Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Been a Bad Day - by Russell

Ever have one of those days? You know what I mean. Not one of those awful days where absolutely nothing goes right. But one of those days that is fairly ordinary...until...

Let me tell you about one of those days. It was going fairly well. Working in the morning, breaking for lunch, then to the computer in an attempt to catch up on things that I fell behind on last week.

Then, to assist my beautiful bride, I agreed to go to WalMart for just a couple of items to save her the trip. And I'm not a fan of shopping, especially between November and January! I decide to drive the Jeep....it needs the exercise. When running around town I tend to use the backroads as best I can. I enjoy them. But on this occasion I decided on the interstate. Well, as I'm exiting I hear a loud pop and faint low grind. I'm thinking transfer case or maybe transmission, could even be suspension. I turn onto the main road, off of the exit ramp to get into a nearby parking lot. I look into my driver's rearview mirror and see something mildly disturbing. I roll into the parking lot, climb out and snap this picture.



As you can see, and as I'm sure you've already determined, the C-clip that holds the axle shaft into the rear differential is no longer doing it's job. Thus, the axle shaft decided to crawl out of position. Another 3 inches and I'd be writing about road rash on my backside.

When I saw this I was afraid that the loud pop was the end of the shaft breaking. Thankfully it wasn't. Instead it was the differential insert that eliminates the spacing between each axle shaft. This shouldn't be difficult to repair. But it was definitely inconvenient. Needless to say, I never made it to WalMart.

But I can't complain. I'm thankful for this toy! Even the breaking of it is fun...and the sharing of the story.

I hope you enjoyed this post. I'm sure you could have done without the mechanic talk but I like it. Have a good night.

Here's another pic:

3 comments:

Darby said...

This is funny to me... but probably not to you! :) Glad you weren't hurt... I can't imagine what those around you were thinking... probably afraid your tire was about to go through their windshield!! Shireen, can't wait to spend time with you this weekend... please don't drive the jeep! :)

Kathryn said...

Oh, you boys and your jeeps... I know it makes for a bad day but I know you'll have fun fixing it and telling the tale! :)

Dave and Carrie Tyson said...

I like all the technical terms, but it reminded me of a Dr. Seuss book. The thingymadoojer fell out of the whoomalithingy. =) I'm so thankful the Lord blessed us with husbands who know about these things.