Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Its raining broken cars
Or at least that is what it feels like. Coming back from VC, after just insuring the Dodge, I lost the pinion bearings in the rear end. I had this big truck pass me and the smell of gear-oil was overwhelming. I get on the CB and tell him the bad news, he has something major wrong. You see at the time I didn't know it was me, your not supposed to be able to smell your own car, not the back of it anyway. If you can hear me Knight Transport lease driver, I am sorry for wasting your time. Yep you guessed it, it was me.
Anyway long story short, I top off the rear end with the thickest oil I can find and drive it back home, no choice, had to work. Pulled the cover next afternoon and found this:
Of course it had to be during a wind storm so all that crap blew back on me every time a gust came up. I have some very powerful rare earth magnets inside the rear end so they gathered all the bad shavings and saved the rest of my bearings and gears so it is not as bad as it looks. Fixing it will not even be all that expensive but I don't have tools big enough to get the pinion nut off so I will have to take it to Dad's shop. With the Dodge down I had to turn to the s-10 to get me to the hanging of Jack Slade over this labor day weekend. It well, I don't even want to talk about what it took to get it running again. I can't even sell the thing because so much is held together with spit and twine. After this last rather heavy-handed repair, its a little worse.
Anyway long story short, I top off the rear end with the thickest oil I can find and drive it back home, no choice, had to work. Pulled the cover next afternoon and found this:
Of course it had to be during a wind storm so all that crap blew back on me every time a gust came up. I have some very powerful rare earth magnets inside the rear end so they gathered all the bad shavings and saved the rest of my bearings and gears so it is not as bad as it looks. Fixing it will not even be all that expensive but I don't have tools big enough to get the pinion nut off so I will have to take it to Dad's shop. With the Dodge down I had to turn to the s-10 to get me to the hanging of Jack Slade over this labor day weekend. It well, I don't even want to talk about what it took to get it running again. I can't even sell the thing because so much is held together with spit and twine. After this last rather heavy-handed repair, its a little worse.
