Since you guys celebrate Halloween this weekend I thought it would be funny to share some truck related horror stories here, be it Bronco related or not .

I'll start by sharing mine: Over a year and a half ago I went down from Caracas to Simón Bolívar Airport in La Guaira (some 20mi) in order to leave a girlfriend there. That went smoothly as it should and everything was fine, after that I went on my merry way back home. I was some miles away from Caracas when suddendly the truck started vibrating, I reduced my speed, determined not to stop by the roadside, which at that point was near some Barrio (Favela if you must) that's near Caracas, and as you should know, Venezuela can be quite dangerous so that definitely isn't the place to stop, not even to take a leak. Well, even under 25mph the vibration continued until BANG! BANG! BANG! went several hard hits under the truck "damn it! the trans grenaded itself!!! ", that was my first thought while the truck lost all power and the engine revved as in Neutral, I parked by the roadside and checked under the engine and trans, no fluid of any type leaking, then turned my head to the rear and found out the cause of the mess, my rear driveshaft was there, hanging on the rear differential after a u-joint in the double joint failed, the noise caused by it banging on the underside and silencer. Now panic! the area is quite dangerous, and there I was, stranded and what seemed like forever passing by (I actually didn't waste a second trying to get out of there, but minutes seemed like hours). As I was getting ready to take my tools and gloves out a towing truck stopped by, I had to make a call, but decided I could do it fast enough, the guy was nice enough to let me know I could pull the body of the shaft out of the slip yoke by pulling/pushing, I tried with my bare hands but it was hot as heck, so I got in the truck and put my gloves on, don't remember if the guy stayed but I pulled until it came off, threw the thing on the passenger's side, locked the hubs, turned the engine on and off I went. Thanking god I have a 4WD equipped Bronco, otherwise the ending could have been quite different.

 

No amount words can describe how I felt when this happened to my first 1993 Lightning



Wait for it......



And the big reveal

 

Oh man...

That just makes me sick to see. I'm sorry.

 

That sounds incredibly nerve wrecking! And yes, quick thinking on being able to drive with the front drive shaft (and thankful it wasn't the trans, or something else).

 

My horror story:

The year is 1992 and I had saved up the $650 this guy wanted for a 1965 Mustang that had a horrible exterior but a freshly rebuilt 289, Cruisomatic transmission, new brakes, and new tires. My mom said I was too young to own a car so I never told my parents about it. I had to park it 3 streets away and walk to and from the car

Within a couple of months I had enough saved to redo the front seats and had dropped it off at the shop to get them redone. Two days later I stop by to check on the progress and there is no mustang in the lot. I thought perhaps it was inside so I went into the office and the guy behind the counter says "Oh ****!" and then went on to explain that the night I had dropped off the mustang he was robbed and had 4 cars stolen off the property. Of course one of them was mine

Very pissed off and having no recourse (no insurance and parents didn't know I had it) I cussed the guy out and broke some windows before leaving. Fast forward 6 months and I see a strange car parked in the parking spot for our apartment. It had government tags and and a big cb antenna sticking out of the back.

I go inside and there's my mom and some guy at the kitchen table waiting for me. He stands up and says he's agent so and so from the FBI and he wanted to have a word with me. My mom is totally pissed and can barely contain herself in front of him. He tells me that they found "some parts" of my car in Mexico and was asking if I wanted them back. Apparently there was a huge chop shop ring that was busted by the Feds and Federales down in Mexico somewhere.

My mom forbade me from getting the parts back (just the frame and empty body) and grounded me for 3 months. I also had to write a 5 page essay on what I did wrong, why it was wrong, and how I wouldn't do it again in the future. She also made me apologize to the shop owner and pay him back for the windows. And as a final punishment, all of my paychecks had to go directly to her and she would hold on to them for me until I wasn't grounded.

 

Damn Randy! that's awful to wake up to!, and Zombie, you better listen to mommy, she looks like a smart lady! it sucks you went through all that. Actually for me it was kinda fortunate to have a car stolen from my family, or I would probably be writing in a Chevy forum about my 83 Malibu.

 

Thew worst thing that ever happened to me in my truck was on just any other morning, I went into work, we had a big parking lot and at the end of it I found a few old cans jsut strung out there by a tree company that uses out parking lot from time to as well as uses our entrance as their own entrance for their building. Anyways I rolled in there stopped and killed the truck and popped it into a gear long enough to grab said cans pick them up and throw them into the closest garbage can. I then proceed to restart the truck and BAM it cranked as slow as it could. Now being stubborn and me thinking it would speed back up and catch with an already super-heated started I cranked and cranked on it until I start to smell something well.....burning. Not ten seconds later I see smoke from the hood and just bolt for the hood ready for the worst to come and for fire and dead truck all over a soda can. Thankfully it had only melted a small ground wire but it was enough to scare the crap out of me that day.

I wait about ten minutes after that and she started and purred like a kitten long enough for me to get out of the way of other cars starting to roll in and get to my normal hiddy hole on the parking lot. I learned my lesson there.

