Simplicity Susoension Servicing

Hi Lance,

I believe there were some pivot blocks that tended to wear quicker than others. Pivot blocks from about 2006m onwards had a better wear characteristics. I travel a lot of dirt, usually with an overloaded van, & have not experienced any abnormal wear since then.

Changing pivot blocks is not difficult. I had my first experience in Alice Springs five years ago. At that stage, all I had was a few notes Bob Pollock had placed on the BOG website, & absolutely NO previous experience. Spare pivot blocks were sent by Steve at Bushtracker and all I needed was a pair of axle stands to use during the changeover. I could have borrowed these from a local service station, but elected to buy a set. Following Bobs instructions, the changeover was no problem.
To complicate things, one of the blocks had worn to such a degree that the bolt had stuffed the bush on the chassis. I contacted the factory about this, & Steve emailed a drawing of this bush. It was then a simple matter of finding an engineering shop in Alice Springs to make one up. This was done at about 2pm and they were able to make the bush & weld it on at the caravan park at 9am the next day.
There were a number of BT's at the caravan park, & Pat still talks about every time she looked out the window of our BT there was another set of legs sticking out from under it. We all learnt a bit from that experience.


Now we have detailed descriptions with photos to go with each step of the change-out procedure on the BOG Bible.

Get a set from BT or Hauffe, & have a go!
Alternately, use the instructions from the BOG Bible, & find a mechanic to jack up the BT & do the job for you. You really don't need a specialist.


Neil

Hi Lance

We just ring Richard at Hauffe & Co in Melbourne and he posts out new spring seats (pivot blocks) or freights out other parts to where ever we are. He now has an updated record of our suspension, as a previous owner had made changes with parts sourced outside of Hauffe and Co. He had our original specifications from the suspension number but changes had been made over the years. 'Rob n son' has put up the instruction sheet with photos for chaning the blocks in the documents section making the job simple to tackle. Worn blocks can cause additional bouncing, wear and damage. Like you, ours were good when checked when we left in 2008, but when it all came unstuck, the blocks were worn and one completely degraded. We now carry spares.

Motherhen

I 1st changed our pivot blocks within a year of owning the van, they were well worn but had not damaged the seat. I fitted some spring retainer brackets and it has taken a further three years ofconstant travel before I changed them out again.

This I did with the help of a mate just the other day, Be warned that just getting under the van and eye balling the pivot blocks is not enough. Ours looked ok but dropping the springs showed they were close to damaging the seat. For us the hardest part was getting the pivot block out of the spring pack, we ended up having to dismantle the spring pack.

Thank you all for the advice and details of your experiences. I will get the parts sent over and follow the directions in the BOG bible.

One thing the purchase of a Bushtracker has done/ is doing for me is stretching my mechanical and general handyman abilities.

The intercooler in my 2010 F350 blew up 30 kms out of Kalgoorlie last week as our trip came to an end - same day as our batteries in the van died. My replacement intercooler arives tomorrow and I am going to fit it myself. I would not have tried that a couple of years ago.

Lance

Murphy says if things go wrong for us, it will be somewhere remote - like 90 kms from Warburton, Jupiter Well or 200 kms east of the Stuart Highway - and a few others. So it is him and me - lucky he is resourceful!

Motherhen