09/07/2026
This week I’ve had this truck in for a few jobs. It originally came in to have a steering stabiliser kit fitted, the brakes checked over, and to investigate a coolant leak.
The steering stabiliser kit was a straightforward installation. While I was underneath the truck, I noticed one of the rear shock absorbers was missing a bolt and was just swinging free.
After turning the truck around, I spotted a fuel leak, which turned out to be a split fuel hose. While investigating that, I happened to notice I could see far more of the crankshaft than I should behind the harmonic balancer… a closer look revealed the crankshaft bolt was completely missing! 😳😳
So the job list quickly grew!
✅ Steering stabiliser kit fitted.
✅ Heater matrix bypassed, which cured the coolant leak into the cab. (The owner plans to remove the dashboard and replace the heater matrix at a later date.)
✅ New bolt fitted to the rear shock absorber.
✅ New solid copper fuel line fitted from front to back, with only two short sections of flexible fuel hose.
✅ Harmonic balancer removed, inspected and refitted with a new crankshaft bolt. Access was extremely tight, making it a challenge to clean and tap the threads, but thankfully the balancer seated back onto its taper correctly. A close one really!
While I was there, I also came across a few bits of wiring that I wasn’t happy with, so I took the opportunity to tidy those up as well.
It’s been a week of early starts to beat the heat, but it’s always satisfying finding and fixing the little issues before they become much bigger problems.
The truck has now gone back to its owner with a short list of items to keep an eye on in the future.
