Pumpkin on fire!

[whitesswj]

Long rant - here goes.

Well. I took the Beast out for a long trip today. He don't get many so I thought it would be a great bonding time.

Well 190 miles round trip and he made it 170 of them on his own and had to be towed the last 20.

Was having fun doing 80MPH on the free way and the whining that's normal was getting louder and louder coming from the gear box so though, "Oh crud. Here we go again with the tranny issues!" Well get to the 190 mile marker on Missouri's I-70 east bound and the whining turned into a on-off-on jerking then BANG!!!!!! and sparks come flying out the rear of the truck.

I'm thinking the drive shaft broke and fell down. Trow it in neutral and get off the road quick. Jump out to look down to see a nice amber flicker on the ground coming from the rear end. Look under and . Yea FIRE!!!
I had a 1L of Coke with me and had barely sipped from it and so I grab it and start to splash it on the rear end as the fire is coming out the pinion seal and the bottom. THE BOTTOM OF THE PUMPKIN WAS GLOWING AMBER.
OH HOLY CRAP.

I run out of Coke and the fire still burning. So I ring 911 and they send a fire truck but it was out by the time they get there.
We load the truck up for the 20 mile tow and while it's on the flat bed I take a gander and see the bottom of the rear end is broken and has a nice hole it it.
Look on the ground where the truck was sitting and there's barely any oil there and what is there is jet black.

So, with that all said, I need a new rear end near St Louis. Sorry for the long rant.