Well it happened DRIVESHAFT DANGLEING

Winter weather lost u joint= driveshaft dangling. Ok over the years I have had a few come out and seen a few also. Always the making of a pleasant day!!! most memorable ones was one braking on heavily loaded road tractor at crest of bad hill. result Truck in pieces at the bottom. Next truck in busy intersection at city traffic lights shaft laying on road. result cop and traffic not happy. Old pickup lost front u joint shaft dropped and "poll valted" the truck in the air I was right behind it. Lets hear your stories like under truck in poring rain to fix u joint!!!

I had one go out in a 63 Chevy on a date one night. That was back when business owners didn't worry about liability. I was 20 miles from home. A guy at a gas station let me use the lift to put it up so I could get under it. I packed it full of grease and hammered the cup back in and made it home driving slow. The date was over.

Guess I been there to, date wise, You were lucky on the garage. Mrs jocco has been with me on a couple, Remember the vibration of the truck and here screaming for dear life.

A friend of my brothers was hauling about 10 cull sows on their converted school bus one day, blew the u-joint in front of the hanger bearing. The sows roared to the back of the bus. The front wheels came off the road and the bus ended up in the ditch, upright, with no damage. That could have been a lot worse.

(quoted from post at 08:08:06 02/25/19) I had one go out in a 63 Chevy on a date one night. That was back when business owners didn't worry about liability. I was 20 miles from home. A guy at a gas station let me use the lift to put it up so I could get under it. I packed it full of grease and hammered the cup back in and made it home driving slow. The date was over.

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'63 Chevy with the X shaped frame and 2 piece driveshaft? Just like my '60. I gave it some revs while in neutral, dropped into drive, and immediately roached the center U-joint. Driveshaft locked up in the center frame section. Dead in the middle of the road. Had to call a wrecker.

Never had one come apart.

The squeaking, clunking, vibrating came to me as a message "best do something about that before..."

Back in the 1970s on a busy 4 lane highway I watched a car several car lengths ahead of me pole vault.

Hi I was just south of Brewster Wa. I pulled off the road to let the dog out for a minute. When I went to back up the shaft came loose. I hitch hiked and a fellow picked me up. I had the driveshaft over my shoulder. He said don't you hate it when that happens. The garage guy brought me back with the new bearing pressed in the shaft and he put it in for me. Another time I was following apickup right in a intersection and all of a sudden the back end of the pickup went about 6 ft in the air and swung sideways. Ed Will

84 Ford F-150 brand new off the lot with eleven miles on the odometer, couple months later bang into third gear coming off a light, KABLEWEE! Back U-joint let go and the shaft went flying out to the side. Totally wrecked the tail housing/bearing and what ever else was in the way. Fortunately it was under warranty so FOMOCO fixed it for free. Six months later I can't go above 30mph without it shaking like crazy. So I drop it off at the dealer after hours and write them a note explaining the problem and asked if they would check the cross bearings. I called them the next afternoon to see if it was ready to be picked up. Sure they say. How much did it cost I asked. 35$ is the answer. Gee that's not bad for U-joint replacement I said. She said they didn't need to be replaced, the mechanic test drove it. I told her in the most polite but firm tone that I could muster that she had better have their mechanic take it out on the road and take it up to sixty, not just putter around the lot in first gear. She called back an hour later to let me know it would be ready the next day, my rear U-joint was shot. DUH? really? So they were going to charge me 35$ and not fix the problem after I told them what it was in my note! Interestingly enough I never had any more problems from the thing except to replace the bearings several years later. So that's my driveshaft story.

JD

I had one go out on my 63 Ford about 80 miles from home when I was a teenager. An Arnold Motors parts truck was going by and stopped to help. By luck he had the u-joint I needed in his truck. I borrowed some tools from a nearby farmer and laid on the shoulder of the road and changed it. Got back in the car and went to leave only to find out it had broken the bell housing when the joint let loose. I still had to call my dad to tow me home.

pickup went about 6 ft in the air and swung sideways. Ed Will Yes sir that is hat happened.

broken the bell housing yes that sounds about par for the course.

Not a driveshaft, but...had a 77 Ford wagon that I had gone to town with to get some bagged feed. Backed up to the barn to unload, and it wouldn"t steer right. Tie rod had fallen off....

Not driveshafts but I had a Crown Vic dropped a tie rod end...twice. First time I was on the on-ramp of an interstate in a curve and not going real fast. I replaced the complete assemblies on both sides. Year and a half later, same thing. This time I had just got off the interstate near work and managed to limp into the lot.

Wife driving her truck and horse trailer through a small town, stopped for the only stoplight, and when she tried to get underway again, nothing. Guy walking down the sidewalk saw the driveshaft dragging in the back- came out, reached under truck, pulled it out of the transmission and threw it in the pickup- turned the hubs in front, told wife to put it in 4 high and it should get her home, if she took it easy. Whole operation took about 30 seconds, barely enough time for the folks behind to start honking. Nice guy.

Some girls here in town were driving there dads 57 chevy nomad around town and the front u-joint broke and the shaft dug into the concrete and flipped the nomad over.

