True Story About Steering

[mechanic mark]

I was an 18 wheeler heavy duty diesel mechanic for Ryder Truck Rental from 1979-1990. My supervisor would hand out work orders at 7am every day. He told me the tractor I would be working on had a bad steering problem. I drove the tractor down our straight away two lane blacktop & the tractor, GMC ASTRO, darted to the right suddenly. While turning the steering wheel to the left as fast as I could & also tapping the brakes feeling as if my heart was in my throat. The max speed limit was 45 on that two lane road & I probably did 25 back to the shop. I asked a helper to place a wheel scotch in front of left front wheel & watch for play when I backed up & drove forward rapidly hitting wheel scotch. Problem found, left front spring eye bushing was broken so I scotched left front wheel front & back, removed front bumper, installed heavy duty air jack to lift front of truck at frame rails, installed jack stands, removed spring with broken bushing & took to driveline shop up the street so they could R&R bushing with new bushing & I could reinstall all parts & get the driver back on the road. I know GOD was with the driver, myself, & others who were given the truck to troubleshoot but could not locate problem. I worked at the largest Ryder Shop in GA. with over 600 big rigs running out of our shop alone, 2 first shifts, 2 second shifts, & 2 third shifts open 24/7. The way I see it is GOD ALMIGHTY gave me the wisdom & knowledge to locate & resolve problem. Thanks for taking the time to read, sincerely, Mark

 

[StarTech]

If anything like the Mack Dump truck I pulled offline years ago you probably a bad place in the roadway that jarred that bushing. I pulled the Mack after the shop foreman okayed it to return to work as the driver return within two hours saying it wasn't fixed. I pull it into the oil change bay and did a DOT inspection of the front end. Boy was it bad both lower balljoint nearly fell apart as I raised the axles; not mentioning the rest of the problems I found in the front suspension, The driver asked when he was getting the truck back. I just said just go get another truck assigned and this would be offline for several days.

 

[mechanic mark]

If anything like the Mack Dump truck I pulled offline years ago you probably a bad place in the roadway that jarred that bushing. I pulled the Mack after the shop foreman okayed it to return to work as the driver return within two hours saying it wasn't fixed. I pull it into the oil change bay and did a DOT inspection of the front end. Boy was it bad both lower balljoint nearly fell apart as I raised the axles; not mentioning the rest of the problems I found in the front suspension, The driver asked when he was getting the truck back. I just said just go get another truck assigned and this would be offline for several days.

Lets be honest here Star Tech, big rigs, tractors, 18 wheeler trucks do not have ball joints at front axle, they have King Pins. I worked on Ford CL9000's, Macks, KW's, Peterbilts, GMC Astro's, International Transtars & Navistars, Hinos, Ivecos, etc. etc. in my 11 & 1/2 years until a big layoff just before Christmas in 1990. We did everything except paint & body work & had our own tire bay & truck wash bay. https://www.google.com/search?q=KIN...ome..69i57.35775j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

[StarTech]

Well I not going to argue I just what me and the front end mechanic saw on that truck. He nearly pulled then out with long pry bar he checking them with and they were definely not king pins.