 

I put a new slave cylinder inand drove it to a new job after 1100 miles the slave cylinder line popped off the Oreillys slave cylinder (they changed the design of the clip don't buy them) I ended up speed shifting it the rest of the way. After that ended I ordered the parts to fix my truck and lived in the truck since I had a topper and camping gear. The next morning I woke up covered in snow a blizzard had blown through over night that was the polar vortex. So for three days I slept in the truck and spent my days in a diner. I got the parts and put them in leaving it running most of the time to warm up by the exhaust pipe it was about 25 below. I drove it most of the way home before the
Napa slave quit mostly and I made it home with a little grinding. Pulled it apart and the throw out bearing fell off.

Moral of the story buy motorcraft slave cylinders

 

I think this one is a good (or bad) nominee, sorry to the guy experiencing all the "issues":

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ing-gears.html

 

September 11 2001

At the age of 18, "I got up and got ready to go to school. When I walked outside I noticed that my truck, "The one I'm still driving to this day." Had the hood popped open and the driver side window busted.

Inside my two Amplifiers, two 12" subs-box, stereo headset, radar detector and my entire collection of Cd's was stolen.

During those days I use to clean the dust off the vehicle before the dew would set on the truck. SO....I felt confident that any criminal would of been caught. I called the police...

The police officer arrived on scene and started to take notes....Then a call came in through the officers radio...A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center. The alert status just went up and the police officer had to leave.....

I was never able to get any thing recorded down and all was lost....

 

I was on my way to work one morning heading east on a paved road. A 90's jeep grand Cherokee was coming at me in other lane and just before we met this '02 Pontiac whips into my lane, no time to avoid the head on collision he went under my '89 bronco launching me onto the front passenger quarter in the ditch and then I rolled back onto the wheels across the fence line. Pontiac spun out from under me and went into same ditch, crashing into a 2012 dodge pickup (still running In-transit stickers) All 3 vehichals were totaled. On the up side, no one was seriously injured and I used the insurance check to buy my bronco back from insurance as well as a '91 Silver Aniversary bronco, and still had money to spend on some new parts for it.
Hmmm, pics not uploading...

 

'88 Bronco and some starting issues. Was not wise enough to do all my appropriate home work, so just went to Napa and bought Echlin solenoid. Lasted maybe a week and stuck ... OK, grab another and do it again. Lasted three days and stuck in the line at the pump at Costco Gas Station Opened the hood and could not get it unstuck - starter run on, wiring smoldering - aw ***** ...

Smoke blowing and three guys helping me push it out of the station before I burned us all up. Had it towed to a buddy's and the only game in that town was new (rebuilt) starter and battery cables from - you guessed it NAPA and they were all Echlin ... Lasted three days - stuck, but big hammer fixed that

Now has same replacement Napa starter motor, bigger wires with soldered lugs, extra ground side to alternator mounting bolt, and most important of all - a MotorCraft solenoid with a spare in the console. Murphy says that with a spare, it will never fail

Went back to Costco a couple of months later and they were looking at it funny... But I assured them it was fixed good this time

 

I would hate to walk outside and find my truck looking like that lightning. I had a tree fall on a shop building and just barely miss my van. Had to put a new roof on the building, but a much easier fix than that truck needed.

 

Well it's not in my build thread, but the scariest incident I have ever had with a vehicle was while I was towing the loaded trailer with my Bronco and assorted parts on it from Iowa back to Florida. I was on day two of the trip back and coming into Atlanta on I75 in the early afternoon. It was an area where I75 is 8 lanes on each side and I'm in the 4th lane running 65 mph. Suddenly a small car zips across 3 lanes and cut me off so I hit the brakes. Then he slides over a lane ans accellerates ahead of me so I continue, just uttering a few choice words. Then the idiot car swerves in front of the semi in the lane to my right and hits the brakes trying to get to the exit from 5 lanes away. The semi swerved in front of me while locking up his brakes. I stomp the brake pedal and my Excursion slows, then the pedal goes all the way to the floor. I stomped the pedal again while I grabbed the trailer brake controller and hit the manual control for the trailer and give it all that the trailer can give it. I slowed enough with the trailer brakes to avoid hitting the semi that was now right in front of me.
Thankfully the next exit was coming up and it was a long uphill exit. I hit the signal, laid on the horn, and changed 4 lanes into the exit. I found a closed gas station on the exit and pulled in to inspect the problems. I crawled under the Excursion and found the brake line going to the rear brakes had split wide open along the framerail halfway between the front and rear connections of the line. It is a continuous line that is over 12 feet long and not available from Ford anymore. I found a Pep Boys parts house and shop 1/4 mile away on some back roads so I limped there at 5 mph using the trailer brakes and the emergency brake to stop. Best part was the guy at the sales counter explaining that I was not allowed to work on my vehicle in their parking lot. I left the stuff on his counter and went in the shop to talk to the manager. I explained what happened and he said he understood and would work me in as soon as I could unhook the trailer and get it lined up with his open bay. The mechanic took a roll of brake line to the bench after he took the old line off and matched it bend for bend until he was ready to put it on the Ex. They did a great job on my Ex while I watched the whole time and they only charged me for an hour of shop time even though it took a little over two hours to get it all fixed.
Scariest situation because I first thought I was going to crash and destroy both of my Fords in one crash, then because I had to let someone else work on my Excursion.

 

Hahahaha definitely mined some gold with this thread, keep them coming! I'll share another one later on.