Wife wanted to drive her Apache to work after we were headed to breakfast at a local joint. Was following her down a secondary road when all of a sudden it looked like she threw a cigarette out the bottom of the truck! (she don't smoke). Turned out the upper left bracket the shock bolts to broke clean off. I ran home in car I was following her with and retrieved a tool box and removed the shock from the truck and she drove it back home no problems. Upon further investigating I see the other one is cracked in same fashion. After looking online a bit I see different looking brackets for replacement but they dont look anything like mine. Mine are flat metal with the pin for the shock mounted 90deg. at the top. Three rivets hold the flat portion to the frame. The ones online look like they have two rivet holes that mount to the top of the frame. Are these a better style stronger way to go? Should I just weld mine back in place and weld over the other cracked one? I might be able to add a reinforcement plate to the inside across the stressed area.
Any help or light shedding on this subject is greatly appriciated!
Even if you have had this happen before post here please
Thanks RK ie.my apologies. I thought driveline meant engines/transmissions/rearends?
Last edited by Roadking53; 03/02/20196:51 PM. Reason: pictures
Bolting or welding anything to a frame flange can create stress risers that can lead to frame cracks. I'd suggest making a 1/4" thick reinforcing plate that fits inside the cracked/broken pieces, drilling and bolting it in place, and then welding over the cracks. That way, no frame alterations are made, and you've got a stronger than original part on both sides. Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
I wouldn't be afraid of welding the bracket back together while it's riveted to the frame. There shouldn't be enough heat transfer to the frame itself to affect the strength. If you did that, you might want to reinforce the bracket a bit around the welded area. But like Jerry said, don't weld on the frame.
Kevin 1951 Chevy 3100 work truck Follow this saga in Project Journal Photos 1929 Ford pickup restored from the ground up. | 1929 Ford Special Coupe (First car) Busting rust since the mid-60's If you're smart enough to take it apart, you darn well better be smart enough to put it back together.
I hope you cn get that fixed easy! In wondering how the brackets could break, I’m thinking a past owner who drove a rough road for a very long time, had put on extra stiff shocks and kept them maintained that way, and that exceded the engineered strength of the bracket. With constant flexing for a long time ...... Just a considered guess. I agree with Kevin, the heat of welding in place on the bracket wouldn’t heat up the frame enough to make stress spots. Might be easier to do on the bench, though. Re- riveting the bracket to the frame would be a fun job! Take an old sledge hammer head(annealed)drill or machine a recess on the face that fits the rivet head nicely, and use this for a buck. Have the truck’s owner hold this while you peen the other end nice and tight. Get the rivet fairly red hot first. At least the little end. Or, you could switch ends with the owner, so she won’t feel like you are undervaluing her skills. Got to keep peace in the marriage! Might pay off.
~Charley 1954 Chevy 3100 with 235 “Bud” Follow along in the DITY 1963 Chevy half ton stepside short box 230 1954 GMC 3 ton 302 And several more Chevy camper and work trucks 1979 1987 1996
You might check if the correct shocks were used. If they didn't have the proper travel, they would have put stress on the bracket. Otherwise, they shouldn't have reached full travel.
RK, Had the exact same problem on my '58 Apache and was broken when I got the truck. And rather than a crack on the mount that was intact it had already been welded some time before I acquired when I got the beast (no idea how long it had been that way but it evidently held for some time). Guessing they both were not welded because the shock and portion of one mount was lost when the damage was done.
Experienced the same thing you did when trying to find something new - nothing that is correct. I watched eBay for several months and got lucky finding two NOS mounts for a very good price (too long ago to remember but under $20 for both). Ground the rivets off and plan on attaching with bolts when I finally get around to putting shocks on. I'd guess someone really hit a dip/curb/pothole really hard to compress the shocks completely and transfer additional forces on the shock mounts.
If too-long shocks are installed, hitting any hard bump could compress them fully and put excessive strain on the mounting brackets. You could also use the existing brackets as a pattern and duplicate the mounts in flat steel plate. The shoulder bolts the shocks mount to are available, and as long as they fit the rubber bushings in the ends of the shocks, they don't really care what vehicle they're on. Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
Thanks fellas! I will check out that auction for sure. Thanks for the part numbers too! All I could find initially is those top frame mounts. Not sure if I could make those work or not.
The shocks are gas, and the PO. replaced them before I purchased the truck. So, I didn't think to look there. The P.O. owns operates a 18wheeler truck repair business. I figured He looked at things. Thats what I get for assuming eh?
