Rust and Exploding Driveshafts

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Jun 21, 2018 | 10:55 AM

#31

4Wheelgreg

Mountain Pass

Joined: Feb 2018

Posts: 134

Likes: 5

I have it on the list of things to do to my F450 painting the Driveshaft , blows my mind that Ford Cheaped out on painting a lot of chassis components. Its amazing how many parts in these Trucks are made in China and old recycled steel .
I am going to paint most of the underside of the Truck with Pro-15 just to slow the rust .
Its amazing I have a same year GMC 3500 I use in the winter but do hose off the chassis after Salt and Snow days , the truck still looks like new .
The 2016 F-450 was run by the previous owner for one winter , I got the truck with 12k , has a nice coat of rust on all exposed steel and chalking of Aluminum including all the seams on the bottom of the body can see where is wants to rust .
Its just not the DriveShaft but sucks you spend all the money and have to fix Fords mistakes where they cut corners .

Jun 21, 2018 | 12:11 PM

#32

texastech_diesel

Token Redneck

Joined: Jun 2007

Posts: 9,335

Likes: 343

From: Breckenridge, TX

Quote:

Originally Posted by FractureCritical

So I've gone about cleaning up my new (to me) Superduty and the first order of business was to pull the plow off of it. It came with the plow and I didn't want or need it. When I pulled the back brace off the frame mount, a chunk of the frame horn behind the front spring shackle cam with it. It looks like the inside of the boxed section of the frame rotted out.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...orn-issue.html

Quote:

Originally Posted by FractureCritical

The locking hub was seized and rusted solid into the wheel hub. The nuts on the ball joints were gone to the point that I had to use a cutting wheel to get them apart and get the knuckle off. I spent another hour trying to separate the wheel hub from the knuckle and failed at that, too.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ront-axle.html

Quote:

Originally Posted by FractureCritical

You can call out my truck for being old, and it is, but it's lived a charmed, low mile life.

It had a SNOW PLOW on it. There is not a single thing charmed about it's life. My ten year old truck isn't a rusted pile of garbage; it started life in Colorado well dipped in mag chloride, and gets to enjoy a salt bath in Illinois every winter. But I took care of it, unlike the previous owner of this aforementioned plow truck.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slowpoke Slim

And you knew over a year ago that your truck was rusted very badly. What have you done to your truck since then to try and mitigate/repair/reduce the rust damage that you knew was there? Any other potentially hazardous rust areas on your truck that you're currently ignoring? Like brakes (backing plates, brackets, master cylinder, brake lines, calipers)? Are you going to wait until one of those fails before performing any repair action on them too? And then blame Ford for that, claiming criminal-blah-blah, class action-blah-blah then too?

Concur. He bought a rust bucket. Parts are literally falling off the rust bucket. What's it going to take for him to realize that they're probably going to keep falling off at this point?

Jun 21, 2018 | 05:04 PM

#33

Desert Don

Hotshot

Joined: Oct 2006

Posts: 10,137

Likes: 7,950

From: Texas

Quote:

Originally Posted by texastech_diesel

Fracture has been complaining about rust since he got here. He bought a used PLOW TRUCK to replace a Toyota, then proceeds to complain about how it was previously treated before he chose to buy it. Lots of blaming Ford when there was an indeterminate amount of abuse before he bought the truck. He bought a rusted out turd and he's dealing with it by blaming Ford.

Plus it's not like there were no warning signs that maybe corrosion could be an issue on this truck:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...orn-issue.html

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ront-axle.html

It had a SNOW PLOW on it. There is not a single thing charmed about it's life. My ten year old truck isn't a rusted pile of garbage; it started life in Colorado well dipped in mag chloride, and gets to enjoy a salt bath in Illinois every winter. But I took care of it, unlike the previous owner of this aforementioned plow truck.

Concur. He bought a rust bucket. Parts are literally falling off the rust bucket. What's it going to take for him to realize that they're probably going to keep falling off at this point?

Thank You. As I previously stated.....maybe the whole truck needs to be scrapped! It does happen........especially when used and abused like his!

Jun 21, 2018 | 07:07 PM

#34

fordman19762003

Cargo Master

Joined: Jul 2003

Posts: 3,358

Likes: 250

It's all about age in the rust belt, not miles. It sucks that the driveshaft rusted through but the truck is 17yrs old and spent most of it's life as a plow truck that was out when the conditions and salt were worst and judging from OP's other threads it wasn't taken care of very well by the original owner.

I wish vehicles would last longer but with all the deicing stuff put on the roads these days it doesn't surprise me that stuff rots out as quickly as it does. Plus if vehicles would last 20+ years without any rust issues people would never get rid of them and buy new which isn't good business for the manufacturers.

Jun 21, 2018 | 09:53 PM

#35

finn

More Turbo

Joined: Dec 2003

Posts: 585

Likes: 11

From: Upper penninsula

At a certain age, plow trucks become yard trucks, especially if they had salt spreaders in the bed.

Mileage is irrelevant. First the bed, rockers, and cab corners go, then the fuel and brake lines, and the emission lines and fittings. The door bottoms, cab supports, brake backing plates, exhaust system, oil pan, caliper slides, fuel tank straps, and, yes, even the drive shafts and frames fail.

After a few years as yard trucks they become parts trucks. Eventually they are scrapped.

His truck is a 19 year old plow truck. It’s on a death march, slowly but surely. Same as any other plow truck, from any other manufacturer.

Let it go if you can’t deal with it.

Jun 22, 2018 | 06:29 AM

#36

TooManyToys.

Hotshot

Joined: Dec 2014

Posts: 17,824

Likes: 3,104

From: Jersey Shore

Agree. In our test work occasionally we had to buy used vehicles to have the correct brake system. We needed a OBS 350, found one after a month of looking around for the correct WB and drivetrain. It was the only one. Nice paint. I did mention it was the only one. It was a plow truck from NY, sold at auction in PA and landed in NJ.

We had to replace all the brake lines, the twin fuel tanks (dealer had them in stock, who would have thunk), we couldn’t put our test weight frame in the bed without work, suspension parts HAD to be replaced, on and on. Taking the bed liner out for the weight frame caused a gathering of all employees. It was the only one we found but I vowed under no circumstances would we ever buy a plow truck again.

Jun 22, 2018 | 02:38 PM

#37

finn

More Turbo

Joined: Dec 2003

Posts: 585

Likes: 11

From: Upper penninsula

This thread remind me of my uncle’s old 65 Galaxie that he bought new and drove as his only vehicle until 1972 when it became his work car. He kept up on the brake lines, exhaust, fuel lines, and external body panels until one day he got up to go to work and found the frame lying on the ground under the car. That was the end.

The car was about twelve years old at that point.

Other makes had similar issues.

rust isn’t a new issue.

Jun 23, 2018 | 07:04 AM

#38

NewEnglandHerdsman

Lead Driver

Joined: Jul 2004

Posts: 5,946

Likes: 62

From: in the woods of MA

Had the same thing happen to my 2006. "Fortunately" for me it was the front shaft, slow speed, while plowing. I have pictures somewhere, can't find them right now, but exactly the same thing - tube rusted to the point where it was too thin to stand up to the torque. Bang.