Another Dualmatic bites the dust

[Tom Mandera <tsm1@domain.elided>]

Just a quick note before I head out for Star Wars <G>..

Went wheelin' yesterday and went to a place known as "Tank Rock".. play 
n' show off on the rocks.

I came around the corner to find my friend's Early Bronco backed up a 
very steep rock.  I drop forward up along side of him half on, half off 
the rock. 

He drove down and tried to go up another steep rock, but found his rear 
bumper limited his departure angle enough that we had a time getting him 
OFF of the rock. ;-)  Mike couldn't make it.

So naturally, I had to.  

Only I backed up, and still didn't have a LOT of clearance on the front 
bumper when I got most of the way up.  It stalled and I got out to 
investigate.  Getting back in, I grabbed the rollbar and just swung a leg 
up to the vent window and jumped in..

Of course, I had to go up further... 

Started it back up and went to go backwards up the hill.. more throttle.. 
Hop Hop Hop and I took my foot out of it just as BANG happened..

Shut it off!

Got out to find thatt I *hadn't* blown a U-joint, but instead I had 
destroyed another Dualmatic IH locking hub (the last of my originals).  
This one had blown off the passenger side, bounced off a rock, and delt a 
glancing blow to a friend sitting nearby.  Ouch.

Getting off the rock was a little interesting, since I had ONE front 
wheel driven, and a rear wheel dangling in the air (and a worn Tracklok) 
kept me from just walking out like I wanted to (1 wheel drive).

Plastic baggie and some Duct Tape and we were rolling again in 3wd. ;)

5 minute fix when I got home.. Tony Sobrito had just sent me one broken 
and one working Dualmatic.. I put the good one on.. we'll see if I can't 
break THREE of those things.. 

OTOH, the do their job and are *definitely* a weak link.. now if I could 
just keep them from attacking people when they explode (the last one shot 
20+')

After fixing the hub I went to work on the Travelall's exhaust.. drat it 
if the manifold isn't broken at the exhaust pipe/donut fitting.  Now I 
have to put a spare manifold on it (at least it's a center dump).. 

-Tom Mandera, Helena MT
http://www.tmcom.com/~tsm1/scout
'77 Scout II - on it's fourth locking hub
'72 Travelall 1110 - needs one new exhaust manifold now..