Engine fell out of a car?

[boisking]

I know you all have heard the phrase, or at least a variant of it. People refer to crappy cars as if all kinds of parts fall off while they are driving. I never gave it any mind until Friday morning...

I got a PT job working with Johnwag, delivering magazines in a diesel VW. When I got to Texarkana, a mis-installed motor mount stripped out and (you guessed it) the motor dropped vertically. Luckily, It wedged iteself in the engine compartment and stopped 2-3 inches above the ground (where the cast aluminum oil pan would have seen its end). After waiting around in that great town for 8.5 hours, John brought parts and tools, so I could fix the car (in a gas station parking lot) and drive it home. Thanks to John, for all the help.

BTW, Texarkana appearently does not even have a VW dealership. Parts for the repair came from Dallas.

Anybody have any good "fell off my car" stories? I had an exhaust hanger break and muffler hit the ground once, too.

[Titus]

Bean left his muffler in corner 3 once.

[channelmaniac]

I used to have an Escort ZX-2 that was missing the idle dashpot on the carb. Whenever you let off the gas it would idle so low it would try to die and if the car was running it would backfire after dumping a bunch of gas in the exhaust.

One night when driving home in it, the wife was following me in the Tercel and I put the clutch in and let it die down while slowing down for a left turn. When I let the cluch out and hit the gas pedal there was a huge BANG! What was left of the cat shot into the muffler and the muffler split wide open down the pinch seam with a huge ball of fire shooting out the back of the car.

The car was LOUD after that

Got the muffler replaced the next day and when they cut it off it fell straight down with a heavy THUD and didn't bounce. All the innards of cat made it quite a bit heavier than what it was supposed to be.

[TurboDuane]

Shortly before my wife and I got married, she was driving a 1981 Chevette. While sitting at a stoplight the crank pully flew off along with the belts. It went rolling down the street and so she chased it down. Turns out the crank nose was stripped out.

I've also had a wheel come off of two separate vehicles.

1st was my '68 Land Cruiser, left front. I made a corner and lost stearing, when I looked out my side window, I saw my front wheel passing me.

2nd was in a 66 C-15 pickup, lost a rear tire while pulling a boat to the lake. I had my dog and a couple of people back there. I heard that one just prior to the wheel coming off, as the lugnuts started breaking and thowing them into the finder. Both times, I suspected someone had attempted to steal the wheels, but got interupted before getting them off.

[ray_sir_6]

Driving my HMMWV in Baghdad, the vehicle started to rock side to side, then, BAM, the right front (pass side) wheel came off. It actually steered BETTER without the front wheel on, and my passengers all were dying laughing after we pulled over. They had no idea what was going on (neither did I) until they saw the wheel go rolling by. I was going 40mph at the time, and I passed the wheel and it ended up hitting the back of the vehicle. The vehicle had just been serviced, and the mechanic didn't put the locking tabs back in for the hub.

[Dave04]

Bean left his muffler in corner 3 once.

Technically, it was just the end pipe...

[MadMonkey]

An engine fell off of one of my planes yesterday...

[Nexus Flux]

While on a pizza delivery run, I had the whole shifter break off on my 86 Mitsu Cordia. I was at the only stop light in Adams, MA, and I was in the left turn lane to boot. Luckily it broke off and stayed in neutral, and I had to get one of the other drivers to make the delivery.

After slightly scrapping a tree with the left side of the tank, I received a radio call that the first two armor skirts were torn off the tank. They weigh about 1000 lbs. and they were thrown about 20 ft. from the road. I managed to catch the tree right between the track and the armor plates while I was comming around a turn. None of us on the tank even realized what happened till someone called us on the radio after we drove by them a few miles from where we lost the armor. I'll have to find the pic of the tree and scan it in.

Here is a good shot of the side of the tank. The first two skirts were still atached to each other when the landed



I lost a water buffalo while driving a hummer down a hill. The water trailer cam unhitched and nose-dived into the dirt. Then it flipped over on its side after lawndarting the front of the trailer.

Pic of water buffalo

[creek]

Lost the left rear wheel on a Dodge Van while going around a right hand turn. The van laid over on its side and caused an involuntary hazmat spill on my part.

The only other thing I've had fall off was the driveshaft on my '62 Chevy II that twisted up like a barber pole, pulled out of the rear of the transmission and pole vaulted the back of the car up into the air, ripping the differential out of the car. I suspect it had something to do with the Chevelle SS 396 engine I had swapped in to the car.