Trunnions - a warning!!!

[Dryad]

Now that some of you have read about my potentially very dangerous incident last Thursday (Copper brake pipes - a warning!) perhaps you would like to hear about today's! I had taken my wife and son out for the day to the north Norfolk coast, a 90 mile round trip, but about 8 miles from home on a busy roundabout there came a...BANG!....Scrrrrrape! Yes, you've guessed it, the lower trunnion had parted company from the swivel pin. Again, no injury occured, but as I had previously been rattling along at 65mph until I reached Norwich it could have been a LOT worse! On this occasion it looks like the thread on the swivel pin has gone, and I will do a proper examination tomorrow in daylight and post photos here. As if that wasn't enough, when the breakdown truck arrived I quickly tried to remove the wheel from the collapsed side so that it would slide up the ramps easier, and the first wheelnut I tried to undo resulted in the stud sheering off still attached to the nut!

So, my warning here is; if your steering suddenly starts to feel a little stiffer (and you don't have a puncture) be VERY, VERY careful and check your trunnions.

Here's a pic;[frame][/frame]

[samuria]

glad you were all ok could have been very nasty. is that the earlham road roundabout???

[Dryad]

glad you were all ok could have been very nasty. is that the earlham road roundabout???

Thanks. Yes, it was the Earlham Road Fiveways roundabout. The road cones were borrowed from the nearby Tesco garage - Every Little Helps! .

[bmcecosse]

When that happened to me - going to Uni to sit a final year exam (!) I just stuffed it back in - and tied my tow rope around so it couldn't escape again. Was on my way in 30 minutes or so - and I got home again too! If you have Wolseley front brakes fitted - the swivel pin CAN'T come out - there is a ledge in the larger backplate that sits under the kingpin and would 'catch' an escaping trunnion. In the past - someone suggested fitting a bracket on the normal 8" backplate - to provide the same safety ledge - a GOOD idea I thought! I guess you were lucky Plod didn't come along and charge you with something under Construction and Use Regs! So now - you need to wonder if things really DO come along in threes....... I assume you will be fitting two new king pin assemblies asap!

[Dryad]

When that happened to me - going to Uni to sit a final year exam (!) I just stuffed it back in - and tied my tow rope around so it couldn't escape again. Was on my way in 30 minutes or so - and I got home again too! If you have Wolseley front brakes fitted - the swivel pin CAN'T come out - there is a ledge in the larger backplate that sits under the kingpin and would 'catch' an escaping trunnion. In the past - someone suggested fitting a bracket on the normal 8" backplate - to provide the same safety ledge - a GOOD idea I thought! I guess you were lucky Plod didn't come along and charge you with something under Construction and Use Regs! So now - you need to wonder if things really DO come along in threes....... I assume you will be fitting two new king pin assemblies asap!

I had this happen on an Ital van I used to have, and I seem to remember that it collapsed onto the inside wheel rim which allowed me to drive a few hundred yards further to a safer place to stop, albeit with a hideous screeching noise! Plod did arrive, and they were very helpful and said to call them if any problems occured. And yes, I shall be fitting a new pair of king pins, and a full set of wheel studs.

[Plin]

Dryad - it is good to see you still have a sense of humour (e.g. Tesco cone!) but it is not fair that you have had two big bothers in such a short space of time. Many thanks for sharing your woes though as it is a good reminder for us all to check things, which reminds me we also replaced all our lcv brake pipes with copper a few year back; will have to show hubby that posting asap! Hope your minor motoring outing goes smoothly.

[kennatt]

45 years ago i tied mine back together using fencing wire,wonder if the farmer ever worked out why someone had removed a length of his fence,probably thought it was gypsies looking for scrap

[chickenjohn]

All the more reason to jack the front of the car up regularly, check the trunnions for play and make sure they are regularly kept greased!

[Dryad]

All the more reason to jack the front of the car up regularly, check the trunnions for play and make sure they are regularly kept greased!

