When The Car You Just Bought Breaks Down

"Jay Lauer" (thefaultinourcars)
04/28/2016 at 09:16 • Filed to: None

Breaking down is a merit badge all car guys obtain at one point or another, because it’s simply not possible to experience the highs of enthusiast car ownership without also taking in the lows. One can never truly enjoy a sunny day without experiencing a couple rainy ones as well.

Breaking down is one thing. I’ve done it my fair share of times, but breaking down five hours from home is another.

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Read this and more on our new site, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , where I document my flips and my never-ending fight with the Chevy Avalanche Owners Association.

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So let me bring us back to how I ended up stranded in a Walmart parking lot in Nebraska with a dead phone and a truck I’d literally bought 20 minutes prior.

So I buy every manner of project car. Blown engines, head gaskets, light body work and riced. After some searching, I found this GMC Syclone out of South Dakota that had presented as mechanically solid, but cosmetically ugly.

The paint is beyond repair, the cladding mounts and rivets are all broken and the stock wheels are long since gone. It’s not a looker. I realize that, but it takes a certain eye to see what a car can be and not just as it is. I see potential.

The caveat to all the required work was that the truck was mechanically sound. After weeks of talking with the owner and planning out the transaction, we decided to meet in Omaha at the police station. After meeting, I test drove the truck and noticed a clanging noise at low speeds. I didn’t think much of it, but noted it to the owner. However, he mentioned that it didn’t make the noise yesterday when they drove the truck 500 miles down to Omaha. He had a point.

As planned, I carry on with the transaction and proceed to take the truck back home. The truck is running great and is just as quick and spritely as it’s 1991 Car & Driver features had led me to believe. It’s a strange atmosphere sitting in a truck seating position but having the feeling of nimbleness at one’s fingertips.

However, at about Bellevue, NE, a small vibration started that slowly but surely crescendoed it’s way through the cabin. Mile by mile the noise grew until it couldn’t be ignored. I decided to ignore it. I had to make it home.

Surely enough, after 5 or 6 loud miles later, the vibration moves it’s way into the steering wheels and it feels like all of the bolts are going to rattle themselves loose. This time I decide not to ignore it and pull over off the side off 75 Highway.

I stumble it to a Walmart parking lot hoping one of their mechanics can at least put it on a lift. They decline, but tell me of an independent shop two miles away that could possibly take a look.

The two miles were some of the sketchiest driving miles of my life.

Let me fill you in on what cause the issue. The GMC Syclone is AWD using a transfer case and two driveshafts. Each driveshaft has a U-Joint that connects it to the differential. Ideally, you want zero play in the U-Joint so that the driveshaft only spins in place. When a U-Joints starts to let go, it first vibrates the entire driveline. When a U-Joint fully lets go, it drops the driveshaft onto the road, which is bad. Real bad.

Gaining speed from idle, the truck now sounded like a small grimelin with a hammer was beating the transfer case with each rotation. The realization that this truck wasn’t going to make it home was slowly sinking into the mind. I’d never truly been stranded in a foreign city and I didn’t want to start now.

After limping it to Jensen Tire & Auto (Real nice guys. Props.) they confirmed what I had suspected and delivered the news: Bad U-Joints and destroyed yolk in the differential. They wouldn’t be able to have it fixed until four days later to the tune of roughly $900. Having a mechanic for a dad, I’ve always had a healthy distaste of other mechanics so all of this was bad news to me.

At this point I was faced with a dilemma. Leave the truck in Nebraska, have it fixed and make another trip to come pick it up or call my father and ask for a tow, 10 hours round trip costing lots in diesel fuel and feeling like a supreme jerk for ruining his day.

It wasn’t until about ten minutes after my ride had decided to leave that the idea came to me: U-Haul. I could get a rental trailer and return it in Kansas. Huzzah. I pulled out my phone to make the call

2% battery. Thanks Google Maps.

I tried to call my friend but midway through ring #3 my phone had died. Luckily, my friend Rick had the same idea and had actually returned five minutes later.

From here the story moves quite quickly. We rented the trailer, loaded the truck and left town. Six hours later, we made it to our shop and the truck was finally back safe.

