GOOD GOD!!!!
So 2 weeks ago I pull of the stainless tips on the exhuast to polish them. Now mind you that when the come off they are crappy looking and barly held on. 2 screws per tip just resting against the exhaust pipe. So you know how it is. Oh man good thing I'm doing this. This should have fallen off long ago and so on and so forth....
So my brother polished them up and they look brand new!!! I mean BLING BLING!!!! Then I drill 4 holes per tip in the pipe tighten them down and say "Now that is job well done!!!".....

What a bunch of bunk!!! 2 weeks later (today) I'm driving to work and hear a "BING" I look around the cab, then I look in the rear view miror (good thing I have one) and I see the tip 50 feet in the air hurdeling 50mph in the opposite direction!!!! Then the woman be hind me swerves and so does everyone eles. I watch in horror as the tip bangs and rolls to it resting place in the ditch.

All I can think is who was the SOB that had to mess with somthing that wasn't broken Then I remember I was me
So then I dirve back spend 20 minutes it the ditch lookin for the the GD tip with no luck.
So I guss the moral of the story is..... Well I guess there is no moral but I just thought you would like to know.

Thank you all for you continued support in these tough times(best political voice)
Heavy(tip less)_56

 

Hey, I know how you feel about stuff falling off!

Back in the spring I finally got Grover running again, and I took him on a "shakedown cruise" just as it was getting dark. About two miles from the house I hear a "BING!!!" and I see red sparks shoot out of the front of my truck near the right fender. This pretty much made the hair stand up on my head, so I pulled into a handy pasture (Lucky the gate was open!), grabbed my flashlight and started looking. I didn't find anything amiss, so I just stood and listened to the old Y-block ticking over for a couple of minutes. It sounded good and no puddles of vital fluid were pooling on the ground, so I got back in the truck and headed off to my destination, listening for any more wierd noises and utterly confused.

The next day I popped the hood again, and that is when I discovered I'd forgotten to tighten the valve cover nuts on the right side of the engine. One of those nuts was gone. The only thing I could figure is that worked loose, nut bounced off the fan, and exited the engine compartment at a high speed through one of the rust holes in the leading edge of the hood.:-staun

Worse thing was, it was an acorn nut, and my "donor" engine had the more mundane "regular" nuts, so I had to make do with that.

 

Thanks man I feel so much better now. But I know were not the only 2.
Heavy_56

 

Nothing so far has fallen off my '60. Except when I was test-driving her back in November, we were cruising along and heard this God awful BANG! Bang..bang. I'm like "What the @#*$ was that!?" This wasn't even my truck yet. I pulled over and got out...the tailgate doesn't have chains and the COAT HANGER worked loose! It was the 'gate swingin' down and playin' the bongos on the rear bumper! Man, that scared the bejabbers out of us.

Tonight, I finally finsihed putting the new rear end in, and new leaf springs in after my 2 originals became 4! I took off to try out my new 2.75 rear end and came to the corner....NO B-R-A-K-E-S!!! So I started pumping like mad w/my right foot, yankin' the E-brake w/my left hand and shiftin' to neutral w/my right! Why does it always feel like, when you don't have brakes, you're speeding up when you're trying to stop????

In my rush to try out the new rear, I was a moron and forgot to reconnect the L/R brake line! DOH!!! So I get to spend tomorrow morning bleeding brakes!

Hey Keahi! Can ya help!?

- Shane

 

Hey heavy 56, I gotta sy thanks man. It seems anytime I drive around the Tri-Cities WA I'm finding all kinds of cool stuff alongside the road. I just found your welding vise-grips you lost.
And you Snap-on screw driver. But really I sucks when your s**t err stuff falls off. Kurt y-blocks rule!

 

What I want to know, Sixoh, is how long did it take to clean out your pants?

I've had the failing brakes feeling before, the most dramatic was when a wheel cylinder blew out when some (unprintable) moron I was trying to pass on the interstate switched lanes in front of me. You can only imagine what it feels like to have the brake pedal hit the floor when the speedo reads 70 mph.

Of course, I wasn't driving Grover when that happened. I don't think my truck will go that fast.

 

LOL!! I can't imagine that!!! I don't mean that your truck went that fast. I meant he brakes failing!!! That would really suck.....I bet yer butthole was takin' bites outta the seat, wasn't it!!!?? WHOA!

My big fear was, the parents around here let their kids treat the streets like a giant playground. I knew one was going to pop out in front of me. Luckily, no one was out!

