I want to get a warning out to all MCC chassis owners of a very serious and potentially life-threatening catastrophic failure of the steering bellcrank. I was completing the setup of my rebuilt MCC front end and making adjustments. While turning the steering wheel back and forth something didn't feel or sound right. I had my wife turn the wheel back and forth while I was underneath and I traced the problem to the bell crank. The bellcrank is essentially a section of steel tube with arms welded on. The welds on mine are broken, allowing the steel tube to rotate inside of the steering arms. It only rotates a few degrees until the jagged edges of the weld catch, but over time this will loosen up. Eventually the steering arms will no longer be "linked" to the steel tube and there will be no steering. Mine broke where the arms that connect to the tie rods are welded to the steel tube. It is possible that the welds connecting the drag link arm could break, so I recommend checking that as well. I will post pics of mine in a couple of days. I removed it (again) and took it to a certified welder to repair. IMHO the factory welds are pathetic. It looks like a single-pass, marginal quality weld. If others are as poorly constructed as mine, this could be a looming problem for a number of us. In all of the time and work I've put into this front end, it didn't occur to me to clean up those welded areas and inspect the welds. Lesson learned - never assume these manufactured parts are constructed with lifetime durability.

It has long been my perception, with limited knowledge and no personal experience, that the MCC chassis was known to be rather fragile. All too often futuristic things may be ahead of their time, but unable to stand the test of time (literally and in terms of marketability).

I would credit this one to shoddy workmanship. The design is adequate, hurkey to be honest. The bellcrank is part of the original FMC design. The weld failed due to poor quality. I have no concern with the design and I am confident after re-welding that it will do the job just fine. After spending ample time underneath mine I wouldn't characterize the chassis as fragile.

I see. glad you found the failed welds the way you did. I was glad when professional pre-trip-to-CA inspection of my Breakaway discovered loose steering gear attachment to frame. They also found some other significant issues that might have disrupted my trip, or worse. You are wise to spend the time to become very familiar with all aspects of your coach.

ps
"hurkey"? not in my vocabulary. wikipedia says a cheerleading jump. But, you mean _______ ??

I made up the spelling for "hurkey". Slang term for "stout" or "beefy". Probably derived from Hercules, so perhaps it should be "herc"... something. I'm not an English major.

Here are a couple of pictures of the broken welds on my bell crank. I'm not a photography major either... so they are what they are. Most of the cracking appears only as hairline, but the area where the weld fractured with a jagged edge is more visible as it has been grinding back and forth and is a little off of its original clocking in the photo.

I will post pictures of the repair when available.

okay... herculean

Nasty welds indeed! Looks like a Monday morning after the welder had a really hard weekend...

Glad you found them when you did...

Did you consider replacing the bell crank with one made by Henderson/Super Steer? I replaced mine on the P30 chasis. The SuperSteer bell cranks are far superior in design and workmanship than the original GM parts.

Sorry about the photo, I should have resized it first. I thought I had read earlier that this site will automatically resize photos. Must have been something else I read. The second photo didn't load, but this picture gets the point across.

I didn't even consider aftermarket for this part, since the FMC/MCC chassis parts are so rare and the design is unique. I wonder whether anyone else has changed these parts out to something aftermarket? I vaguely recall reading on MCR's site that they offered some steering upgrade parts, but the prices of those parts are very high. When this one is fixed I'm confident it will be fine. I can weld well enough to get by on a lot of things, but this one I am not confortable with. I know a guy who has done heavy duty frame and suspension mods and heavy equipment repair & fabrication all his life and is a certified welder. I'm leaving this repair to an expert.

I resized and posted it from my Photobucket account - the Barth account is being crotchety again. The auto-resize feature has not been working, so please resize before sending (when it works again). I suggest 8 or 9", 72 dpi, and compress to around 100K. We try to keep the size down because many Barthmobilers are on slow connections.

Please DO NOT send photos as attachments, as space on Barthmobile is limited.

Until the Barthmobile Photobucket account is repaired, please send photos by email to Bill N Y or me (email addies in our profiles).

UPDATE 3:05 PM: Barthmobile Photobucket is now accessible.

Could You post this safety issue to the FMC site?
I know You are a member! Thanks ,I'll be checking My FMC tomo,,,,Next Year!!!

Will do, something I had planned but hadn't gotten to yet.