Your worst mechanical fail???

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old_man

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Loveland, Colorado
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Tom
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Houston
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While not mechanically the worst, I had a piece of dirt stick in the steering gear valving and it froze the steering gear and it wouldn't turn as I was dropping off a ledge. The drivers side wheel dropped in a hole I was supposed to steer to the side of.


This was on Moab Rim "Z turn". If the boulder hadn't stopped me, there was a 500 foot drop off on the other side.



We flipped it back on its wheels and I made it back down the trail and into town. Then the steering mysteriously freed up. I drove it back 400 miles from Moab like that.
 
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old_man

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Loveland, Colorado
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Here it is after a long weekend in my garage.


I wheeled it hard for 3 more years before the unibody spot welds started popping like popcorn. I got a donor body and did a 4 day driveway swap by myself.
 
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Chadlyb

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Bend, OR, USA
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While not mechanically the worst, I had a piece of dirt stick in the steering gear valving and it froze the steering gear and it wouldn't turn as I was dropping off a ledge. The drivers side wheel dropped in a hole I was supposed to steer to the side of.


This was on Moab Rim "Z turn". If the boulder hadn't stopped me, there was a 500 foot drop off on the other side.



We flipped it back on its wheels and I made it back down the trail and into town. Then the steering mysteriously freed up. I drove it back 400 miles from Moab like that.
Ouch.....bet that scared the crap out of you knowing you were going over no matter what...glad you were ok
 

old_man

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Loveland, Colorado
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Houston
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I'm an old, beat up, busted up, adrenaline junky, so my BP didn't really go up that much. I was just worrying about how much it would damage it and if I would be able to drive it home. My wife was across the way, video taping it. She got a bit rattled. The mild mannered, prim and proper, ordained minister, uttered a few expletives that I caught on tape. She made me edit them out. When I crawled out laughing, she hauled off and smacked me.
 
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Daryl 32

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Corona, Ca
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To date ours was a high pressure oil line failure on the 7.3 diesel, the HPO line is what makes the injectors open and close on a 7.3. So as soon as it popped the engine stopped running, sorta like pulling the coil wire off a gas engine.

We were pulling our glamping base camp up a steep narrow two line highway out of Ansa Borrago (Out of Cell Service) we were on the side of the road for 11 hours waiting for the tow trucks to come.

Stuck.jpg

broken 1.jpg


But we had - had a great time up to then.

camping 2.jpg

Daryl and Ernie 2.jpg

picture 6.jpg
 

Sparky

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No photos, but we had multiple simultaneous failures on a bad Craigslist deal once. Friend came over with what I believe was a 73 Chevy stepside, small block and 4x4. 4wd linkage was broken, fixed that. It had a dual gas tank setup who's functionality was unknown. Put gas in it and turned the truck on an gas literally started shooting out the filler. Grabbed a bucket and collected gas and before we could diagnose it the head gasket blew externally. It was leaking gas and coolant at the same time.. there was coolant everywhere haha. He sold it later that week to a mechanic.
 

robrtsmtn

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Aztec, NM
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Wish I had pics, but years ago lost the pitman arm link on a K10 Chevy with an overhead camper on a winding road out of Los Alamos, NM. Got it shut down on the side of the road before we went over the edge. Stayed the night in the camper, and next morning I used about 20 feet of baling wire to hold the link on the pitman arm to get home.