Hello all, first post here. I've been watching this forum for awhile when preparing for my first recovery of a 1969 M35a2 Kaiser. We managed to get it back in one piece this fall after a seven hour total drive. No major mechanical issues thanks to y'all. We knew what to look for and what to take care of before take off.
Anyway, the ol' girl developed a problem sometime after we got it settled in at home. One day I took it out for a run (not its first run since home) and noticed an unexpected problem with the steering. When turning corners, it feels as if it may be in 6x6 when it shouldn't be is the best way to described it. The steering wheel and truck will start to rock side to side as if the front diff or u-joints are binding. What's interesting is some day's are worse than others. Also when making turns, I hear a "clank clank" one time on either side from the front end after coming out of a turn. You can feel it in the floorboards as well. The side the sound comes from seems to coordinate with the direction you're turning. Was thinking maybe the springs or something creaking but it sounds really loose metal on metal. Can't see anything loose ...yet. Not sure if that sound has anything to do with this issue but it does need to be taken care of. One particular run stepped over the safety line when suddenly the steering wheel got jammed just when needing to come out of a turn, nearly took the whole dang rig down a creek. So now the steering wheel is hard to return back to center. But it doesn't do this all the time and frees up a bit after a few turns??? Thank goodness it broke free at the last second and I was able to recover and stay on the road. It never did any of this during the whole trip down with many turns and curving roads. Later on I helped a friend pull out some palm trees. With the air switch in the 6x6 position on a flat driveway, we did verify that the transfer did engage into 6x6 but I failed to notice if it disengaged before we no longer had a tree left. At one point when the work was done, I disengaged the 6x6 and pulled forward, it sounded and felt like something was binding in the front end then the truck rolled freely again. I feel that I need to get the whole rig in the air and verify how the TC is engaging and see what's binding in the front end with the wheels turned. I don't have a way to do this at this moment. For starters I may just hook it to a tree and verify for sure if the 6x6 is in fact disengaged like it should be. Just wondering if anyone has ever had something this odd occur or I just need to do some exploratory surgery. I may end up flipping the truck over for sale but not in any hurry. I still don't want to get too in depth with it. Don't mind maintenance and repairs. But don't have all necessary tools for heavy weight jobs yet. Any info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Anyway, the ol' girl developed a problem sometime after we got it settled in at home. One day I took it out for a run (not its first run since home) and noticed an unexpected problem with the steering. When turning corners, it feels as if it may be in 6x6 when it shouldn't be is the best way to described it. The steering wheel and truck will start to rock side to side as if the front diff or u-joints are binding. What's interesting is some day's are worse than others. Also when making turns, I hear a "clank clank" one time on either side from the front end after coming out of a turn. You can feel it in the floorboards as well. The side the sound comes from seems to coordinate with the direction you're turning. Was thinking maybe the springs or something creaking but it sounds really loose metal on metal. Can't see anything loose ...yet. Not sure if that sound has anything to do with this issue but it does need to be taken care of. One particular run stepped over the safety line when suddenly the steering wheel got jammed just when needing to come out of a turn, nearly took the whole dang rig down a creek. So now the steering wheel is hard to return back to center. But it doesn't do this all the time and frees up a bit after a few turns??? Thank goodness it broke free at the last second and I was able to recover and stay on the road. It never did any of this during the whole trip down with many turns and curving roads. Later on I helped a friend pull out some palm trees. With the air switch in the 6x6 position on a flat driveway, we did verify that the transfer did engage into 6x6 but I failed to notice if it disengaged before we no longer had a tree left. At one point when the work was done, I disengaged the 6x6 and pulled forward, it sounded and felt like something was binding in the front end then the truck rolled freely again. I feel that I need to get the whole rig in the air and verify how the TC is engaging and see what's binding in the front end with the wheels turned. I don't have a way to do this at this moment. For starters I may just hook it to a tree and verify for sure if the 6x6 is in fact disengaged like it should be. Just wondering if anyone has ever had something this odd occur or I just need to do some exploratory surgery. I may end up flipping the truck over for sale but not in any hurry. I still don't want to get too in depth with it. Don't mind maintenance and repairs. But don't have all necessary tools for heavy weight jobs yet. Any info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
