Bad turns to worse. Smog, brake caliper, tire carrier woes.

[Joe Dillard]

Things started out on the right foot Saturday, but quickly changed. I got up fairly early as far as Saturdays go so I could beat the crowd at the local smog test shop. My ?88 Tercel with 213,000K passed with flying colors, but the Jeep needs some work, not sure what yet. It failed smog and I?m informed it needs to be hooked to a diagnostic machine to see what needs repairs. I also noticed while the Jeep was on the smog machine, my rear passenger side wheel was bent.

Not long after leaving from the smog test, things began to get worse... I was driving the Jeep to a diagnostic shop and got ~100 yards down the street from my home when I noticed my steering was pulling hard to the left. Yep, the caliper was sticky & began to fail, so back home we went. It started to smell as I pulled into my driveway, no big deal.

I have an Auto Zone just down the block from my house, so I decided to check out caliper and brake pad availability and their pricing. Luckily they had what I needed & the caliper was $14.99. So I picked it up along with some pads for both fronts, fluid, then went to swap things out.

While not paying close enough attention, I attempted to install the brake caliper without the sleeves the retaining bolts go through (at this point I felt like a Dork!) When I went to tighten things down, the alignment for the caliper was way off?.I began to look things over & this was when I discovered I over looked the sleeves not being there. The rubber boots were in place, but not the sleeves. I compared the old caliper to the new ones, noticed my obvious blunder, then migrated the old ones into the new one and things were starting to be back on track.

I had my son Rusty help with the bleeding process and that went well. I decided to take it for a test ride and things again took a turn for the worse. The brakes were fine, however?.somehow my Canyon City tire & can carrier became unlatched as I flipped a U turn. As I began to go strait, I felt a wobble, then looked in the rear view mirror to see it open and drooping WAY down. I quickly pulled over to take a look at things. We pushed it up and tied it with a rope so I could drive it back home.

After looking at it, it seems that cracks had developed that I didn?t notice. I believe this is what caused it to become unlatched. My idea is to dismount all the junk from it, prep it for welding back together, then add some gussets/bracing.

Here?s some pics of the broken areas:

[Jerry Bransford]

Dang Joe, when it rains it pours!

[TJRON]

Joe,
A not fun day for sure.
There are no smog checks in Pahrump, NV.
Ron

[LeadFoot]

That sucks Joe!! At least no one got hurt.

[Joe Dillard]

Yep, it could have been worse if it unlatched going down the Freeway & if it broke completely off.

[Scott]

Joe, sorry to hear about your misfortunes! Hopefully you will get it all fixed up Makes me want to go check my tire carrier, and gusset it
Scott

[Stu Olson]

Joe,

I just checked my CC tire carrier and confirmed that they did make a change along the way. Both the upper and lower sections have welded gussets, right where your let go. Apparently they figured out something along the way. I realize it does you know good, but thought I would share the information.

[Joe Dillard]

Thanks Stu. If possible, if you have a pic of the area where mine took a dump, I'd like to see it. I have a few ideas in my head as far as reinforcement goes and I'm open for suggestions. It seems mine developed hairline cracks some time ago as evident by the amount of rust build-up seen.

I didn't get the chance to remove all the junk off of it yet & clean things up (I have visitors from out of town). I'll probably get started on it tomorrow.

[Scott]

Stu,
I too would like to see where they gussetted yours.. Im thinking I will just use some 1" box tube of sorts, and weld in triangles at the corners for added strength.
Scott

[ChrisO]

Joe,
Sorry to hear about your troubles. At least they happened while you were back home, instead of on your vacation!

Best of luck.

[William]

when it rains it poors, eh? Listen, if you need any help from me, let me know, I'm only down the street and around the corner. I'm also at FTC this week in school

[Joe Dillard]

Thanks for the words of encouragement.

Originally posted by William
when it rains it poors, eh? Listen, if you need any help from me, let me know, I'm only down the street and around the corner. I'm also at FTC this week in school

Yep, it was a bad luck day.

Not sure if you heard...but I moved to El Cajon (possibly closer to you than you think ).

I'll keep the offer for help in mind, thanks for the offer!

FTC,.....maybe we could do lunch tomorrow & talk Jeeps? What do you say?

[Jerry Bransford]

Originally posted by Joe Dillard
Not sure if you heard...but I moved to El Cajon (possibly closer to you than you think ).

So you moved there to be closer to our local desert wheeling mecca?

[Stu Olson]

Originally posted by Scott
Stu,
I too would like to see where they gussetted yours.. Im thinking I will just use some 1" box tube of sorts, and weld in triangles at the corners for added strength.
Scott

I am at work now so can't snap any pics. However, mine has a triangular piece of metal welded into the corner....that is all they did. And I was incorrect....they only did it on the upper section....the lower was not reinforced (go figure!)

It makes little difference....I am giving serious consideration to cutting the carrier down in size (removing the jerry can holders) so to reduce the affect of having the tire sit so far back.

[Joe Dillard]

Originally posted by Jerry Bransford
So you moved there to be closer to our local desert wheeling mecca?

Not intentionally. I had a situation arise where I no longer needed the size house we were living in.

[ukjeeper]

Originally posted by Scott
Joe, sorry to hear about your misfortunes! Hopefully you will get it all fixed up Makes me want to go check my tire carrier, and gusset it
Scott

HEY!!!! Theres nothing wrong with yours!!!

[Scott]

Originally posted by ukjeeper
HEY!!!! Theres nothing wrong with yours!!!

You're right Tim, It's working just fine.. even with two full gas cans and a 35" spare with an 8" steel rim I just want to add gussetts as a safety thing
Scott