Dammit. This is worse than end of season cliffhangers.
CK5
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Northwoods exploring and stuck in the swamp
- Thread starter Blue85
- Start date
y5mgisi
1 ton status
Lol funny story telling with the cliff hangers.
I could tell a story almost exactly like this one, complete with diving for the winch. In fact I assume I did somewhere here. I did get water in the engine oil, but saved the engine.
But had a failure caused by that later, that I did not expect, and its something you need to watch for.
If you have a clutch type fan, odds are the fan clutch is going to fail soon. Not sure what it does, but with the fan stalled or almost stalled, and the engine running a long time, I think it blows the seal on the clutch.
All I know is, both times I spent some time with the fan in water, the clutch started leaking about a week or so later.
But had a failure caused by that later, that I did not expect, and its something you need to watch for.
If you have a clutch type fan, odds are the fan clutch is going to fail soon. Not sure what it does, but with the fan stalled or almost stalled, and the engine running a long time, I think it blows the seal on the clutch.
All I know is, both times I spent some time with the fan in water, the clutch started leaking about a week or so later.
Odd, I've spun a lot of water with my clutch fan in my 1990 K5, and it is still holding on.
Probably fail the next time I drive it now.
Martin
Probably fail the next time I drive it now.
Martin
I have the electric fans from a Windstar van. Only the bottom dipped in the water. I never heard them kick on, so either the engine was adequately cooled with ice water to not need them or the fuses popped. I should check that. This situation reminded me that I should put some kind of water-crossing bypass switch for them. I also thought about a direction reversal. This would be for crowded areas in the summer - to get the pedestrians away.
The next day I checked things out (after hunting all morning, of course). Both dipsticks looked perfect, battery voltages fine, but the engine wouldn't crank. I bridged the batteries together and pounded on the starter. Finally it turned, but wouldn't engage. I turned the engine a bit by hand and all was well, so I pulled the starter off. After hanging near the woodstove for a bit, water started running out of it. After the dripping slowed, I bolted it back on and the truck fired right up. Every U-joint was frozen, but with a little gas each gave its own "BANG" until I was rolling. Other than a noisy alternator bearing, everything seemed OK.
I gave up on any more hunting and headed out the following morning. It's hard to find parts on a Sunday (in the UP), but at least I would have time to deal with some stuff. The power steering pump was now really noisy and the fluid looked a little...well...brown. But I was rolling...
What you can't see in the pictures is that the bottom of the grill broke....from the ice. I had pulled 2" thick sheets of ice off the front axle after getting out of the hole. The whole thing must have been a sheet of that before I broke through.
I couldn't unlock the hubs when I reached pavement because the dials were like little ice-cubes. I couldn't find change for the car wash, but the drive to town thawed them enough to move. Good thing because my front driveshaft was vibing like crazy. I got to do some parking lot power steering flush using soda bottles, too. I could have headed West towards Escanaba to find a pump and an alternator, but it's a 1987 Corvette case alt. And the pump is for a TPI Camaro, pressed into a reservoir modified with a second return line (for the hydroboost brakes). So I might not find stuff anyway, didn't feel like messing with that pump and everything was working. So I just headed for home, drove and drove and everything was fine.
I made my flight out Monday morning, but didn't get to de-water the truck. Rear diff looked fine, front diff was questionable. Was gone all week.
The next weekend I drained the front diff. It didn't look milky or wet, just dirty. There's not a lot of use on that oil, so I assume it's a touch of pollution. Still need to look at the winch, front hubs and T-case. The vent lines for the axles, T-case and tranny are pulled up high near the cowl, but you can't count on seals working perfectly. It's hard to believe the winch didn't fill completely with water. It will be torn down in the next couple of days. Fortunately the solenoids are mounted high and dry on the core support.
I gave up on any more hunting and headed out the following morning. It's hard to find parts on a Sunday (in the UP), but at least I would have time to deal with some stuff. The power steering pump was now really noisy and the fluid looked a little...well...brown. But I was rolling...
What you can't see in the pictures is that the bottom of the grill broke....from the ice. I had pulled 2" thick sheets of ice off the front axle after getting out of the hole. The whole thing must have been a sheet of that before I broke through.
