1970 I exploded a Muncie four speed transmission, in 4th gear at 70+ on an expressway.

All I figured at the time, that transmission had been exposed to a lot of abuse and a gear tooth must have fractured and locked it up maybe?

Anyhow, it broke the bell housing in half, tore out the center of the clutch disc. Snapped the tail shaft housing in half, broke the shifter mount, busted the u-joint, dropped the driveshaft on the pavement. When the shifter broke it whacked me in the knee, if there hadn’t been a shifter boot I’d have lost the shifter!

Got the car to the shoulder, I’m shaking at this point when I realized the engine was still running!

My H.S.Auto Shop teacher swore up and down that the crankshaft was going to fail once I put it back together, probably going to break off at the flange. Drove it another six years and 75k miles without a problem. A testament to how well Pontiac Ram Air III engines were built.

In 2002, at Fort Huachucha (Sierra Vista AZ) returned to my 2001 Chevy 3500 dually 8.1 liter and the ignition key wouldn't turn. Tried all the old tricks to get the key to turn, nothing worked. Got a ride to my 5th wheel and retrieved my second key from my wife. Still no turn.

Towed to the Chevrolet dealer. They had to order the ignition switch. Part arrived. Instructions stated "STEP 1: Insert and turn the ignition key." FAIL.

Four days later I got my truck back with the new ignition switch.

I had two flat tires back to back this year. One was a cut and I was able to make it off the highway and change to a full size spare. I could not repair that tire and replaced that tire with a new one. A month later I punctured the new tire with a nail. I was able to plug it and is good as new, knock wood. Hopefully my tire bad luck is exhausted.

quote:

Originally posted by mrw:

I had two flat tires back to back this year. One was a cut

We already know that your knives are great. You don't need to test them on your tires.

Last week. The transfer case on my 1987 Chevy half ton 4x4 failed at 82,000 miles.

quote:

Originally posted by Johnny3Eagles:
Towed to the Chevrolet dealer. They had to order the ignition switch. Part arrived. Instructions stated "STEP 1: Insert and turn the ignition key." FAIL.

You mean the lock cylinder? The electrical part of the ignition switch has nothing to do with the key. They (the lock cylinders) do often fail.

Yeah, the thing on the steering wheel column that you put the key in and turn the ignition on so the engine will start. If it doesn't turn, the engine doesn't start. Also, if the key doesn't turn, you can't move the shift lever or turn the steering wheel.

quote:

Originally posted by Inusuit:
Last week. The transfer case on my 1987 Chevy half ton 4x4 failed at 82,000 miles.

New Process if I remember correctly. Back then I used to sell a lot of the parts to swap over a New Process 205 case together with installing locking hubs in place of the automatic hubs.

You can probably find out more on this over the Internet together white aftermarket parts availability as GM probably has discontinued all of those by now.

I had an F-150 that had a catastrophic failure of the front brake system which caused the brakes to seize and catch fire. This is probably…..almost 15 years ago.

Last time has to be five or six years ago now. The clutch in my scion let go. I bought it used so I’m not totally sure how many miles were on it, but the odometer was already past 120,000 miles and I’d owned it since around 80,000. Got it towed and had the clutch replaced and kept driving it for another 20k or so before I needed more space and had to replace it.

Come to think of it, other than wrecks, flat tires, and dead batteries, I can’t think of any other dead-on-the-side-of-the-road incidents…knock on wood. I’m not religious about maintenance, but I do change my oil regularly. There is a YouTube channel I watch where they tear down blown up junkyard engines every week, and it’s impressive how many of them are dead because there was not enough oil, for one reason or another.

- Bret

My 2005 Chevy Duramax wouldn't start a few times and I kept pushing my luck. It would always start if I gave it a little time so about the 7th time doing it about 2 weeks ago, I got it started and drove it to my diesel guy.


Turned out to be fuel filter housing $167 plus labor.

Within the last ten years or so:

1995 Jimmy had a few problems, resulting in a couple rides on a tow truck to the maintenance shop. Dumped it and replaced with 2010 Ford Edge.

1994 Volvo 940 cracked the radiator, where the upper hose fits. Mile or two from the maintenance shop, so limped in. Later, refused to start in Publix parking lot, so towed to maintenance shop. Problem was crank sensor.

2001 GMC 3500 delivery truck had several intermittent refuse to start incidents. Shop looked for bad connections or corrosion in fuse box, did not find any, but evidently the process of inspecting the fuse box cured the problem.

4 or 5 years ago, almost to the day as it was right around the 4th.

The harmonic damper on my wife’s 2008 Ford Explorer tore itself apart while driving. I lost power steering while driving and within seconds the engine began overheating. Thankfully I was on surface streets in a good part of town and got into a neighborhood quickly. The car had less than 100k miles on it. We had a lot of problems with that car.

About a year ago. Wife and I were on a forest service road heading to a hiking trail when front left brake caliper froze up on our 03 jeep TJ. Managed to get it unstuck and limped home. Did a complete front brake job the next week.

circa 1991: HMMV on an autobahn in Germany. Alternator went out and the battery started heating up, my butt got real hot.

Excaluding flat tires and dead batteries (say 5-6 in last 25 years), in Fall 1992 my Honda Civic hatchback just seized on the way back from going to a wedding at my Alma Mater Virgnia Tech. It had about 150k miles on it and I was adding about a pint of oil a month.

I was driving maybe 65mph on I-66 heading east like 11 pm and it just shut down. I was in a middle of nowhere stretch, like 5-6 miles in either direction to any sort of exit. On I-81 those are really common, but on I-66, even then, exits were pretty common.

So this was *late* on a Saturday. No cell phones. After about 30 minutes a good samaritan dropped me off in Manassas, about 30 minutes from home (instead of an hour). Called my Dad and he picked me up like 1AM.

We drove out to the car on Sunday morning, like 9AM, he told me to start it and I'll never forget he made a "IT's DEAD" motion with his hands. I cleared out my possessions and he signed it over to a towing company and we were home by lunch. Getting my first new car, a 1993 Dodge Colt followed later that week.

September will be four years ago; power steering pump went out on my then ten-year-old Fusion. It had the decency to do it just as I was beginning to roll out of my parking spot at the building.

I got a bad batch of diesel in our coach a few weeks ago. Ended up draining over a gallon of water out of the tank...

I'm a really big fan of preventative maintenance and service checks. I have all my expensive engines on an oil analysis program. I don't want to break down on the side of the road in Alaska...it gets expensive and potentially dangerous very quickly.

I'm still ironing out the kinks in this new-to-us motor coach though.

Kind of a breakdown. Hit a pothole about the size of a coffin on the freeway. Wheel and tire destroyed. Couldn't get a tow for 36 hours due to the weather. That was THE LAST time I got on a freeway in a compact car.

The turbo on my Passat "went pop" last October. I towed it to the dealership November 1 (warranty repair). Haven't seen it since....