Nigel1996
Registered User
Longtime lurker with a story I've decided is worth sharing.
Me and my Father headed out to the Oregon Coast for Riding at Sand Lake, driving my truck with one UTV on top and the toyhauler with another inside, total weight 21,650 lbs. Recently swapped the murdered E40D with a ZF5. Headed up Hwy 6 right as it starts to get steep, truck loses it's clutch. Yank the transmission out of gear and pull over in a wide gravel shoulder. Quickly determine that the line for the hydraulic clutch has melted on the driver exhaust manifold due to some particularly poor routing on my part. So there we are, no service, 30 miles from the nearest parts store, heavily loaded facing uphill on a busy highway with no way to shift. Well, I have a little flux welder I leave in my truck's utility box, an angle grinder, and a generator that we brought for camping. So end up cutting about 6 inch of chain out of the piece from the truck, and welding it between a 36 in prybar ran through the old T-case hole in the floorboard, and the transmission shift fork. Now, while I had a welder, for some reason putting a welding mask, gloves, and jacket in my truck slipped my mind. Welding overhead flux core without gloves or a mask is not something I recommend. Anyways, after tacking a little bolt onto the prybar to keep it up in the cab, we were ready to give shifting a shot. With my Father driving and using the prybar to depress the clutch, I shifted from the passenger seat. It worked, although my Father was worried about killing it to he had the engine redlined and dumped the clutch into 2nd, which never fully engaged and shook the entire truck so violently that I'll die still being amazing something didn't break. But, once we got the hang of a lever clutch and two person shifting, the rest of the drive to O'Reilly's in Tillamook was uneventful. There, a compression fitting, some DOT 4, a hacksaw and allen wrench were all the was required to patch the line, bleed the clutch, and drive on. All in all the entire repair added about 2 hours to the trip, an arc burn, and about $15.
Me and my Father headed out to the Oregon Coast for Riding at Sand Lake, driving my truck with one UTV on top and the toyhauler with another inside, total weight 21,650 lbs. Recently swapped the murdered E40D with a ZF5. Headed up Hwy 6 right as it starts to get steep, truck loses it's clutch. Yank the transmission out of gear and pull over in a wide gravel shoulder. Quickly determine that the line for the hydraulic clutch has melted on the driver exhaust manifold due to some particularly poor routing on my part. So there we are, no service, 30 miles from the nearest parts store, heavily loaded facing uphill on a busy highway with no way to shift. Well, I have a little flux welder I leave in my truck's utility box, an angle grinder, and a generator that we brought for camping. So end up cutting about 6 inch of chain out of the piece from the truck, and welding it between a 36 in prybar ran through the old T-case hole in the floorboard, and the transmission shift fork. Now, while I had a welder, for some reason putting a welding mask, gloves, and jacket in my truck slipped my mind. Welding overhead flux core without gloves or a mask is not something I recommend. Anyways, after tacking a little bolt onto the prybar to keep it up in the cab, we were ready to give shifting a shot. With my Father driving and using the prybar to depress the clutch, I shifted from the passenger seat. It worked, although my Father was worried about killing it to he had the engine redlined and dumped the clutch into 2nd, which never fully engaged and shook the entire truck so violently that I'll die still being amazing something didn't break. But, once we got the hang of a lever clutch and two person shifting, the rest of the drive to O'Reilly's in Tillamook was uneventful. There, a compression fitting, some DOT 4, a hacksaw and allen wrench were all the was required to patch the line, bleed the clutch, and drive on. All in all the entire repair added about 2 hours to the trip, an arc burn, and about $15.
