What is the reason for the left front shock mount failures on 90's buses?

[david brady]

Eric,



There's been a whole lot of discussion on this Forum

relative to the shock mount failure. You may want to

search the archives for "shock mount".



David Brady

'02 LXi, NC



Eric Perplies wrote:

When I discovered my front left shock absorber mount had failed
just before the Q rally in 08' I thought my experience was unique.
Evidently it was not. There seems to have been several similar failures
on 90's vintage buses. All of them appear to have occurred on the left
front shock mount. It might be both interesting as well as useful for
all of us that have experienced the failure as well as other interested
parties to discuss what had caused the failures. If there is a design
flaw we know we are on our own, of course. Right now it continues not
to be clear to me what caused the problem.



I realize that some of you have already discussed your failure. I do
hope you can participate in what may be on line troubleshooting. Let me
start out by discussing my failure.



Just before the Q rally in 08' the left front shock absorber mount on
my coach failed. The whole piece of metal on the frame of my bus was
pulled away from the frame, leaving the shock mount still connected to
the chunk of metal that was pulled away from the frame. CCW in
Riverside repaired the problem. They had extensive discussions with the
engineers at Ft. Valley. I will tell you that CCW was less that fully
communicative with me about what they discussed in their multiple phone
calls to Ft. Valley. Always say they "discussed the problem and
solution."



The fix was to weld a 1/2" plate to the area ripped out of my frame and
re-weld the still good shock mount back in position. (Caution: what I
am about to say is unreliable It looked to me as though the repair
shock mount was re-welded back in position just slightly lower than it
may have originally been located. When I asked CCW about the location
of the mount they said something like: "We put it back in where it
should have been." Never saying that they relocated it.



When I strongly suspect that the failure occurred on my bus is when I
traveled a poorly maintained road (US 30) between Chicago and Ft.
Wayne, IN. While along that roadway my bus developed a "squeak" coming
from what I thought was the right front of my bus. I could not see
anything wrong with the underside of the coach. I did not look at the
left upper shock mount. I was looking for at problem on the right side
of my coach. I took my coach to a big rig shop in Ft Wayne that did
among other things, front end work. They said everything looked fine.
On my trip from Ft. Wayne to Las Vegas I did a lot of inspections,
greasing and spraying of lubricate on the front right of the coach. I
even removed the Steer Safe. By the time I got to Sante Fe the noise
had stopped. When I went to put my Steer Safe back on in Las Vegas,
just before the 08 Q rally, I discovered the failed shock mount on the
left side of the coach.



(By the way, sorry for the long post.) The question still remains in my
mind: What caused the failure. I have been on many bad road in my life
with this coach. The road I was on when the "squeak" started was bad
but not ridiculously bad. I would hate to think that every time I might
ride a bad road that I may be replacing a shock mount.



Eric Perplies

96' 42' WBWL

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