Ahhhhh!!!!! Truck broke down!!

[arveetek]

No, it's not the engine. Over 120,000 nearly trouble-free miles since rebuilt in 1996. The old 6.2L has been the most reliable engine I've ever owned.

No, it's the steering! If you recall, a couple of weeks ago I disassembled the steering gear box in order to repair a power steering fluid leak. I ended up having to remove and reinstall the worm gear to fix it.

All seemed well since then. No more leak, and the steering was tighter than ever. However, after turning a corner at an intersection tonight, the steering wheel locked up solid and wouldn't turn either direction. This locked me into a turn, so I had to pull into the center turn lane and come to a stop. There I was, in the middle of the road, unable to turn my wheel.

After wrestling the wheel back and forth a few times, I was able to get the wheels to turn a bit. I managed to pull into a nearby parking lot to see what I could do.

I could get the steering wheel to turn back and forth a few times, and then it locked up solid again. Finally, after trying to decide whether to attempt to drive to my in-laws a short distance away, or leave the truck where it was at, it decided for me. The gearbox broke, and now the steering wheel spins freely without any effect on the wheels whatsoever! Good thing I didn't attempt to drive it any further.

Talk about scary! I'm just glad this didn't happen at 70 mph. I'd have run off the road, swerved into oncoming traffic, or gotten killed!

I had no idea that a gearbox could fail like that. So much for fixing it myself, eh? Guess I'll be buying a new box tomorrow!

Anybody else ever experienced anything like that?

Casey