I couldn't unlock the hubs when I reached pavement because the dials were like little ice-cubes. I couldn't find change for the car wash, but the drive to town thawed them enough to move. Good thing because my front driveshaft was vibing like crazy. I got to do some parking lot power steering flush using soda bottles, too. I could have headed West towards Escanaba to find a pump and an alternator, but it's a 1987 Corvette case alt. And the pump is for a TPI Camaro, pressed into a reservoir modified with a second return line (for the hydroboost brakes). So I might not find stuff anyway, didn't feel like messing with that pump and everything was working. So I just headed for home, drove and drove and everything was fine.
I made my flight out Monday morning, but didn't get to de-water the truck. Rear diff looked fine, front diff was questionable. Was gone all week.
The next weekend I drained the front diff. It didn't look milky or wet, just dirty. There's not a lot of use on that oil, so I assume it's a touch of pollution. Still need to look at the winch, front hubs and T-case. The vent lines for the axles, T-case and tranny are pulled up high near the cowl, but you can't count on seals working perfectly. It's hard to believe the winch didn't fill completely with water. It will be torn down in the next couple of days. Fortunately the solenoids are mounted high and dry on the core support.
Awesome, just awesome.
Cool story Luke, I bet you will be telling that one for a long time. 
rampage
3/4 ton status
Nice read! Next time you come up here we should meet up! This story wasn't too far from our place...
One of the gas stations in that area sells postcards that read something like "The Seney Stretch - It's like driving through North Dakota twice!"
It's not actually too long of a stretch (the straight section is really just the 26ish miles from Seney to Shingleton), but it really does feel out of place in the land of winding forest roads. It's even fairly flat. You can see where you're going for miles at a time. Feels like a bit of Kansas was transplanted to the Northwoods. And then you get to the other end of it and it's back to normal winding forest roads again.
Wait. Nobody dies in this episode?
rampage
3/4 ton status
I'm still waiting to see if he had his toes amputated from frostbite. 
I'm not sure that we've completely ruled out death yet. We are still waiting for the frostbite answer...
I pulled off the left boot while driving back to camp. My feet were wet for at least 2 hours, but for a lot of that they were just kinda wet - leather boots walking in 5" of water. After slipping into the hole it was ice water squishing between the toes on every step. Ick. My passenger was sweating from all the heat - too bad! I wrang the water out of my socks and set them on a tire. The next day they were like rocks with Swamper tread. I couldn't stay awake past 9pm for a couple nights, but no frostbite and no pneumonia. 
It was about 20 degrees that day - could be worse.
It was about 20 degrees that day - could be worse.
I keep hoping for some kind of CK5 UP run. Actually, I think this trail could be incorporated into a good route. I just don't know when I could schedule it so that most of the interested guys would make it. I guess that's part of why I keep inviting CK5ers on UP Overland - at least it's a scheduled event with good turnout.
So both front hubs/wheel bearings looked fine. The grease seemed a little runny, but no signs of water or corrosion. How is this possible? Did I just evaporate it all out from hundreds of miles? All ball joints, TREs, DLEs and U-joints up front are re-lubed, but none of them looked bad at all. The only water I found was in the winch. I'm just looking for the right kind of grease for re-assembly.
The noisy alternator was actually from the rear bearing. It looks like the shaft has been wearing itself down in the bearing inner race, even though the bearing seems fine. I ground the end of the shaft into a hex shape to fit a cheap socket I cut off. The socket fits just right in the bearing race. I tack welded this to the shaft, so it should work just like new. Yet to fire it up, though.
The power steering pump seems to be overflowing. Maybe I just overfilled it when flushing. Hopefully it's not a sign of a bad check valve in the hydrobooster or something.
So both front hubs/wheel bearings looked fine. The grease seemed a little runny, but no signs of water or corrosion. How is this possible? Did I just evaporate it all out from hundreds of miles? All ball joints, TREs, DLEs and U-joints up front are re-lubed, but none of them looked bad at all. The only water I found was in the winch. I'm just looking for the right kind of grease for re-assembly.
The noisy alternator was actually from the rear bearing. It looks like the shaft has been wearing itself down in the bearing inner race, even though the bearing seems fine. I ground the end of the shaft into a hex shape to fit a cheap socket I cut off. The socket fits just right in the bearing race. I tack welded this to the shaft, so it should work just like new. Yet to fire it up, though.
The power steering pump seems to be overflowing. Maybe I just overfilled it when flushing. Hopefully it's not a sign of a bad check valve in the hydrobooster or something.
magik235
Still Alive
Good story and pictures.
We'd be up for a U.P. run. Almost made it this year, but the event filled up too fast (and I think we had some other conflict, too
). But we are definitely thinking about next year.
