I always say a bad day hunting is better that a good day at work. Well, I'm not so sure anymore. Saturday I was out with my son, had checked a couple of areas but hadn't seen many deer. We went to check out the river bottom when it happened. I was turning into a hunting access parking lot when the rear of the Bronco lurched up in the air and slammed down. At first I thought the game cart fell off the carrier, but when I looked in the side mirror, I saw the tire and wheel sitting on the ground. The brake drum was rolling through the fence and the brake shoes and springs were all over the road. The one thing I didn't find was any lug nuts, not a one.

The wheel studs were stripped some and all the brake hardware was laying right there. I had put 150 miles on the Bronco that morning before this happened, thankfully it didn't happen on the highway. I put the brakes back together, improvising on one of the spring keepers, it was broken. I also bent the bottom of the backing plate to make it somewhat round again and tried to put the brake drum on, it wouldn't go, it was binding against the shoes. I got looking a little closer and found the front brake shoe was bent but was able to get it straightened out some. Once the drum fit on again, I robbed one lug nut each from the other wheels and the two from the spare and got the wheel back on. The lug nuts all tightened down without free spinning. While I was putting the wheel back on, my neighbor happened to drive by. He took my son with him to do a little more hunting while I finished my temp repairs.

At this point, I drove the Bronco at slow speeds on the access road, checking brake operation and rechecking the lug nuts. Everything was working and the lug nuts stayed tight. I then limped the bronco the 30 miles home. Stopped several times and rechecked everything and adjusted my mirror to watch the tire for any wobbles. It worked perfectly and the Bronco is parked in my driveway waiting for permanent repairs.

I don't know why I lost the lug nuts on that wheel, or what caused them to loosen up. I always use a torque wrench on my wheels whenever I work on my vehicles. I can't remember the last time I had that wheel off, but it's been awhile. The moral of this story is to check your lug nuts!

 

OMG That suucks! Wow i cante believe that. That rear quarter is smoked. Il be rite back imma go check my lug nuts haha. Well thanks for the info! PS. I think i would rather been at work lol.

 

geez thats awfull... this would have happened to me once but I felt the tire wobble that resulted when the lug nuts became loose. The bronco I was driving at the time was an 1988 that I later wrecked in a car accident. You are lucky this didn't happen at highway speeds.

 

Yea that sucks. I had the nuts come off the front wheel on my old scout, but the wheel stayed on becuse of the hub. It vibrated like hell.

 

So, did your kid get a deer?

 

Not Yet, he had a shot at a doe but he missed. I replaced the wheel studs and brake hardware on the Bronco yesterday and it's drivable again. I'm going to take my son out today and sight in his gun again, he fell on the ice yesterday morning while we were hunting and smacked his scope pretty good. Later in the morning he had a shot at a nice buck but shot over his back. We fired a couple of test shots and it's shooting high. Were going back out again tomorrow.

 

Clean that rust off the mounting surfaces it shouldn't have that much surface rust
on the drum or the axle end. It will never be truly tight with that there since when
you tighten it down you crush it then it crushes a bit more so the lugs end up being loose and it could be 100 miles or 5000 etc. when they do get loose!! A bit of grease
or some phosphoric acid and navl jelly and a layer of grease will prevent that rust
from causing it in the future. Even dirt on that mounting surface will cause you to
never have a truly tight wheel, It is imperitive to have clean mounting surface before
torquing your wheels on. A bit of silver antisieze on them lug nuts will keep scale rust
off the threads which results in a loose threaded connection!!

 

Man that really sucks, and she's a Eddie B too! I'd be havin a stroke since it wrinkled the rear qarter. Ive splt a drum, busted a rotor, and locked up a rearend & T-case, and always happens when your um-teen miles away from home too. Never can happen just going to the store. glad you got her back together. I wonder if someone had loosened them up on ya. And its strange it didn't give any fair warrning what was happening. Just glad no one got hurt. oh and hang one up!

Keep Em' Twistin'! Bob B.

Bronco Stables: 89 thru 96 / XLT / Eddie B / BR II
http://www.supermot<WBR>ors.net/vehicles<WBR>/registry/<WBR>15608

 

The last two days have been much better. My 12 year old son got a 4x3 Mule Deer yesterday. This morning, my daughter shot a 5x5 Whitetail and I filled my doe tag. The Bronco is working great again.

 

Its definetly got something to do with hunting in Montana!
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/6...y-hunting.html

last I had the wheels off this truck was putting the rear disks on... about 3 months ago...