Bringing my daughter home from the dentist today, my rear wheel was making
a funny metal squeak sound. All of the sudden I heard a loud bang, something
fell off the car and the engine was no longer connected to the wheels.
Providentially
(!!!), I was only about 100 feet from home, so I was able to coast into the
driveway.
I jacked it up and noticed that one of the flanges at the end of the half
shaft
was broken in two. The piece on the road was the other half complete with
one u-joint cap still in it. I have extra half shafts laying around the
house (doesn't
everyone?) so the repair was cheap enough. And incredibly, I was able to
replace it in about 90 minutes (including rebuilding the trunnion bushes)
since every
bolt came apart easily (including the remains of the broken u-joint), and
everything
went back together with NO problems. For those brief shining moments, I
tasted omnipotence ... and I liked it :)
Of more concern, I'm wondering what could cause that flange to break like
that.
My current theory is that the u-joint seized (I just greased it last month!),
but it
still seems incredible to me that it could rip that metal flange in half.
Does that
seem reasonable? Or should I be looking for something else?
TIA!
Greg Rowe
78 Spitfire
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