Thread: Broke my Tow Vehicle....

My Chevy Tahoe started whining in the hills, more like mountains, of KY/TN on the way up to Ohio. Sounded a bit like a sewing machine on high-speed, or a low volume jet engine. Almost a whistle at 75-ish, inaudible at 25 mph. Only made noise while on the gas, coasting it went silent. Got worse on the way home, enough to drive me nuts for 24-freaking-hours on the road.

It started sounding like I was dragging a man-hole cover down the road as I drove it to the local repair shop.

Got the news today. Rear ring gear. Done 'sploded. Took out the rear differential completely.

I suppose that this is not the ideal fix on which to start learning how to wrench.

$1,400'ish ought to cover it. Lovely.

The Convention? Still priceless.

Shawn B

At least you made it back! Another victim of the drive home in the aftermath of the convention. I spun a rod bearing on my P10 two days after the Convention.

Totally worth a blown engine and a blown rear end.

Still waiting on the ultra sweet oil change tutorial from ya, Shawn. Any help at all, I will provide it for you.

Bingo. I was initially worried I'd be calling for a tow-truck by the side of I-40 South somewhere outside of Arkla-fucking-delphia, next to some toothless local yokels playing the banjo on their porch. THAT would have sucked. "You sure have a purty mouth. I think your rear-end is squealing...like a pig. Squeeeeeeeaaal."

Stuff breaks. It sucks, but it could have happened in my pasture dragging a tree to a burn pile, instead of while trailering my Classic to Ohio.

Sorry to hear about your rod bearing. At least it did not happen on the track and you got to finish out the Convention.

I am going to be changing the oil, and finding my oil leak, in my Classic shortly. All by myself, I'll holler (and probably rant) when I get stuck. Got to run to Harbor Freight this week for some proper tools/equipment. Copying your jack/jack-stands set up from your thread on the same. Got a thread I am working on (yes, working on before posting it) for the Tools Section. Us clueless beginners needs a reference point on properly outfitting a basic auto-repair garage. Even if I am the only clueless beginner.

Shawn B

Been there and done that with my old miata:

Damn Shawn sorry to hear.... I did not notice a thing while towing my Classic.

The noise was there. You were in an unfamiliar vehicle, if I know you, probably yapping.

The vehicle operated just fine. No hiccups, dash lights, no struggling on the way home, no shifting weird, no nothing. Just that noise.

It got un-gawdly bad on the way home. A bit louder. Droning. Incessant.

After they called me from the shop, I looked up the issue on the interwebz. Yep, 1200-1400 for a re-manned unit. The local shops price is right on track, and that type of repair I could not even begin to do myself. No way, no how. I'm gonna attempt an oil change first.

Speaking of oil changes, Harbor Freight is calling my name this week. Maybe Lowes or Sears as well. I will work on my Classic, and let the local repair shop deal with my big Chevy appliance.

welded diffs ftw

Diffs... at least the regular ones like I am guessing this is are not that hard and there are not all that many parts in it.

Mcarps pic shows pretty much every part that will be in there. Ring gear would be behind what is seen in that pic.

you don't wanna get me started on the "brand effing new" F-250 SC that did a similar thing to me @ ~3500 miles on the odo. seems Ford, in their haste to build my truck, forgot 90% of the gear lube. ring, pinion and side bearings trashed. i'll NEVER own another ford, EVER! sorry for the rant:o
good thing ya made it home, man.

^^^^^should of gotten a frontier