You gotta be kidding me!

Happy Valentines Day!...and Happy Birthday to my little(snicker,snicker) brother Shawn.
Now that all the niceties are out of the way....

I have to say, I am no longer surprised by any of this. "One step forward two steps back" , "Two steps forward one step back"....I seem to see a recurrent theme, I'm really going to have to stop bringing up the fact that nothing runs smooth with Fillmore...it's a bit boring. On the positive side of the fodder for the Fillmore chronicles this weekend I got to the final stages of the installation of the rear diff on Sunday, that was after volunteering to help as a time keeper at the first annual West Bragg Creek Trail Association XC ski races where Jeff placed second in his age category, right behind his best bud Pete.

Ahhh, lookie lookie....doesn't that look nice? Everything lined up and bolted in place. A good glop of anti-seize goop on the bolts....ahhh does the heart good to see it!

 But not all is well...
"When trouble comes they come not in single spies but in battalions." -William Shakespeare
 Something does not look quite right here does it? No, No it does not!
What happened?...well allow to to fill you in. As I was tightening the passenger side U-bolt with nothing more than the 1 1/4" open ended wrench(thanks Dad)  I heard an ominous "pop" sound. I blew it off thinking that it was just one of the threads popping past the lower plate as I tightened the nut. So I repositioned the wrench and gave it one more turn...."POP"
Yup it broke!...How the H-E-double hockey sticks does a 7/8" brand new U-bolt just break?

I'm not the smallest guy on the block, but I 'aint no Arnie Swarchenegger either.
Well it seems that problems multiply...exponentially. I'm just glad that this happened in my driveway and not out on the road. Those of you who are experienced HD mechanics, forgive me for I have sinned. You see when I had the bolts made I measured a wee bit on the conservative side. I took a measurement of the thickness of the diff and it was maybe 1/8" to tight. As a result the U-bolts would only slide down(over) the diff arm about 1/2 way then get hung up. So I decided to 'relieve' the internal aspect of the U-bolt. I know I know....'How could you??????'...it worked, but it only pushed the problem forward and multiplied it by 10 fold. 
Apparently altering the surface of the bolt weakens it tremendously....now I know.
Like I said I'm just glad it happened here and not 100Kms away from anywhere when I hit a big bump on the road.
So.......I have to take the diff out again.....new U-bolts....re-weld the shock absorber attachment on.... 


Live and learn Blake...Live and Learn