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.

[bowtieguy79]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

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.

To me that sounds like a good Failure Analysis. Drive Shaft being the cause, with evidence on the road, axle and trans resulting failure. A good write up and photos sent to the driveshaft company may result in compensation.

Best of luck to your buddy, that is a killer wagon, I've always liked it.

[RockinKees]

First congratz on your daughters wedding!!

Second, nice pics!!!

Third, that was quite a road rage, to damage all that!
Never seen that before...

[lower50's]

That theory makes sense. Was there any other damage to the car? Glad they got pulled over safely.

[MIKESAD50]

WOW! Never seen that kind or destruction. Do you know if the driveshaft was on the edge of being to long for a one piece?

[Advanced Design]

Originally Posted by bowtieguy79

To me that sounds like a good Failure Analysis. Drive Shaft being the cause, with evidence on the road, axle and trans resulting failure. A good write up and photos sent to the driveshaft company may result in compensation.

Best of luck to your buddy, that is a killer wagon, I've always liked it.

Thanks Brad, my engineer buddy is pretty precise and thorough....and it is a theory. Probably accurate though not 100% positive. A local guy with a driveshaft business made it and my car owning friend probably won't press him on it. He was dreaming of doing this build 5 years ago and being so close with the setback is a little disheartening for him.

Originally Posted by RockinKees

First congratz on your daughters wedding!!

Second, nice pics!!!

Third, that was quite a road rage, to damage all that!
Never seen that before...

Thanks Kees, we ended up with many nice wedding pics.
Yeah, the car seemed angry with the road for sure. Hope you finished the install on your transmission ok!

Originally Posted by lower50's

That theory makes sense. Was there any other damage to the car? Glad they got pulled over safely.

Lowers, the floor pan on the car near the trans was pretty beat up. Other than that, and broken replaceable parts, the car was ok. You are so right on them getting pulled over and stopped safely. If the left axle wasn't held in place by the rear cover, the car could have rolled.

Originally Posted by MIKESAD50

WOW! Never seen that kind or destruction. Do you know if the driveshaft was on the edge of being to long for a one piece?

Mike, the original driveshaft was a little longer than this one. My service engineer background friend advised the 3" shaft diameter was too small for the 55 inch length. Factory was 3 1/4". And heavy wall tubing contributed to the issue as well.

Here the rear cover is holding the axle tube in.

[Advanced Design]

Note the negative camber on left rear wheel.

[Zoomin]

Hey, congrats on picking up some shop help, aka a son in law!

[Advanced Design]

Originally Posted by Zoomin

Hey, congrats on picking up some shop help, aka a son in law!

Thanks Zoomin! Good part is he is a certified aircraft mechanic and inspector. Really good with his hands. Bad news is he lives 12 hours away!

[rkn463]

Back when I was about 13 (a long time ago indeed) I was riding home with my brother one night in his 68 Camaro that he had "built". I love all of my brothers but like all human beings they each have their quirks. This particular brother always had a few "spare" nuts and bolts left over anytime he worked on his car. So anyway, there we are on a two lane blacktop in the middle of the night when suddenly the car starts shaking really bad. Not knowing what it is he gives it some gas and then backs off and suddenly there is the loudest bang I've ever heard in a car that wasn't just hit by another car, followed by a terrible thrashing and banging. We get the car over to the side of the road only to find that the driveshaft had come loose at the differential where he had forgotten to tighten the clamps. This was back in the mid 70's long before cell phones and we were miles and miles from the nearest pay phone or even a house for that matter. Anyway, in the end the car had a huge dent in the floor and we had a very late night. Back in those days a replacing drive shaft for a 68 Camaro was just a quick trip to the wrecking yard.

I think experiences like that are why I have over think and overdo everything now.

From the looks of the picture his wagon survived pretty well, I'm glad your friend is ok and the car is fixable.

-Richard

[Advanced Design]

Richard, the driveshaft incident in your brothers car was sure one to remember.

So I've left this fuel tank and filler pipe sitting right here for a couple weeks ....no minions have showed up to do the install.

[Advanced Design]

And this week we've set up for and started Metal Meet 2016.

Peter's English wheel is like the Rolex of wheels....very nice.

[Advanced Design]

TIG welding seminar taking place here. Great learning opportunity. Oh, and BlueJeep from Des Moines, IA. is attending too.

We started today and the event will run through Saturday.

[RockinKees]

Are the seminars at your place Doug?
Do you organize these?

I never worked with an English wheel, looks like great fun to make things on that!
Tig welds very nice, I have a small tig machine, I love it!

[GAc10boy]

Tough to see that kind of damage to the rearend on the wagon but glad it's fixable. Can't wait to see more progress on the burb.

[Advanced Design]

Hi Kees, the event is held at the fairgrounds in Oblong and I am one of the organizers. We have folks from around the US and one Australian attending with a focus on metal shaping.

Hey Robbie, appreciate you checking in. Yard work is slowing down so shop time and Burb progress should increase soon. At least I hope so....

[lower50's]

How often are the Metal Meets? That would make for a great weekend trip.

[Advanced Design]

Originally Posted by lower50's

How often are the Metal Meets? That would make for a great weekend trip.

Hey Lower, this one takes place once annually in October. Really great people and lots of learning...

[Advanced Design]

Here is the panel that was being made in the pic above....

[lower50's]

Thanks Doug I'll put it on my list for next year.

[joedoh]

look like fun times, I remember seeing a metalshapers meetup years ago where they all brought their english wheels and shot bags and built a 33 willys coupe. from scratch. in aluminum. I realized that the sparky life was for me.

[youngrodder]

Looks like a fun get together. Don't feel bad about your lack of Suburban time, I have not touched mine in months...

Marc

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

And this week we've set up for and started Metal Meet 2016.

Peter's English wheel is like the Rolex of wheels....very nice.

Wow, what a great learning opportunity!

-Richard

[Advanced Design]

Ok, in between working on the Gator, the Grasshopper, and doing the final yard work of the season I was able to get in a little shop time. Emphasis on little....

Wife arranged a very comfortable shop seating area for the winter, complete with salted peanuts in the shell and cold beverages....nice though it doesn't contribute to getting up and getting to work.

[Advanced Design]

In earlier posts I mentioned the new floor was media blasted and coated with Lizard Skin. It looks pretty good from the bottom.