What Rd
February 24th, 2007, 23:05
Hadn't intended to disappear completely, but that's how it worked out. Sorry if anyone was looking for us.
Midafternoon on Friday I'd had enough of following Les through areas on two wheels :scared: and my son had had enough wheeling in general, so we headed for town to unpucker and grab some dinner. About halfway there I heard a distinctly metallic sound hit my driver's side front wheelwell and then elsewhere along the bottom of the Jeep. Didn't see anything in the mirror, but stopped immediately to see if I'd lost anything. I hadn't reconnected my swaybar on leaving the park and was expecting to find that one end had come loose, caught the tire and been torn off. That' wasn't it, though. Not seeing anything amiss after a cursory look around, and not finding anything laying on the road, I took off again for town.
While heading back south, I was pondering the rain forecast for that night and decided it'd be a very solid idea to load up the Jeep and tow it out of the park so that I wouldn't be trying to tow out on that trail Saturday night when it had been thoroughly soaked. So load up I did and towed back to the motel. It was while unloading the Jeep in the motel parking lot that I noticed gear oil dripping from the driver's side knuckle. :helpme: A slightly closer look revealed that I'd spit a couple of caps off of that u-joint. :doh: I'm still trying to convince myself that those two caps were facing the rear and that is why I didn't notice them missing when I stopped on the side of the road and was looking from the front rather than crawling underneath. ANYway, I had a big puddle of diff oil on my trailer, so my guess is that running to town and back with two caps missing caused enough play in the shaft to waste the short-side axle seal. Not being in any mood to swap out the axle (I was carrying a spare, albiet a 260 jointed one) in the dark motel parking lot or the next morning in the rain, plus not having any diff oil with me, I quickly decided to strap the Jeep back down and call it a weekend.
I'd planned to tow back to the park entrance and catch a ride for my son and me, but he was getting ready to head home. He'd been such a trooper to that point that I didn't push it and we headed home.
Now of course, the story coouldn't end there, right? That would have been too easy. So how 'bout we throw in a blown trailer tire on the interstate in a driving rain? Yes, that'd make for a well-rounded weekend. :mad:
So, I pulled off and changed the tire which by that point was thoroughly shredded. I'm SO glad I carry a high-lift and have on-board air (cuz the spare was a tad low on air - hadn't bothered to check that one when topping off the others before departure Thursday morning).
So that's it. I'm home and dry, finally.
Sorry I didn't get to socialize with you guys a bit more. And also that I missed the dinner and raffle. I did have the usual good time wheeling at Winterfest, though!
Thanx to everyone involved in organizing. Thanx to the guys from JCR Offroad for lunch. Flat Nasty rocks.
Midafternoon on Friday I'd had enough of following Les through areas on two wheels :scared: and my son had had enough wheeling in general, so we headed for town to unpucker and grab some dinner. About halfway there I heard a distinctly metallic sound hit my driver's side front wheelwell and then elsewhere along the bottom of the Jeep. Didn't see anything in the mirror, but stopped immediately to see if I'd lost anything. I hadn't reconnected my swaybar on leaving the park and was expecting to find that one end had come loose, caught the tire and been torn off. That' wasn't it, though. Not seeing anything amiss after a cursory look around, and not finding anything laying on the road, I took off again for town.
While heading back south, I was pondering the rain forecast for that night and decided it'd be a very solid idea to load up the Jeep and tow it out of the park so that I wouldn't be trying to tow out on that trail Saturday night when it had been thoroughly soaked. So load up I did and towed back to the motel. It was while unloading the Jeep in the motel parking lot that I noticed gear oil dripping from the driver's side knuckle. :helpme: A slightly closer look revealed that I'd spit a couple of caps off of that u-joint. :doh: I'm still trying to convince myself that those two caps were facing the rear and that is why I didn't notice them missing when I stopped on the side of the road and was looking from the front rather than crawling underneath. ANYway, I had a big puddle of diff oil on my trailer, so my guess is that running to town and back with two caps missing caused enough play in the shaft to waste the short-side axle seal. Not being in any mood to swap out the axle (I was carrying a spare, albiet a 260 jointed one) in the dark motel parking lot or the next morning in the rain, plus not having any diff oil with me, I quickly decided to strap the Jeep back down and call it a weekend.
I'd planned to tow back to the park entrance and catch a ride for my son and me, but he was getting ready to head home. He'd been such a trooper to that point that I didn't push it and we headed home.
Now of course, the story coouldn't end there, right? That would have been too easy. So how 'bout we throw in a blown trailer tire on the interstate in a driving rain? Yes, that'd make for a well-rounded weekend. :mad:
So, I pulled off and changed the tire which by that point was thoroughly shredded. I'm SO glad I carry a high-lift and have on-board air (cuz the spare was a tad low on air - hadn't bothered to check that one when topping off the others before departure Thursday morning).
So that's it. I'm home and dry, finally.
Sorry I didn't get to socialize with you guys a bit more. And also that I missed the dinner and raffle. I did have the usual good time wheeling at Winterfest, though!
Thanx to everyone involved in organizing. Thanx to the guys from JCR Offroad for lunch. Flat Nasty rocks.