[AT] Getting water out of a gearbox

Doug Tallman dtallman at accnorwalk.com
Wed Jun 3 16:36:06 PDT 2015


Charlie, my basic math comes out to .00112 dollars per mile. Not as much 
of a deal you thought it was.  :-)  Doug T





On 6/3/2015 6:31 PM, charlie hill wrote:
> hmmm after doing a little basic math it occurs to me that in 250,000 miles
> that
> bearing has turned on the order of 150 million revolutions.  At $280.00 that
> works out
> to a bit less than $.000002 per mile.  I don't think it owes me anything.
>
> Charlie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: charlie hill
> Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 2015 3:41 PM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: Re: [AT] Getting water out of a gearbox
>
> Yep the sealed bearings are a bit of a mixed blessing.  No maintenance
> necessary but
> NO maintenance allowed either.
>
> I do the same thing.  I recently replaced the belts on my truck.  They
> weren't broken or completely
> worn out but were showing signs of wear and they were old.  Did I throw them
> away...NO.  They went
> behind the back seat!
>
> Charlie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Thomas Mehrkam
> Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 2015 2:21 PM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: Re: [AT] Getting water out of a gearbox
>
> One of my gripes is putting sealed bearings in the front hubs.  Mine have
> 280,000 miles on them.  Seem fine when I check them but I am sure they are
> running on borrowed time.
> If they were the type I could pack with grease I could check and repack
> then.  I would likely have a spare set of packed bearings in a zip lock in
> my tool box.  Just in case.
> I have a pair of prepacked bearings with every trailer I own. And extra fan
> belts in all my vehicles.   Cost's nothing the fan belts are old good ones
> taken off to put on fresh ones.
>
> I have been saved more than once by these old spare parts.
> One Christmas holiday my daughter and I were driving the 2500 Suburban from
> Houston to South Padre.  My wife and InLaws were at a Condo for the
> holidays. I had to work and left early in the next morning
> About Warton.  1.5 Hours I lost power steering, Power Brakes and alternator.
> I stopped and the belt was shredded.  It seems the power steering pump
> bracket broke.
> I put on the spare belt.  It would not stay on because of the bracket.  I
> spotted a coil of barbed ware hanging on the fence next to me.  Thank
> goodness for ranchers that believe on keeping old wire hanging hanging
> around for emergency fence repairs.  I borrowed a short length and wired to
> pump bracket so the belt would stay on.
> I went into town and found small welding shop and asked them if they could
> weld it.  They claimed it would not hold. The bracket was too hard.  They
> said there was a Chevy dealer in town.
> The dealer did not have a bracket but they ran a truck to Houston about
> 10:30 AM every day for parts.  It was about that time.  He said he would
> order the part and have it by 3:30.
> One time the dealer did good.  Got the part and got us out by 5:00 Pm.  The
> service manager even loaned us his car so we could go to lunch.
> Made it to south padre after dark. It was late but we were able to salvage
> the holiday.  Come to think of it all dealerships are not ripoff artists.  I
> was not even disappointed with the price.  This was 1996 or so.
>       From: charlie hill <charliehill at embarqmail.com>
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, June 3, 2015 10:17 AM
> Subject: Re: [AT] Getting water out of a gearbox
>
> I had an interesting experience this past Friday.  It could have been
> bad and very expensive but it turned out well.  I guess that penny I found
> heads up in the yard Friday morning was a good omen.
>
> I was headed to Maryland.  On I-95 just south of the I-295 exit I started
> getting
> a bad front end vibration.  I took an exit hoping to find nothing worse than
> a flat
> tire.  Not so.  I couldn't find a thing that looked out of place but I knew
> that the
> right front hub (4 WD 2006 GMC) was running on borrowed time.  The left side
> was changed out about 3 years ago and the right side had over 250,000 miles
> on it.
> I grabbed the top of the tire and snatched on it.  Sure enough I felt about
> 1/8" or so of
> slack.  There was nothing to do buy keep going.  No where really to get it
> worked on.
> This was at about 3pm on Friday afternoon.  I made it nearly to
> Fredericksburg Va. when
> I ran into a traffic delay for about 3 miles of stop and go.  Every time I
> started I had to
> apply too much throttle and I didn't need to touch the brake pedal to stop!
>
> I limped to the next exit, still tied up in traffic, and got off.  After
> pulling into a parking lot
> I searched on my phone for the nearest AutoZone.  Not that I'm particularly
> fond of AutoZone
> but I knew a few things.  There's one most everywhere, they loan tools and I
> happened to know
> that they carry that hub in the Timken brand.  Sure enough there was an
> AutoZone store less than
> a mile from me.  I found it, went in and explained my situation.  They had
> the hub (1 in stock) and
> they had the tools and it was ok to work in their parking lot but they
> didn't have jacks or jack stands
> to loan out so I knew I'd have to buy what I needed.  I asked if there was a
> local shop that could
> do it now, do it right and not rip me off.  The commercial accounts guy
> picked up the phone and
> made a call.  I heard him say Amigo,  '06 Z 71 Quattro Quattro  front hub
> NOW?  The parts man
> said he can do it now.  I said how much.  He asked.  The answer came back
> $100.00.
> Mind you this was at 4:15 pm on Friday.  I told him yes.
>
> I bought the hub for $180.00 and they had their parts runner girl escort me
> to the shop.
> When we got there Jorge was waiting in his one bay shop in a single slope
> metal building
> that housed a detail shop and other similar small businesses, each taking up
> a bay or two.
> Jorge is about 50 I'm guessing.  He spoke English well enough for me to talk
> to him.  He apologetically
> asked if I could wait 5 minutes for him to start to let it cool.  He offered
> us bottled water which
> we declined because we had our own.  Just a few minutes later he went to
> work.  He was fast and
> clearly knew what he was doing.  I watched him work from a distance.  I
> didn't want to make him
> nervous or make him think I didn't trust him but I wanted to make sure he
> was doing it right.  He did.
> He did all the little things that some mechanics wouldn't bother with like
> making sure he straightened
> the slight bends he put in the dust cap that covers the axle nut when he had
> to pry it off and putting a
> bit of anti seize grease on the new lug studs.
>
> In about 45 minutes he was finished.  I gave him the promised $100.00 and
> thanked him.  He gave me his
> business card just in case something wasn't right and I needed to call.  (He
> knew I was passing through
> and wouldn't be back otherwise).  I thanked him again and was gone.
>
> I just wish Jorge was in my town because I'd gladly use his services.  I
> could have changed the hub myself and
> would have if I had been at home but not for $100 bucks.  With my bad knees
> it was worth every cent of
> 100 bucks to have him do it and do it right.
>
> Yes this is my tractor hauling truck (obligatory tractor reference).
>
> If you are ever in Fredericksburg VA and need a good mechanic find the
> AutoZone near the 17 Business exit (first US 17
> exit going north) and ask them to tell you how to find Jorge Auto Service.
>
> Charlie
>
> C
>
>
>




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