Last Wednesday, on my second trip over to the University of Akron, disaster struck. I was cruising at around 65mph in the middle of a 6-lane highway when I heard a BANG...BANG-BANG-BANG! I shot over to the side of the road as quickly as I could. Recently they widened this section of highway from two lanes to three by eliminating the breakdown lane. As a result, I now found my self inches off the highway and half in the ditch. I climbed out the passengers side of the truck and glanced under it, where I was greeted by the sight of the transfer case spewing fluid. The truck wouldn't move, either. I was stuck. I couldn't even walk myself off the highway, as there were no exits anywhere close, and the rock wall pretty well prevented climbing out of the way. To make matters worse, I couldn't get ahold of a towing company to come drag my truck off the road! I ended up calling my grandfather to come flat tow me off the interstate, though I still ended up waiting under an overpass behind a guard rail for the better part of an hour.
We ended up towing it to some ghetto community center, where they said I could leave the truck but not to leave any valuables (great place, huh?). There was a lot more that happened before I was able to get the truck home, but suffice it to say that was not my day..
OH, and the best part? When we got it home, I crawled under it and discovered the rear driveshaft was missing, as was the u-joint at the rear axle. Near as we could tell, either the u-joint failed--or was improperly installed--and came apart at speed, taking the driveshaft out and cracking the tail-housing on the transfer case. So, now I'm into it for those parts too. With college tho, cash it tight and time is severely limited, so no telling how fast the rebuild will be.
At any rate, here's a picture of it sitting forlornly on the side of the road. Having dumped a months worth of wages, a summers worth of work, and a lifetime of dreams into this truck, I was crushed at this sight.
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