Watch your maintenance and not just your cars

[gearheads78]

Being lazy is going to cost me. I've owned my car trailer for 9 years now and it might get used 4-6 times a year but sometimes its a pretty long trip. It seem like forever I have been telling myself to pull it apart and pack and adjust the bearings but there was always something better to do. Well today I finally had a nice day and got out there to do it. When I jacked it up and could move the wheels over 1/2" on the hub I got a sick feeling. Well luckily I never had a failure but the inner bearing had started eating into the shoulder of the hub creating more clearance and adding freeplay. I will now have to buy two axles at 100.00 ea before I can feel like my trailer is safe to use again.

[deuce_454]

I just had an enginefaliure in my daily driver on that account.. my dash had a funny ground so the gauges would work intermittently and ive been telling myself to take it out, clean the connectors and reinstall.. its usually what does the trick on a Saab..

also my two heaterhoses were alittle soft since my valvecover had leaked alittle.. i fixed teh valvecover leak and discovered the "soft" hoses and put ot on my "to do soon" list

now it seems that everything related to my own car falls in the following 3 categories: Urgent, Very Urgent..... Not urgent anymore :-(

So driving to a funeral the heaterhose failed at the same time my dash (and temp gauge) was taking a power-nap... and i discovered somthing was wrong when my heater blew cold air... pulled over thinking "f#ck.. headgasket" and the car stalled...

cylinderhead, gasket, 3 pistons + cylinders ... dead..

100% avoidable, 112% stupid cost me one saab 2.3-16V longblock, instead of one hose and 30 minutes maintenance

[ScotI]

I've always had that pesky 100K+ sbc oil puddle under my 74 short fleet daily driver. I need to yank the drivetrain for freshening but that always dominos into something way more for me (I'm sure some of you can relate). Since I have enough current projects, I just keep the fluids topped off weekly (I call it 'changing oil as I go') until I have opportunity (@ least 1 other project finished). I neglected to focus on the other little spot forming in the driveway about 7' behind the engines spot. I remember thinking "you really should look into that".

Fastforward.... We were driving home from a Weatherford TX GM truck/swap meet & greet (about 1:20 drive from my house). I had just started heading home & was tooling along I-20 @ about 70mph when a howl started that over-whelmed the typical 70mph road noise from a 35yr old truck. I quickly exited the highway & pulled into a Walmart. I pulled the fill plug on the rear differential & couldn't touch any fluid. It was dry.... damage done.

I filled it & went for bust. It made it home & it's been howling ever since (I live <10miles from work). Last week, the howl became a growl & the truck had to be parked. I'm now servicing the 'new' 12-bolt that will be replacing the current unit.

I'm ashamed to call myself a gearhead.

[gearheads78]

Originally Posted by ScotI

I've always had that pesky 100K+ sbc oil puddle under my 74 short fleet daily driver. I need to yank the drivetrain for freshening but that always dominos into something way more for me (I'm sure some of you can relate). Since I have enough current projects, I just keep the fluids topped off weekly (I call it 'changing oil as I go') until I have opportunity (@ least 1 other project finished). I neglected to focus on the other little spot forming in the driveway about 7' behind the engines spot. I remember thinking "you really should look into that".

Fastforward.... We were driving home from a Weatherford TX GM truck/swap meet & greet (about 1:20 drive from my house). I had just started heading home & was tooling along I-20 @ about 70mph when a howl started that over-whelmed the typical 70mph road noise from a 35yr old truck. I quickly exited the highway & pulled into a Walmart. I pulled the fill plug on the rear differential & couldn't touch any fluid. It was dry.... damage done.

I filled it & went for bust. It made it home & it's been howling ever since (I live <10miles from work). Last week, the howl became a growl & the truck had to be parked. I'm now servicing the 'new' 12-bolt that will be replacing the current unit.

I'm ashamed to call myself a gearhead.

Thanks for reminding me about the pinion leak in my truck.

[GregWeld]

Had to haul the 55 post project today -- funny -- on the way home I have an empty trailer -- and one thing I've wanted to do for a long time is to put in a winch -- you know - for dead stuff....

So called and asked the trailer joint where I bought it - if I could drop it off there and they could do the install. I get there and he asks me -- when was the last time you had the trailer serviced? My response.... "what would need servicing"? I've never taken it in since I bought it! Seems the brakes on trailers are not "self adjusting" --- nor are those pesky wheel bearings.... LOL. While I'm sure mine are fine - it's getting "the works" while there.

It's probably has 25 or 30,000 miles on it...

It'll buff out...

[gearheads78]

Thats funny Greg. The whole reason I even messed with the trailer saturday it to change the oil in my winch. It was a used 10000lb Ramsey I found on a wrecked ramp truck 9 years ago and was probably 15 + years old then. Its had a 20ft cable on my 18 ft trailer ever since I owned it so after changing the oil I broke down and ordered a new 100ft cable and a snatch block. Now I should be able snag a car from anywhere.

[Northeast Rod Run]

I have to agree that taking care of trailer bearings is pretty important. Last year on the way home from the World of Wheels in Boston, I had my car in a dual axle enclosed trailer that had been sitting for months. About 10 minutes from my house I heard a big bang so we pulled over. we lost an axle so just kind of limped to a friend's towyard that was only about a half mile away, dropped the trailer off and didn't even open it until the next day.

I figured if the car got banged around in the trailer, I didn't even want to see the damage that night. luckily the car was fine.

Needless to say that I'll never make the mistake again

[Tony@AirRideTech]

if you have to rebuild the axles you may want to look into bearing buddy hubs. Mainly found on boat trailers..... they have a grease zerk in the center of the hub.