Guess my 88 Ford F350 4x4 cab and chassis was the worst , i usually caught joint problems before they turned into a major problem . As you knew well in advance of a potential u/joint problem as they all gave a sight tink when up first went to move or back up or you felt a vibration that was not there before. Must be just me . But any way , the 88 Ford i bought had some problems and i knew this going in , BUT i can FIX the problems . So i thought . Every u/joint was OUT when i bought it i mean every one . So i set out to fix the truck first before i started in on the bed build . Went to NAPA down the road and got all new joints and installed them then on to the other problems got them repaired so i thought and set about to build the bed . got the bed on and all wired up and set out with my trailer to go grocery shopping , across the Buckeye to the hoosier to the west side to a sale , had a great day and filled my 28 footer and back home , next day unloaded the stuff i bought checked the trck over and left the next morning for Stilesville sale an once again had a great day of buying , stayed over night and got four tractors bought the next day and loaded the one that ran . Took my tickets and placed them in my one buddy's folder so his semi's could pick and choose to build or fill out a load with and since he could haul a lot more on 53 foot then i could on 28 i could afford to pay him or trade him for the hauling . Saturday i went to another sale in knightstown In with my truck and trailer ran out early in the morning loaded and came home . Go that load off and pulled the truck into the shop to change oild as i had a shade over 3500 miles on it and it was going to be a long week running coming up . Changed the oil and was greasing the drive line and found that the rear u/ joint was almost out . Well could not get that joint that day so Monday morning i popped it out and took it back to Napa as it only had a little over 3500 miles on it and what we found was the needles were imbedding them selfs deep into the cross . Installed that joint and Tuesday morning i was off for a full week of running , on the following sunday it was oil change time once again and yep now it is the U/joint at the transfer case and the same thing needles into the cross . I was using the same grease that we had used for years in the semi's and the only grease we found that would stand up to them 120000+ pound loads we hauled every day and not take out u/joints ( BTW ya can't get that grease anymore ) This went on for like eight times when NAPA said they would not warrant them anymore . I found a source to get Spicers and i bought a full set with extras to keep on hand so i did not have to go 35 miles to get them , Last U/Joints i put in that truck and the extras for the whole truck went with it when i slod it eight years later with close to 300000 on it . I learned that Percussion u/joints are JUNK along with the rest of there line or products wheel bearing included as i have a little over 3500 miles on the one car now with two of there ft wheel berings that sound like a walnut grinder grinding shells and all and have to be replaced , just changed then on the cars last oil change. I reaslly really hate doing a job over. And just for you guys NO i did NOT use and impact to install them with it was my way old school breaker bar torque wrench all hand done .

86 Revcon, towing a 22' boat to lake Powell. I started hearing the buzz in the middle of nowhere central NM. Slowed down to 50 it's not as bad. Please, please, please last until Page AZ!!! About 40 miles short of Page - nope, she starts to really whine. I pull over in an abandoned motel lot. Got a couple of bricks, and some other junk and may myself a jury-rig ramp to get the nose in the air. Revcon is front wheel drive!

I gently ease it up there, and I have no idea what type, make, model, size of UJ is in there. So, I block the wheels well, including the parking brake, take it out, and stick my thumb out. Wife and kids are watching tv in air conditioned comfort. Guy in a pickup gives me a ride to Page, NAPA asks what it is out of. Hahahaha!!! Like that will help. We kept checking and measuring, and trying different sizes. Found out the UJ is from a 1978-86 Ford F250. I hung around NAPA for an hour, and a guy was going back down the way I was 'camped'. He gave me a ride to the coach. Put the UJ in, and was back on the road. Lost day of vacation, but no injuries, or damage.

I had a tie rod fall off my 55 chevy. It steered a little funny. I pulled over, that is when the tire with no tie rod flopped out, and pushed up dirt as I stopped. Stan

Was on the way to work one morning, on 23rd Avenue Moline, Ill, city was repaving the street, all traffic was in two center lanes while they played with curbs, storm drains or something, I'm meeting this early '70's vintage full size Dodge or Plymouth, maybe a Chrysler, I'm in my F-150, about the time I meet this guy I hear a loud Pop-Bang and his left front wheel turns hard left to the steering stop and the car veers hard left just barely missing my rear fender. He was across both lanes of the road and on the sidewalk before he got stopped.
Tie rod ends broadcast the fact they are bad via accelerated tire wear, sloppy steering, wandering around in your lane for 1000's of miles before the fail, just like universal joints make that distinctive chirping sound for hundreds of miles before you coast to the side of the road. Township's '67 C65 dumptruck chirped for probably 1000 miles before we took it to the shop to get fixed, got lucky the yoke that bolted to the pinion shaft was the one the cross wore into, not the yoke welded to the driveshaft.

I must live a charmed life with few drive shaft stories to tell. I found greasing my trucks every week or about 2500-3500 miles saved me lots of work and money. Dad had a few on his old 53 ton dodge with it taking one out usually with a load of grain on in the field and usually it was corn in the mud. We would just drag it up to the house and change it.
I found greasing things saved me a lot of parts money. I think I only changed about 3 joints on trucks in 25 years of trucking owning them 2 of the trucks have over a million on them. The last truck has only had one replaced as the needles were starting to make marks in the cross at about 700,000. The rest were on used trucks I bought and no telling what the grease program was on them.