Dangers of buying stored vehicles

From: J. Lee (milveh@sbcglobal.net)
Date: Fri Jul 19 2002 - 20:14:40 PDT


I've seen a lot of goofy things wrenching around on vehicles, but this is
one for the books. The metalic brake pads sort of fused themselves right to
the rotors... as in welded in there tight! It took a heck of a lot of
pounding, a lot of WD40, a lot more pounding and a lot more prying and still
more WD40 and still more pounding not to mention the words of encouragement
to get it loose, to finally get the pads broke free where I could pull em.

Once I did and I inspected both rotors, I noted they both had identical deep
pitting marks where the rust had formed the perfect outline of the pad. The
pad had eaten right into the steel, apparently by being pressed tight
against it for the last 3 years.

The rotors will clean up ok after turning and I will rebuild the brake
calipers, but this is just one of the goofy things that can happen when
vehicles sit too long. The engine was near new, really great looking
Chrysler, but it would only turn a half revolution, not a full rotation.
During the tear down I found almost no wear on the cylinder walls, pistons
like new, all the parts were great, save for one little thing. Mmoisture
got in and rusted a few spots on one cylinder wall, just deep enough to make
it worthless, doesn't take much rust in that area to ruin an engine. I
could sleeve it, but I can also drop another complete surplus engine in for
about $150, so I probably will do that instead.

If you are wondering what am I working on, I can almost guarantee you never
heard of it, although it's an American military vehicle. Made for the Air
Force, it's a 6300 lb P-S-I tug. It should have been classified a 6300 lb
P-A-I-N.

L8r... Jack (blazing hot California) Lee



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