Broken Kingpin

[Uli-RT]

that happend in dec2012 in Albania:











Far away of any infrastructure.

Four years ago I changed the lower kingpin bearing. The original parts were not available so I changed to a kingpin reversion kit which uses the Landrover tappered roller bearing. That wasn´t a good Idea because the bad roads of Albania killed them. If there is a little bearing clearance every road hole is like a blow of a hammer. And finally the bolt broke.
So I changed back to original rebuild parts which are now available.

What I want to say: check bearing clearance of the knuckle !

[M Wehrman]

Were you able to fix it on the trail? I see it torn apart....

[Uli-RT]

We were able to fix it. In a secluded village we showed the broken bolt to our albanian helper. After ten minutes he came back with a old rusty bolt, nearly the same size, he found at a old Robur LO2002 (Unimog of the GDR).

It wasn´t very trustworthy, but to get back down to the valley in the next major town it was ok.
Back in town I ordered a "new" unbroken bolt in Germany. It took 4 days an 150,--EURO to get it from Germany to Albania.

With the new bolt we were able to go on our way home back to Germany (1800km).
Back in Germany I had to disassemble all again to replace the boots, bearings and to repair the twisted driveshaft.

The whole story of our Journey you can see here:
http://www.c303.de/c303-forum/index.php ... 1#msg89461
http://www.c303.de/c303-forum/index.php ... 6;start=80
It is in Geman, but a lot of pictures.

Some more impressions:

In the background you can see the lake ohrid and the mountains of Mazedonien


Main road across Lura Nationalpark

[bonefish635]

What's the camo truck in that last pic? A Ural?

Tony

[mopar]

What's the camo truck in that last pic? A Ural?

Tony

Looking at the tailights and fuel filler can it looks like a C304 with an ambulance box.
Here some pics of one on another forum:

http://www.russianmilitarytrucks.com/ph ... f=4&t=1090


Good Job on the repair and being able to get home and do it right. What is your source for the new bearing and parts?

[Uli-RT]

... the camo truck is a C304 Ambulance.

The parts for the Volvo you get here:
http://www.lehmann-ft.de/index.php?page ... 01&kat=005

[HafWit]

Thanks for that link. That is a new parts source I was not aware of.

Cheers,
Greg

[mopar]

Nice source for the parts. How's their disc brake conversion?

[M Wehrman]

I too liked the 6x6 as it's like mine! Like the camo job! BTW is it possible to get a measurement of the kingpin bolt? Might be nice to carry a generic hardened bolt for survival purposes.. Great pics!
Mark

[Uli-RT]

... the disc brake conversion is only for offroad use. It is not street legal. So there are not many experiences of it.

To fix the broken bolt for survival purposes you can use any bolt with nearly the same diameter, but not larger , as the origianl one.
Like I did. The bolt is only there to keep everything in place while the wheel lift up. The upper bolt is only to keep the knuckle bearing ball in place. It does not fix anything of the knuckle itself.
If you dríve very slow, and keep the wheel on the ground it would be possible to drive without bolt; but thats only for a real case of emergency.