Leaving San Quintin two days ago I drove over a very high "Tope" ( speed bump)at less than 5 MPH.
Instantly I felt the coach wobbling at the rear so I slowly pulled onto the dirt and stopped.
The passenger side wheel on the tag axle was pointing out at 45 degrees !!! A quick inspection revealed a threaded rod end had pulled clean out of the radius rod threaded inboard end.
Lifting the tag axle I drove 100 feet to a Mexican Electrical Repair shop.
Pedro confirmed the problem and hired a 'Mechanico' to remove the tapered outboard end ball joint and the stripped inboard rod end. After a long wait the soldura/machine shop in San Quintin were forced to weld the two dethreaded parts exactly where they fit together so the alignment would not be affected.
The mechanico then reinstalled the whole assembly. This was all made possible by my 'Wagon Master',
John Smith from
www.bajawinters.com who speakes fluent spanish. The total bill including the machine shop welding ,part search as far as Ensenada and 3 hours labour was $250 US !!!
The problem in finding a replacement rod end was that the one that pulled out of the rod was reverse threaded. This enables the rod to be turned to adjust alignment evenly on both rod ends simultaneously.
I am now back in Desert Hot Springs . I was told the drivers side rod end is also loose. This may be because both inboard rod ends had no locking nuts thus allowing water to penetrate the threads !!
The part that pulled out of the rod is made by Sealmaster. Its part number is TREL 12.
I am now going to replace both asemblies on the tag axle which is basically a steering axle with radius rods instead of a steering box etc. This will lead me to inspecting the steering axle up front for any issues as well.
If we had been travelling at 65 MPH on the roads we drove on from Cabo San Lucas when this happened Jane and I might be looking down on you all now !!
I would recommend all Beavers here with tag axles make a serious inspection of these parts as well as the tie rods etc on the steering axle.
Sealmaster state this rod end is good for 10,000 hours !!! It may not be !!! :-/