- Shane

How do you add a picture next to your User ID?

 

i only had my 60back 1 week.....and it decides to rain for the first time in 3m years here in L.A. I switch the wipers on and like a friken one way boomerang my right side wiper arm goes flying off. by the time i get back to it it looks nothing like what it was.....as for brakes...did you know these trucks dont come with anti lock brakes.....i do now.....lmao
erik

 

"When I drive things just fall off..... "


Isn't that why we drive pickups? Just throw that stuff in the back!

I 'lost' a waterpump once on a 5400 mile trip, causing the block to crack. I was still 1500 miles from home in the middle of Illinois - think I met the whole town! Had to get a w-pump shipped nextday air from Sacto Vintage Ford. Ended up pulling the thermostats and running home with no pressure on the system to keep it from sucking coolant out the #6 cylinder. Added water as necessary and limped it home - those flathead V8's are tough!!

Not long ago I 'lost' my generator on a trip to Canada. Bearing went - same belt drives the waterpumps - and I learned my lesson the hard way. (see above) Had to call my wife and beg her to bring the spare gennie to rescue me.

Most recent trip of 1000 miles had my sons getting a pool together to guess how far I'd get before I had to call home. I won - nothing fell off that trip. It's getting more dependable the longer I drive it, right?

 

When your muffler falls off. Use a rag or some thing to pick it up with they can get very hot. Learned that one the hard way.

 

This isn't a "falling off" story but about as exciting...

Many years ago, a friend and I were taking a mattress to Kansas City in a pickup (his aunt's, I think). Anyway, it was making this strange clunking noise whenever he accelerated. We were neither one mechanically inclined (and poor college students), so ignored it. On the way back, driving down I-435, my friend mused "I wonder if it might be a U-joint..." I swear, about 10 seconds later, we hear a loud crunch and then the sound of something heavy bouncing off the pavement underneath us. We pull over real quick and look underneath -- sure enough, the back U-joint gave out and the driveshaft is sitting on the pavement. Fortunately, I wrecker pulled over a few minutes later (good karma I guess) and towed us to a nearby Sears Autocenter...

 

Thanks for the stories guys. I was out this weekend picking up bolders for the landscaping in the back yark and on the way home I heard something fall off from under each of the front fenders.... No idea what it was. I'm thionking I had rocks stuck in the tire and they just broke loose afte 25 miles. But when I got home and final pulled in the garge I found a couple nuts and some fender washers on the driveway???? Then I realized it was from the bed bolts. Oh well... atleast those were nice enough to fall off at home.
Heavy_56

 

Last year around this same time I am driving home from Beautifull Down Towne Burbank on the 134 Fwy just before Rush Hour. When all of a sudden there was this Bloody Awfull Racket & Braaaaaap...... I look back in Horror to see my Intire exhaust system hurtling through space in the Opisit direction only to be run over by a 18 Wheeler through 4 lane of moderate traffic.
Rust in Inconspicuous Places will get you every time. Had to drive home 20 more miles that way.

 

I had a problem with hub cabs falling off my previous truck.lots of pot holes up here in the spring.last spring i lost 2 baby moon caps due to craters in the road.they dont make make much of a noise coming off .returned to where i thought i lost them but only found a few returnable cans combing the ditch.not enough to replace the 22 dollar a piece caps

 

well, I haven't had the 52 on the road yet, but I've had some excitement with my old 79's

Had it one time when I was commuting home from college, bout a 4 hour drive. Well I get to about the half way point and suddenly it sounds like WW III is starting under my hood. I quickly pull into the first parking lot I see (luckily I was just passing a big grocery store) and kill the engine and pop the hood. What had happened is the long bolt that holds my alternator on (the pivot bolt on a 351M) had come loose and worked its way forward into my cooling fan, chewing off the corner on every single one of the blades. A quick run to the back of my truck to get the tools and 10 minutes later I was back on the road, with a REALLY torqued bolt.

I've also had a problem with rusted out rear corners of bed floors. Had it one time my toolbox tipped over, spilling out most of my sockets. By the time I realized this, I could only find about 2/3rds of my 1/2in deep sockets. At least they were my cheap set, but still I wouldn't have wanted to be the guy behind me what those things hit the pavement...they were the heavy impact wrench type... and you thought a stone chip was bad.

But I think the all time best that I have seen, and luckily it wasn't me, but I was driving along, and saw an oil filter sitting in the middle of the road... all I could think was "OOPS!!"