I've snapped my torque rod for second time around one of welded ends. Both times its caused rear airbags to blow. Tandem Axle Fld120 ,This rod is made from hollow tubing , center to center length 24" ,between bolts 4 1/4". what options do i have ? . 2000 FLD120
Well sisnce no else has jumped in I guess I will give it a shot. I guess I would ask if there is a defect in the rods you are using ? Are they aftermarket or OEM ? If they are aftermarket then I would try OEM. Is this happening off road or on? Maybe you are a little to rough on your truck ? I don't know..:beatsme What kind of suspension do you have ?
i'm using air liner suspension (air bag). The rod is OEM. Truck does light off road work. I will try one of aftermarket rigid torque rods and see what happens.
torque rods will break or pound the bushings out if there is too much play in the suspension. Either worn out bushings or too light a frame/crossmember spec for a vocational application(ie converted highway truck)
Agreed, the first time, who knows why it broke, the second is reason to take it to a suspension shop for a diagnosis. The guy at the parts counter will be able to tell you if its a problem part, there are too many of them around for him not to have noticed if he is selling alot of them. We had a similar situation with MACK. The coolant resivore cracked on one of our new trucks at 20k miles. Replaced it, at 50 it cracked again. When replacing it the parts guy mentioned how they are considering just sending for a pallat of them from mack since shipping them individually was so expensive... It was then that we knew we did not have a problem truck, but a problem design. Mack eventually revised the part and cured the problem. by the time it was done, all but 3 of the 29 identical tractors needed the tank replaced by 75k miles. I just happen to be in one of them that had the first to blow. Its a plastic pressureized tank that has a poor shape for a pressure vessel.
Those rods used to be called radius rods and they look like very light duty parts to me. They might be designed for over the road applications and even light duty off road exposure could be too much strain on them. I would snoop around their sales lot and see what the heavier duty trucks are using for reference and that might change your expectations.I would not expect to see air bags on the drive axles of a truck designed for off road duty.Ron G
Limit your hard turns when loaded. Be careful when you have to come back on pavement from dirt. Our drivers usually bend break or pop them out of the bushings. Found to mush side stress from turning very tight when loaded in dirt. Tires have no way to slide in the dirt.
Up here we used to get them in 2 pieces and cut the rod to length. Put the rod in the sleeve & weld them together. I got them from the local HD spring shop for the 44,000 hendrickson suspension & rockwell rears. The ends were solid rod and cast / forged as 1 piece. The were not tubing or hollow in any way. We needed heavy stuff because were in & out of the landfill all day.
Replaced them on Mack 38,000 rears and they were solid steel and I cut to fit same as camera. scott