This morning I spent 30 minutes under the 4WD completing a partial repair to the damage caused by the broken shock absorber. A replacement shock absorber will need to travel from Queensland. As it contains compressed gas; which can’t travel by air, it will have to be sent by land. The delivery time is likely to be 7-10 days and we might need the Isuzu before then.
The partial repair involved fixing the damaged fuel tank filler pipe breather tube. This small tube runs from the top of the fuel tank back to fuel filler point on the side of the vehicle. It prevents an air lock occurring when filling the fuel tank.
I decided to cut the damaged end off the breather tube using a hacksaw.
Well crushed.
It was likely the steel tube would now be too short for the connection to the end of the flexible hose from the fuel tank.
Ends of the steel tube and flexible hose
I’d anticipated that and remembered I’d kept the original length of rear differential breather hose. This had become surplus when I modified the gearbox, transfer case and differential breathers.
Never one to throw things away that might be useful one day, I found it to be the same size as the fuel tank breather hose. However, in the end the differential breather hose wasn’t required as I managed to fit the fuel breather hose onto the end of the shortened steel tube.
Without the shock absorber there is a potential risk the coil spring might jump out of it’s mounting. Given that I drove 350km without the shock absorber being connected it’s a low risk, but I decided to spend some extra time securing the base of the coil spring to the lower mounting bracket. I used 3mm braided stainless steel wire for this.
2 comments :
Hi Tom
with your mods to the 4x4, is it possible that the axle can articulate lower than before and is only restrained by the shock absorber. Continued use like this then overloads the shock and shears the rod?
Do you need to add straps to prevent this or longer shocks?
Dave,
That situation would be no different to the OEM suspension. My assumption is the head of the shock absorber snapped off as a consequence of either bouncing over sand dunes (which only occured for a very short period) or the head of the piston was defective from manufacture.
Post a Comment