Broken shock brackets are common on AD trucks and they make replacement ones, I thought they did for task force too. Mine had a coil over shock and that was the reason it broke, I'm sure. Stay away from these types of shocks, they have no reason to be there.
1953 Chevrolet 3100 261 cu inch, sm420, 3.55 rear, torque tube still,omaha orange, still 6 volt, RPO green glass, side carrier spare, all done In the DITY Gallery Video of the 261 running
1964 GMC 1000 305 Big Block V6, sm420, the next cab off restoration
Yeah I saw that last night. Did not know it was called shills? Its worth the 37 its at right now. in fact its worth about double that to me but not more than that. If it goes higher I will just resort to welding my old ones.
Ahhhhh AD= Advance design (of the era). That answers a lot including task force question. Kinda backwards inasmuchas meant to be a work truck but appeal to city slickers as well.
Just to muddy the waters a little (I'm good at that!)- - - - -"AD" is also used on occasion to describe stovebolt trucks from the late 1930's and early 40's- - - - - -the "Art Deco" trucks. That's why the A-D description with the hyphen might be worth using. Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
Well here's an update. y'all know I won the ebay bid for those parts right? I've been watching the tracking number on USPS (Untied States Postal Service). On thier website. I had not received the parts as of March 16 (Sat). Checked USPS again Sunday morning and they posted resident refused delivery!!!!!!!!! I was home all friggin day!!!! Thier site said returned to sender!
I contacted the seller on ebay. He said He'd let me know when they showed up and will resend them via UPS or Fedex.
As an Ebay Seller and Buyer I offer this advise to you: Don't be Mr Nice Guy, immediately contact Ebay Customer Service and file a not recieved item report to cover or recover your loss.
There is not a tool made that if you don't try hard enough you can't break! 1952 3100 261 T5 3.08 Gov Locker
Well guess what? The post office delivered an empty torn open box back to the sender !!!!! He sent me pictures of it Its no wonder they wouldn't deliver it to me.
The seller wants me to ask ebay for a refund
I think the seller should have insured the package and should send me a refund and get his money back from the post office.
He informed me that this is the 3rd package that the USPS has destroyed that He sent in the last two weeks.
Man that sucks. Those parts are likely gone forever.
The seller has some responsibility in this to package stuff sufficiently well to survive a trip thru the mail. I've sent quite a few odd shaped and relatively heavy items similar to those shock mounts successfully. The boxes need to be reinforced. You can't just throw them in an unreinforced cardboard box. Heck, I even sent myself 50lb of scrap lead from CA to AK in a flat rate box, but I doubled the box up and filled the empty space with more cardboard, and use fiberglass reinforced packing tape. It survived intact with just a few surface blemishes. Probably got a few curses from the postal carrier though.
Kevin 1951 Chevy 3100 work truck Follow this saga in Project Journal Photos 1929 Ford pickup restored from the ground up. | 1929 Ford Special Coupe (First car) Busting rust since the mid-60's If you're smart enough to take it apart, you darn well better be smart enough to put it back together.
The boxes not only need to be reinforced, but, the contents need to be surrounded with enough bubble-wrap/etc such that the contents do not burst-through the sides/ends of the box when the shippers throw the box around.
I received a Silver Book in a Priority Mail box - the book had flimsy plastic around it. The end of the box was spread open, and the binder on the book was broken - because it moved rather easily inside the box.
Other Silver Book shippers much more carefully packed in the same box - no damage on the book inside, but a little crumpling of the box on the outside.
You don't really need to know the correct length of shock. You just need to buy the correct shock. Go to Rockauto. Look up 1958 NOT 1959. I see plenty of part numbers to order from them or use elsewhere. Also, several of our normal vendors carry the shock.
Info seems to indicate extended length= 20 1/4, Compressed length= 12 3/8
Not a good idea for us to post part numbers. They change, become obsolete or we could error. This post will be viewed many years from now. Up to you to search and find what number is in stock, as per my above. Rockauto, Classic Truck Parts of America, Jim Carter, Napa, Summit................Autozone, O'Reillys, whatever. Learn to search for parts on the internet. That's what we all had to learn. Make an effort. If you can't find, then post again. Old part numbers from old parts books are NO GOOD.
I surely did not know all that stuff I just posted . Had to look it all up for you. Glad to help but; "look it up for him for one part or teach him to search and find parts for a lifetime."
Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it. - William Penn
