Trailer Axe ~ Act 1

Well - maybe I should change this to "car ranch"? Nope - I am really not much of a mechanic.  Anyway, that rusty acquisition I have running came with this trailer.  (Thanks, Craig's list)  We needed to get this fixed to get the tunnel buggy out to the sand this year! I did not relish the thought of being stuck along the road somewhere in "the narrows" between the Radio Ranch and the desert property in Little Borrego.

When we were doing the DMV and CHP thing we had to tow the buggy and the trailer to these places for registrations and VIN verifications, this is when I noticed that the wheels were in a very awkward angle to the road when I was following behind the trailer one day.  The problem was noted and I saw this:

 No, that is not a weird camera angle.  Apparently - the trailer got damaged in one of its "..many trips to Baja"  The hasty roadside repair looks like it involved a welding torch!  They also welded the brake hub to the axle to get it home...So just getting a new axle and use the existing hubs was not an option. Oh yeah, after I got the springs off with an impact wrench, I noticed the square tube has a new crack developing in it extending from the hole for the spring bolt - nice.

A few things to measure after I got the old one off:

It turns out we had a standard 70" spring center ( 72" trailer) with an 85" hub face.  Great! all standard.  Although they seem to allow for custom lengths but they strangely have to be odd inches?  Oh well, mine is a standard axel. 

We had a 5 lug ,  5-1/2 " wheel bolt pattern...a truck pattern as I was told.  Also, kind of standard, but. as it turned out it did not seem to be a problem for my supplier...

Also, the springs seem standard 25" ( although backwards from most specs the hangars on mine are in the front...I dont think that is an issue) I may also order new shackles and bolts as they seem a bit worn!

So after some research it came apparent that there are no trailer parts guys still in business near the Radio Ranch! 

Looks like the recession took its toll here.  But...We found a very good one on the Internet.  ABC trailer parts in Molton, AL.  Randy there was very helpful!!

Here:
http://abctrailerparts.com/ 

He advised that if we had springs to keep them but he would send a new "U" bolt set "duct taped" to the axle so save on shipping!



Dad - I smell ducktape?



The delivery inspection!  Everything seemed intact after it's journey across the country from AL - > CA... Although the radio wife did say the UPS guy was eyeing the axle and said him and his son could use for their desert toy hauler as well!

 Did I doubt Randy? Not a bit!  Well I did a first I did until I saw the genuine Duct tape.  For an additional $few I added the grease fittings...

This seems like a good Idea! Especially in the sand. I may need to check to see if they have replacement caps as well.

The old springs cleaned up good.  Just a rotary wire brush to see if anything was going on under the rust AND crud.

  Then I gave it a few coats of RUST-O glossy black for good measure.

 Here we go!  All parts checked out - one or two minor problems - later on those issues...

 The spring tabs are 70" on center and the spring drops right on there.

Then added the plates.  I guess this is the way to put them. I think older plates are just a big thick piece of steel... 

Here are the old plates and bolts.  They are definitely not going to bend with too much torque!


But in this case they are smaller gage steel and require these little bends for stiffening.  I put them on drooping down for no real reason but it looked like the crud and dust would sluff off instead of collecting if I put them the other way...and it looked like they had been mounted this way before!

 They came with nylon locking nuts.  It looks like they were previously installed as the finish was scraped a little also on this side.

Snugged them down in a Cris-cross pattern ...later using the torque wrench put them in the 50- 60 Ft-Lb spec > UBOLTS + Specs < I first ran them to 20 FT-LB all the way around, then up to the full 55 ft-lbs after fully mounting them to the trailer and letting them settle in a bit.  I think I will put in washers next time to get a better torque reading, but a drop of 3-way oil seems to help as well.. Strangely, I do not see a picture of the 1/2" torque wrench. I thought I recorded the torque values I set on it for posterity?  I'll need to check the cell phone pictures...



The only issue for the torque wrench is I needed to use the deep sockets to get it on the U-bolts.

OK here was  one issue I had ...As seen here one of the "U"  bolts was  slightly damaged.  I noticed the nut was very hard to turn and sure enough...Looks like it was cross-threaded or got scraped in shipment.  I took a needle file to it an re-opened the threads to get the bolt on.

The second issue is a little hard to see but the saddle on this side was slightly bent!  Looks like it was over torqued or the U bolt was at an angle when it was previously used.  I dont think this will be an issue but I will need to keep an eye on it.  I may take it off and see if we can flatten it out a bit;

 So the process to lift it up was pretty strait forward.  I learned my lesson not to do this on the dirt as I did on the tear down!  We moved the trailer to the drive way for the install.  I put it on a little dolley...rolle it under.

 Up she goes!  On my found in the yard and repaired floor jack.  The old flywheel for the engine remount was still on it but I put four 8mm bolts to keep the axel from rolling off.  You can see the bolt heads in this pic:

Dad..a lizard may be here...

Fully attached ready for final torquing down.  They recommend re-torque after about 100 miles which is about a trip out to the desert and back from the Radio Ranch.

Oh yeah, this little air impact wrench was most helpful getting the old "U" bolts off the springs.

It probably explains the bend in the plate as even this little H.F. model produces 230 FT-LBs @ 90 PSI! If some one used it on it could bend it ?

Anyway, my assistant was happy we did not need this to run the compressor too long! 

Just long enough to run the lug nuts on... it s my job to scare the bunnies!

~~~