...Too bad I don't have any pictures.
Last Sunday, I was working on an '86 F-250 that I'm putting another motor in for a guy. Anyway, I'm finishing it up, installing the drivelines... and find that the rear driveline will /not/ work. The transfer case that came with the rig had a fixed output yoke... Not convinced it was the one for that truck...
Anyway, I call up the owner to see if he has another driveline I can use. He does, so I drive over that way.
After a few stops and like 15 miles of driving, I'm about 2 miles away from his place. I turn off the highway onto a 45MPH 2-lane country road, and notice that my digital oil pressure gauge has gone to 0.
That's odd...
My factory oil pressure gauge(switch) is still reading "OK"...
I slow down a bit, just take it easy and continue driving, looking for a place to pull off. \
I don't find anything, due to all the snow having been piled into berms on both sides, so I keep going, around 35MPH. I'm listening, and the truck sounds fine... Keep going.
My factory oil pressure gauge starts jumping around and slowly drops to "low". ****
I still don't have any place to turn off, but I'm really close now. Maby a quarter mile of flat, and a half downhill. I just keep going, push the clutch in and coast down the hill. Finally make the guy's driveway(after sliding past it and having to back up), pull in and shut her off.
I was kind of concerned about the oil pressure, but I didn't hear the lifters start clattering, so I figured it was probably electrical.
It wasn't.
Turns out, the 1/4" brass nipple I had attached to the turbo factory gauge sender spot literally cracked, right at the threads. And proceeded to pump out all my oil all over the engine, transmission and everything behind me.
Fortunately, this guy was understanding(having a lot of Fords himself), and got me 2 gallons of oil to get me back on the road. I removed the broken off nipple, shoved the factory sender back in it's spot, and continued on my way... slowly dripping oily snow as I went.
Sunday night, I went to my Dad's place for Christmas. So, after the earlier fiasco, I headed off, stopped at Autozone to get a new belt (the old one had gotten soaked with enough that it was squeaking a lot), installed it in the parking lot and drove off. Made it there and back without issue.
Tuesday, my last day off, I managed to get to the car wash, and after finding out that the credit card machines were broken(and so was the change machine), I finally got a roll of quarters and washed most of the oily junk off.
Wednesday, I decided I had to haul a friends GMC Jimmy to my Dad's place, an hour away.
Only problem is, we have had quite a bit of snow, though some of it had melted. By Friday, we were supposed to be getting another foot.
Wednesday night at around 4PM(dark), I unearth my 2-axle car hauler, get it hooked up to the '93, swear at the left turn signal wiring not working, and fix it.
Haul on over to where I was picking up the Jimmy, get the truck and trailer in position(sliding a bit, even with 4x4).
We couldn't get it out of park due to the battery being disconnected and the hood latch cable broken(**** Chevy), so we hooked it up to the backhoe on the property. Literally drag it right to the back of the trailer in park, through the snow.
We did manage to get it un-jammed, reconnected and out of park finally, so we didn't have to drag it up the trailer deck(tilt trailer), but even so, it took pulling with a chain and the backhoe around a steel "corner" on the trailer. Finally got it loaded... got out of there at like 7:45PM.
Got home around 8, and had to get it turned around. Unfortunately, the only area I could turn around in that was plowed was downhill a bit... and I got stuck. Badly.
I had to borrow the big 4x4 tractor(all chained up) and it /barely/ managed to drag me and the trailer out of the snow and back on to the flat.
After only a few minutes of cursing and shoving the back end of the trailer off the road in multiple spots, I finally got it close enough to my house that I parked it and went to sleep for the night... at like 10PM. (I try to be in bed at 8 on weeknights).
Over night, it started to snow.
Thursday, 5:45AM saw me pulling this mess to work. One steep hill where I turn from a country road onto the highway at the bottom I basically just slid down the hill at like 15MPH... just sliding. Fortunately, I was able to time it such that there was no cars and just /go/. Got to work safely.
10AM, I took off early to get this dealt with before dark. Drove it to my Dad's place with one other stop along the way; except for the stop, I was in 2wd the whole way, with the hubs unlocked.
I had to keep the hubs unlocked whenever possible, because the right front U-joint was disintegrating and bouncing around. Not a good idea to use it when I didn't have to...
Once there, offloading was easy - Chain up the front tires for traction, back up to a tree, hook the jimmy to the tree with a chain, and pull out from under it.
Got it done, headed back, and was back in town around 2:30PM.
Got home, pulled in, stopped... and got stuck. No way of turning the trailer around, not with the 4+inches of snow that had fallen that day.
Spent the evening plowing things out, and then pushing the trailer where it belonged with the tractor.
Friday, I went to work at 5:45, with only a couple more inches of snow since the previous night. Got there OK, and after work, I came home to plow again. Plowed a bit, had dinner, and at 7 decided I needed to replace that U-joint.
Turns out that with the right tools and parts(and a dry place to work), I can replace a wheel U-joint and axle shaft seal in 2 hours. I was done by 9PM, and went to bed.
So, yeah... I've had a fun week... but my '93 just keeps on trucking. Pretty impressed over all - with the RD2-110(and a full glow plug cycle) it fires within 2 revolutions, even at 20F.
The only 'interesting' thing is that you have to be /really/ careful in the snow - in 2wd especially, it has enough torque to spin the tires without even trying. Even in 4x4, it's still pretty easy to spin them off idle. And I pretty much have to upshift early at like 2K, when the (ever increasing) torque just breaks the tires loose as it accelerates.
edit:
Added another story
