48 Burb, bagged, 5.3, 20 year wait

[Advanced Design]

Originally Posted by oldman3

Whoa, never seen something like that...Jim

Me neither Jim.

Originally Posted by joedoh

what the heck? did he powder coat and loosen the axle joint? inquiring minds need the story!





I feel the same way about spiders. everyone freaks out and says "agggghhh burn it with fiiiyyyeeerrrr" and I just scoop them up and put them out. education is the right way to handle it, taught my girls catch and release, when my oldest was 9 she brought me a jar of bees. they werent even mad, just confused. I even stopped a guys foot from smashing a jumping spider that popped out to see what all the noise was when I was cutting some old metal. he jumped on my hand (the spider, not the guy) and walked around then popped off somewhere.

The rear was painted. Good idea on the powder and heat possibly causing the problem.
Our daughter is the same about spiders...catch and release. Wife is more the scream and stomp group.

Originally Posted by reaper71

Dang Doug!!
reminds me of "Johns" 8" ford that blew apart awhile back.

Mark...

Mark, I was thinking of your story when looking at the pics...and trying to figure out what happened.

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

Wow..never seen that happen to a rearend..heard about it happening but never seen it...any idea of what caused it? That's a nice wagon btw..and congrats on the wedding..

Thanks mongo. It was a great wedding. The wagon came from Cali and is pretty solid. We have some ideas on what happened that I will speculate on below.

Originally Posted by SSABMUD

Holy crap! This is why I stick with the 9". They are pretty strong.

They are...and pretty sure a 9" is going back in.

Originally Posted by lower50's

Wow what happened? That's one long trail of death.

That's what we've been wondering. Friends reported it sounded like a grenade going off at a steady cruise speed. Fairly high speed though. The rear was just rebuilt with new gears, diff case, bearings by a guy who specializes in rear ends in WI. I expected something like the pinion shaft bolt broke and ran between the pinion and ring gear. Or a diff bearing cap came loose, or loose pinion nut. None of the typical contributers were noted.

Another friend with a long and strong auto service engineering background is theorizing the drive shaft (newly manufactured) failed at high speed. The length and weight caused it to begin whipping, contacting the ground leading to the failure. Driveshaft jammed to the ground, prying the pinion up and back, leading to the housing failure. He advised if the rear locked first, the driveshaft would have twisted rather than bent.

He might have a point. There are three fresh gouges in the road evident before the oil was spread over the surface. So, possible he is right...he makes a compelling case.