Sinbox down..

**wbute** · 06-03-2011, 03:42 PM

Just have to say that after seeing Rod and Jennie's van in the flesh that they have done a brilliant job of restoring it! So lucky that balljoint didnt damage it or them on its more or less maiden voyage!
Stickthis your decals look unreal! The blue is so vivid and they just jump of the paint.
One other point, its great to see Rod and Jennie living the dream and using the van for what is was made for, driving it around even on our dirt road to visit! I just wish I had been thinking a bit clearer at 6.30 this morning and got a photo of it parked on our lawn complete with the windows steamed up

**stickthis** · 06-03-2011, 04:32 PM

Originally Posted by wbute

Just have to say that after seeing Rod and Jennie's van in the flesh that they have done a brilliant job of restoring it! So lucky that balljoint didnt damage it or them on its more or less maiden voyage!
Stickthis your decals look unreal! The blue is so vivid and they just jump of the paint.
One other point, its great to see Rod and Jennie living the dream and using the van for what is was made for, driving it around even on our dirt road to visit! I just wish I had been thinking a bit clearer at 6.30 this morning and got a photo of it parked on our lawn complete with the windows steamed up

haha! would have been classc!

**jennie285** · 06-03-2011, 05:08 PM

Originally Posted by wbute

One other point, its great to see Rod and Jennie living the dream and using the van for what is was made for, driving it around even on our dirt road to visit! I just wish I had been thinking a bit clearer at 6.30 this morning and got a photo of it parked on our lawn complete with the windows steamed up

thankyou for putting in the culvert so we could get up the driveway....and thanks for a great arvo and evening, looking at your utes, and van...we must have woke just after you left, at 6.35 sorry to have missed you...we left at 7am..we had a great day at the swap meet we arrived there and they ushered us into the centre to park with all the classic cars which were many, we had loads of people interested in the van, we rushed off to get bargains, a HJ/HX steering wheel and centre, for $130 two good armrest for $10pair, some bumperettes for rechroming, $25/pair, and an old malleys steel esky, in brown to match the back of the van.....$40 a VDO oil light guage sender unit for $5 if it works great but not losing much if not....

**wbute** · 06-03-2011, 05:36 PM

Love the esky........ nearly as cool as my valencia orange one!

**NickyG** · 06-03-2011, 08:22 PM

To be honest this scares the crap outta me.. i neally had my EF do that to me.. luckily it got fixed before it broke.. I'm guessing there was no signs of problems before it happened...

**jennie285** · 06-03-2011, 08:47 PM

Originally Posted by NickyG

To be honest this scares the crap outta me.. i neally had my EF do that to me.. luckily it got fixed before it broke.. I'm guessing there was no signs of problems before it happened...

No there were no signs it just happened the front end dropped on the bitumen and ground to a halt...you can regularly check the nuts and the split pin is in place, ours were checked 12months ago bearing in mind the van has been off the road for 6 of those months....and it scared me a lot....

:knockout:

**NickyG** · 07-03-2011, 08:34 PM

is it a common thing to happen.. this is probably my biggest fear with driving cars... Regular checks i suppose are in order

**wbute** · 07-03-2011, 08:45 PM

Would it be possible to get rid of the castleated or nylock nut and use a proper high tensile nut and lock nut instead? Seems the nuts are the problem with these balljoints now. they used to just break through wear and usually only at low speed. The nut can strip at any speed. Seems like a real dodgy set up to me.
Perhaps there is an opening to make some decent quality ball joints.

**rallyvan** · 07-03-2011, 09:38 PM

Does anyone know if the castleated nuts are just working loose or whether the nuts are cracking and failing? Wondering if the slots in the castleated nuts don't have any radius at the bottom slot (when compared to previous replacement units) and this is what is causing the failure. The lack of radius leading to cracks around the base of the slot area. When I re-assembly my van I think I'll see if I can get some from a the local engineering supply house hopefully they will be a bit better quality.
I use to help a bloke with an EL Falcon rally car that had a bad habbit of braking Watts linkage pins in the rear end. This was usually induced by giving the odd bank a tap at speed. We found the standard Ford pins had a square shoulder at the base of of the threads which lead to a stress riser. We had some new pins made with radius at the base of all the threads and the failure rate decreased dramaticly.
You have to be greatful that the failure happened at low speed so the damage was minimal. If the ball joints were replaced during the resto process it might be worth getting in contact with the supplier and letting them know. They might of had a bad batch of nuts.
Anthony

**Nigelk777** · 07-03-2011, 10:09 PM

Just a tip ... avoid nylocs on ball joints if you can. I used them on one of my cars and the ball joints just spun when I tried to undo them. No amount of cajoling would get them off so out came the angry grinder to cut the nuts in half ... I've now used new (ordinary) nuts and simply drilled a hole through them and then used a good split pin. Nige