That's the first thing I did when I bought the car at the end of June. Couldn't detect any play in the trunnions and it had just passed an MOT anyway. By the looks of it someone had replaced the trunnions in the last few months onto swivel pins with seriously worn threads. I've just ordered a pair of new pins with trunnions from Bull Motif so hopefully will be back on the road before the end of the week.

[Kevin]

Glad you are all Ok and its fortunate that when this does happen its normally at slow speeds, as a matter of interest did you get any clonking before hand, as years ago when our works vehicles were the proverbial comma vans they always gave a clonking warning beforehand.

[Dryad]

There was no clonking, just that the steering suddenly became a little more stiff after I had parked on a hill for an hour or so. I've just taken a photo of the thread on the swivel pin and it looks very worn to me;[frame][/frame]

[ndevans]

Yep, commiserations. It's happened twice to me, once on the way to college. I vividly remember the front of a Shell tanker getting bigger & bigger &BIGGER ....driver got out and said "we nearly met!"

Usually as someone said it happens at low speed going round some sort of bend. I replced both kingpins & top and bottom trunnions, that was back in 1990, since then, greased every 1000 miles & no trouble *touches wood*.

[Kevin]

There was no clonking, just that the steering suddenly became a little more stiff after I had parked on a hill for an hour or so. I've just taken a photo of the thread on the swivel pin and it looks very worn to me;[frame][/frame]

Agreed it looks well past its sell by date..................

[RobThomas]

The rubber seal on the bottom trunnion is a bit of a comedy affair. The leg on one side of mine was smaller in diameter than the other where the seal met the leg and I added the rubber seal from a VW pushrod to help seal it all up and to keep the water out of the trunnion. I'd guess yours has had water getting in and has been slowly rotting away and then the grease becomes a fancy grinding paste with all the rusty crud mixed in.
It looks almost as if your car didn't have a rubber dust cover on there at all?

[RobThomas]

How about slapping some of that gas-fitters' pipe round the bottom of the leg? That gloppy, waxy, grease-slathered bandage stuff.

[Dryad]

This happening at low speed seems to be the norm. Whilst waiting for the breakdown recovery a woman pulled up in a nice green Traveller to check I was ok (thanks ) and she said it had happened to her as she was parking at work.

Actually, now I look at my last pic there, it looks like that brake pipe has been twisted at some point in the past! That will be replaced too.

[Dryad]

It looks almost as if your car didn't have a rubber dust cover on there at all?

It did, but came off when it was being put on the back of the recovery truck. I picked it up and still seems in ok condition, not that I'll be reusing it!

[surfergirl]

Had the same thing on the traveller and van both at low speed. Sometimes the grease nipples dont allow grease all the way in which seems to make them wear quickly. I have seen somewhere trunnions for sale with two nipples, which is a good idea.

[chickenjohn]

When greasing trunnions, I jack the front of the car up and squirt some grease in at full left and right lock and straight ahead position for each grease nipple to give grease the best chance to get in the thread.

[simmitc]

Snap - three weeks ago, but nearside. My trunnions are greased regularly. 5 weeks before the incident I had given the car a pre-MOT check, all OK; and it sailed through the test too, yet the threads still stripped off the pin. In fairness, it was forty years and 150,000 miles old. A ratchet strap was the temporary fix. Last time it happened (different car, 25 years ago) was closer to home, and I walked back to collect an old spare pin complete with trunnions and brakes; and put that and the tool box in a wheel barrow to get back to the car and effect a roadside replacement

When greasing (a) add a small amount of diesel oil to the grease - keeps it softer; (b) jack up the car and support on the chassis leg, then raise the suspension arm to take the weight off the joints - this allows better penetration of the grease.

The twin nipple trunnions are supplied by the Morris Minor Centre (Birmingham) and are worth every penny. They actually have the original nipple plus two additional ones. Having filled the trunnion with grease on assembly, and then pumped the original nipple until grease came out of the seals, both extra nipples took a few more strokes of the gun before grease csme out of the seals.