Re: Dropped drive line

[Tom Mandera <tsm1@domain.elided>]

On Sun, 27 Sep 1998, Daniel Nees wrote:

> shaft angle than that did. But, any way, I had one U-joint grenade on me
> and actually took a chunk out of the yoke and ripped the strapp off and
> tore the strap at the bolt eye. I had a welder at work re-weld the
>    So, I said all that to say this. I've personally seen a yake damaged
> by a grenading u-joint.

OK.. all this talk of busted 'shafts.. I have to part with my Stupid 
Mistake of the Weekend.

I haven't put one or two of the top bolts into the transfer case.. (I 
thought I did, but I must not have).. part of which was me waiting to get 
the reverse switch wiring from the '72 to transfer into the '77 (and plug 
into the '72 304 engine harness)..

Drove to Missoula (5mpg.. more on that in another post)..

Changed out 2 plugs when I got there, so I'd have 8 cylinders again (more 
on the fouled plugs later).

I was in Missoula for a dinner party my best friend was throwin'... lots 
of new people to meet and old friends.. havin' a good time...

I volunteered to take a kid back to his dorm, and a girl came along with 
me.. we were havin' fun n' such, so the stereo was up, and I was applying 
too much throttle at the stop lights... <grin>

Drop the kid off, on the way back we decide we'll drop the soft-top (it 
wasn't *that* warm of course) and go cruisin'.. grab Dan and another 
girl, put the top down.. pile into the Scout... 

Testosterone kicks in.  d'oh.

So the one girl says something to the effect of, "Do that spinnin' tire 
thing again"... squawk 'em... which I was having fun doing anyhow (Hey, 
it's been 2+ years since I had a V8 to play with so...)

Testosterone+++... Dan, and 2 girls in the truck... hmmm...

Instead of slipping the clutch like I'd done all night, I (OK, stupid 
mode here folks) let the 304 rev up, then side-stepped the clutch.. 
instead of lots of rubber on the ground, or maybe some axle wrap (both of 
which I expected), I was greeted to a short squawk, and then a rythmic 
"clunk clunk clunk" from underneath combined with a scraping of steel on 
asphalt...

d'oh.

Didn't make it 10 feet from Dan's apartment.

I poke my head underneath... yup, pretzled driveshaft.. grab my 1/2" 
wrench, remove the rear half.. "I guess we're done for the night.." to 
which I replied, "Nope... it's a 4wd, we still have front wheel drive.. 
I'm not givin' up that easy!"... more clunk.. so I removed the front half 
of the rear driveshaft.. show everyone my new tropy.

Start goin' again, and we quickly decided that FWD w/ a locker wasn't so 
much fun... so back to Dan's apartment, and into the new Suby.  I also 
noticed some gear lube on the ground... Dan convinced me it was a leak 
that'd been seeping for a while... "OK, I'll buy that"

Had a *blast* the rest of the night, BTW.

Came into Helena on Sunday to play paintball.. put two new U-joints in my 
spare driveshaft, tossed it in the Suby, headed back to Missoula late 
Sunday night.. emailed work I'd be in at noon.

Got up this morning (earlier than I thought I would).. put the driveshaft 
in, and try to get into 2HI... not working... 4-lo works (still one hub 
locked) and I drive through the apartment complex... t'case shifter 
wobbling badly.. 

Stop again to get some stuff from the Suby, and decide to see what's up.. 
pull the access cover off... hmmm... 1/2"+ gap between the t'case and 
tranny... d'oh... no bolts on the top... 

Had a few spares in the seat cover.. *whew*.. I'll just push it back into 
place, bolt it up, and hit Jiffy Lube (forgot the grease gun for the 
U-joints anyhow)..

Crawl underneath.. that's when I noticed the bottom half of the transfer 
case was just fine, bolted to the tranny.

Look a little higher, and I now know why I was leaking fluid... yep, not 
only did I twist the driveshaft apart, put some dents in the underbody 
from the 'shaft, but I also broke the transfer case in two pieces.  I 
*almost* brought the spare t'case with me to Missoula w/ the driveshaft..

So I'm finally home now, and we're going back to Missoula after work 
Tuesday night.. with one of my extra Dana 20s, some gear lube, some RTV, 
and whatever else I think I need to get the Scout back on the road.. 

And it's all 100% attributable to my very own stupidity and that male 
desire to show off... 

FWIW, the girl did say she was most impressed when I crawled out from 
under the truck with the mangled driveshaft in hand, calm as can be, 
matter of factly.  And she didn't try to ditch us after that... heck, 
they helped put the soft-top back up and then piled into the Suby Outback.

Was the weekend worth a day of vacation (I spent the day on campus as UoM 
today), one transfer case, and one driveshaft?... you bet.

Next time I'll be a little better about these kinds of things... every 
now and then the kid in me comes out... and things break.  :(

-Tom