Man, what a crazy trip! Guys, I don't even know where to start. Basically the day started like any other trip to sunflower mine, nice weather on a scenic / moderate trail. The day ended with one broken axle, snapped front diff case, a broken driver side wheel bearing assembly and brake caliber bracket on my friends 03 Chevy Silverado. Now, I know you guys all would love to see some pics (and i'll see if my buddy's girlfriend took some) but really taking pictures was the last thing on our mind. Where was Mike and his camera when you needed him! Getting the truck home and how much this will cost was the first things we were thinking about.
But here's how it all went down...
- My friend was driving on a nice flat, smooth part of the trail and gave the truck some gas. He then heard a pop. Drove a little farther and then heard some clunking. He pulled over to check it out and that's when i heard him yelling about his truck being broken.
- Sure enough I saw diff fluid leaking from a nice size crack in the case. Then i saw the broken driver side axle.
- After further inspection it turned out that when the lift was put on or sometime after that the three bolts that hold the wheel bearing assembly to the spindle were majorly loose. We think what possible happened was the axle snapped from the assembly being loose which then bound up some way and locked up the diff, which snapped the case in half. Who knows what the inside of that diff looks like.
- So we had to drive home to get the right size socket to get the axle nut off (33mm) and some other tools and parts.
- Got back up there late that night and went to work. We got some advice and were told that if we just take the axles out on both sides we good drive the truck home in two wheel drive, man that was bad advice!
- We got about 50 yards and the driver side front tire fell off! The wheel bearing fell apart and we snapped the brake caliper bracket off the spindle. Turns out that the axle holds the wheel bearings and the wheel on the spindle (makes sense once you start to think about it). It was silly to think that the weight of the truck could all rest on that little wheel bearing assembly without something holding it all together.
- So after staring at it for awhile we jacked the truck up off the ground, put it on a jack-stand and left the truck there for the night.
- Got the truck moving Sunday morning after putting the stub axles back in, strapping the broken brake caliper to the torsion bar, clamping the brake line with a vise-grip and we were finally on our way.
- So my friend will be driving around in two wheel drive for awhile. A new front diff will probably cost quite a pretty penny.
- All and all it was a good trip but a long weekend. My buddy learned a valuable lesson too. It’s always good to get under your truck every now and then and check it all out. The night before the trip i found a loose bolt on my rear upper control arm on the jeep. I could have been right there with him!
- Well there it is guys. Haven’t had an eventful trip like this or seen that much carnage in a long time (on Sunflower Mine no less!) but that's part of off-roading, right? lol Crazy, Crazy, Crazy