I guess everyone has those "when it rains it pours" carnage days... Mark had already broken the mount for one end of his hydro assist ram and was rocking his steering box on two bolts so we had pretty much finished wheeling for the day. On our way back to the road the front axle of his Mog started making a loud cracking noise. Shortly after that the left front tire started locking up, and very shortly after that the same wheel fell off.
Closeups of the shattered gear reduction case from the wheel...
...and the axle side. So that's what it looks like in there!
Not wanting to leave the Mog on the river, we tried some really wack Mcguyver stuff, which actually worked better than it had a right to! Ha ha! Using the beam from my hi-lift, my much maligned chain clamp, and a ratchet strap we fashioned a ski for the hub on the broken side of the axle.
It skittered along on the granite quite well for a few hundred yards and even made a crossing or two and climbed a foot high curb or two.
It wasn't long, though, until we hit a larger ledge and the chain clamp gave up the ghost.
With daylight running out and concerned with doing more damage to the Mog, or just pulling it down river enough to put it at more risk from vandals, we headed out.
Mark and a few of the guys from the club made a Sunday run out to see if the Mog could be limped out but the consensus was that spare parts would be necessary.
Mark ordered in the parts and another run was made the following Thursday. Nathan and I took a run up to the mog to make sure nothing needed for the recovery, like the spare and batteries, had been pilfered. The mog was unmolested so we wheeled the Crack and Eagle Rock waiting for Mark and Joe to show up. This is Nathan on the back side of the Tub.
Before long showed up and we continued to wheel around Eagle Rock until Mark got there. This is Joe on the edge of the Tub.
After a little more wheeling Joe called Mark on the cell to see where he was. He had just arrived at the entrance so we went back down river to collect him and the spare parts. In a few minutes we were at the mog and getting down to business.
Like always, it's the little unexpected things that slow field repairs down. These locating pins stayed in the housing when the broken knuckle was removed. That was all well enough, except that the new knuckle assembly had a full compliment of pins already. We beat on them, attacked them with vice-grips, and even clamped them with a flare tool then slid a pickle fork behind them all to no avail.
Eventually we went medieval on them with a cut off tool. Mark was successful at removing one of the pins after the outer was carefully cut off. I was a little more ham-handed and whacked mine off flush with the flange.
Once the pins were finally out of the way we used the Spitz lift to suspend the knuckle assembly so Mark could focus his exertions on aligning the bolt holes and indexing the shaft splines in the diff.
Next we had to get the hub high enough to mount the spare using a bottle jack and blocks of wood. The jack stand was for a little extra margin of safety and to hold the axle while the bottle jack and blocks were repositioned.
With the tire on we still needed to fill the portal box with fluid and install the tie rod. The rear mounted tie rod hit the control arm and third member before it was high enough to drop the tie rod end into the steering arm. We were just starting to mentally kick our butts for not putting it on before mounting the knuckle assembly when Mark pointed out that the steering arms were held on with two bolts. Once the bolts were removed, the tie rod was put on the arm, then the arm was put back on the knuckle.
While Mark limped the resurrected mog back to the trailer the rest of us stopped at Table Top to play around.
It took a total of 4 hours start to finish to get the mog rolling, mostly because of the locating pins. In spite of a cold wind blowing off the water it was fun wrenching with everybody and nice to Meet and wheel with Nathan. Joe and I even came off the river in one piece ready for out respective wheeling road trips next week!

Home