Well there is now a foot-note to the Ft Bliss trip. I was heading down to San Antonio to pick up my friend and then head up to Austin for the Lonestar MVPA meeting at Camp Mabry last night. I had just stopped and fueled up (25 gallons) and pulled out on the hiway when I heard the dreaded "thump, thump, thump" from the rear end. I was only about 5 miles from home so figured I could baby it back with a bad u-joint without having to get my nice clean t-shirt dirty.
U-turn to head north on Hiway 281 with the 4 ways on and the rythmic thumping of the bad joint when I pass a local LEO with someone pulled over. Knowing that as soon as he was done he would stop me for noise pollution and driving on the shoulder, I decided to go ahead, stop and pull the drive shaft and just drive home in 4-hi.
I get the u-joint undone with no problem (one of the bearing caps had disappeared) and pulled the yoke out of the transmission when the flood gates opened. Now we're not talking about a little tranny fluid leaking out the back I mean the entire fluid capacity of a TH400 came spewing out the back.
Remembering said LEO down the road I jumped back in and instead of trying to make it home I drove straight to a repair shop about 1/4 mile from where I was stopped leaving about a 6" wide trail behind me with a nice perfect arc leading into the shop's lot.
I'm waiting for the entire diagnosis today but am guessing it's a seal in the tail shaft of the tranny. I can only say I'm extremely happy this didn't happen between El Paso and San Antonio. For those who may not know the area it's about 500 miles of moonscape and a long tow home.
To Be Continued...