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So what is there to be learned from this? Not a lot really. Bad stuff happens. I genuinely don’t think the previous owner was trying to deceive me. He drove the truck 500 miles the day prior. I chalk it up to poor timing. When I know a car’s broken, I bring a trailer. When I believe it drives, I don’t. Bad stuff happens. You live and you learn.

As of today, the Syclone is fixed with a new driveshaft installed and will be restored and repainted in the next couple months. I’ll keep updates coming.

DISCUSSION (13)

functionoverfashion > Jay Lauer
04/28/2016 at 09:30

In 2005 I bought a ‘93 Jeep XJ for $1800, pretty well beaten but it ran well. I made it about one mile from the house of the previous owner, came to a construction stop and found the clutch pedal to be completely unresponsive. WTF. I had test driven the jeep, and it worked right up to that point. Like, the pedal was on the floor with no life to it, like a limp noodle.

After a brief panic-stricken, expletive-filled moment, I got out and took a look. The rod that was connected to the pedal and supposed to go through the firewall to actuate the master cylinder or whatever, was hanging down behind the pedal. I lifted the pedal slightly, placed the rod back through the firewall, and voila! I was on my way. I never really “fixed” it, and just was careful not to sidestep the pedal after releasing it.

Eberle-Hills-Cop > Jay Lauer
04/28/2016 at 09:34

I once flew from NH to Virginia to purchase a 1997 Volvo 850R wagon. About 20 minutes after saying goodbye to the seller, the transmission seals (a thing that had just been repaired on it) gave up and pissed all the fluid away. And my phone was about to die, but I didn’t realize the cigarette lighter didn’t work. I’m not generally one to panic, but I had a full blown panic attack.

Luckily I managed to get one call off to the seller, and said enough garbled words describing landmarks that he was able to find me with a flatbed. I thought I was going to have to end up living in god knows where virginia the rest of my life.

Urambo Tauro > Jay Lauer
04/28/2016 at 09:35

U-joints are serious business. There was a recent post on Just Rolled Into the Shop where a bad joint was ignored, causing the transmission case itself to crack.

I once worked for a company that went through U-joint failures on multiple fleet trucks. These weren’t new trucks with a poor driveshaft design; no, they were old high-mileage trucks which received minimal maintenance. There were at least two instances where the driveshaft dropped on the freeway.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Jay Lauer
04/28/2016 at 09:45

I have mentioned my Mustang, right?

JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! > Urambo Tauro
04/28/2016 at 09:46

The U joint went bad on my V70R which caused a driveshaft to drop off the car whole cruising at 55mph

TheRealBicycleBuck > Jay Lauer
04/28/2016 at 10:23

My truck didn’t want to leave the state of Texas, so it died on the state line, on a Sunday, the day we were moving.

We were lucky enough to find a U-Haul place that opened at noon and that they had a tow dolly and a truck to pull it.

The truck died because the drive gear for the distributor finally wore out and two teeth broke off. It took a magnet to clean out the big shards, an oil change to clean out any small shards, a new distributor, and a timing light to get it running again.

Urambo Tauro > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
04/28/2016 at 10:24

Maybe you should have a look at those U-joints, too...

Meatcoma > Jay Lauer
04/28/2016 at 11:16

So looking forward to seeing this. Maybe even getting a ride in it.

Pickup_man > Jay Lauer
04/28/2016 at 12:27

Wait, You got this out of South Dakota? Where? Where was this amazing truck hiding from me?! If it truly was a 500 mile drive to Omaha it must have been from the western side of the state somewhere so I’m gonna guess Rapid City.

Jay Lauer > Pickup_man
04/28/2016 at 12:35

You guessed right. Ellsworth AFB.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > Jay Lauer
04/28/2016 at 15:20

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASYCLONEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASYCLONESYCLONESYCLONEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

...and breath.

Jay Lauer > Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer
04/28/2016 at 22:57

Damn man.

CCC (formerly CyclistCarCoexist) > Jay Lauer
04/28/2016 at 23:45

I thought you were bluffing. Nice Syclone.