drive train on your rig, you need to retighten everything that you had apart after 500 miles or so. This is especially important if you have taken it on a wheeling run as this adds a lot of wear and tear to the suspension components.
I retighten every under my heap either before or after every trail run as a matter of course and actually do that whenever I am under it for greasing, an oil change or anything else.
I was reminded of this yesterday when I was adjusting the brakes on the rear axle. I had recently replaced the V6 spooled axle with the repaired Tundra ARB'd axle. Sure I had torqued everything down on the reinstall, actually over torquing the wheel spacer nuts, lug nuts and spring U bolts a bit. Here is what I found:
The wheel lugs were still torqued tight as were the wheel spacer lug nuts. Everything else checked out fine, too, with the exception of the spring U bolts. These had backed off from the initial install torque of 80++ to around 60 fp. At this point, should I have kept driving it, all they would have done was to get progressively looser, not a good thing..I have, in years gone by, rolled a rear axle right out from under my rig before. This was more due to the aluminum spacer/blocks I was using at the time (almost 30 years ago) blowing out than anything else, but the damage it caused was excessive. This was from a dead stop taking off from a stop sign (big tires, big hp, heavy right foot), too. I broke the drive shaft, bent the U bolts, bent one of the rear springs and damaged both quarter panels badly. Think about what would have happened at any kind of speed...All that little mess did was leave my rig sitting partway out in traffic with the rear axle/wheels where the quarter panels used to be
Anyway, there is a real reason that any manufacture states in the lift stuff: "retighten everything after 500 miles"....and it isn't because they are simply blowing smoke...
So, take a minute to tighten your junk. Easier to do in the driveway or garage of your home rather than on a trail run after you have broken something...
Any time you do a suspension lift, take an axle off, install wheel spacers or take off or modify ANYTHING on the drive train on your rig, you need to retighten everything that you had apart after 500 miles or so. This is especially important if you have taken it on a wheeling run as this adds a lot of wear and tear to the suspension components.
I retighten every under my heap either before or after every trail run as a matter of course and actually do that whenever I am under it for greasing, an oil change or anything else.
I was reminded of this yesterday when I was adjusting the brakes on the rear axle. I had recently replaced the V6 spooled axle with the repaired Tundra ARB'd axle. Sure I had torqued everything down on the reinstall, actually over torquing the wheel spacer nuts, lug nuts and spring U bolts a bit. Here is what I found:
The wheel lugs were still torqued tight as were the wheel spacer lug nuts. Everything else checked out fine, too, with the exception of the spring U bolts. These had backed off from the initial install torque of 80++ to around 60 fp. At this point, should I have kept driving it, all they would have done was to get progressively looser, not a good thing..I have, in years gone by, rolled a rear axle right out from under my rig before. This was more due to the aluminum spacer/blocks I was using at the time (almost 30 years ago) blowing out than anything else, but the damage it caused was excessive. This was from a dead stop taking off from a stop sign (big tires, big hp, heavy right foot), too. I broke the drive shaft, bent the U bolts, bent one of the rear springs and damaged both quarter panels badly. Think about what would have happened at any kind of speed...All that little mess did was leave my rig sitting partway out in traffic with the rear axle/wheels where the quarter panels used to be
Anyway, there is a real reason that any manufacture states in the lift stuff: "retighten everything after 500 miles"....and it isn't because they are simply blowing smoke...
So, take a minute to tighten your junk. Easier to do in the driveway or garage of your home rather than on a trail run after you have broken something...