Thread: Guardian Angel

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Saturday evening Feb 14th my 91 year old step father passed away in Dayton, Ohio. Arrangements were made for burial the coming Friday so I decided to leave Thursday morning for the 650 or so mile trip. My 04 Dakota was making some front end noise which I attributed to worn pads that I hadn't taken time to change. At about 7:30 in the evening a half mile or so from the east 5 mile marker on I-70 In Ohio all hell broke loose. I'm running about 70 in the left lane when the steering wheel jerks to right and as I slowed and moved into the right lane the left front wheel assembly broke loose and put the left front end on the pavement. the truck wanted to go left left so I guided it to the right shoulder at about a 30º angle finally stopping close to the guard rail. Fortunately there was no traffic either in front or behind me for a quarter of a mile or so, so the only thing damaged was my truck and my pride.
I have Allstate insurance and they assured me a tow truck was on the way. After an hour or so of waiting an Ohio State trooper pulled behind me and informed me that they had been contacted by Allstate since they couldn't locate a tow truck in the area.They found one out of Englewood, Ohio which was my destination. After a bit of chit chat the trooper found my errant wheel assembly and even loaded it the bed for me. A true professional and credit to the Ohio State Patrol.
The truck was taken to Seibert Automotive in Englewood and the owner, Brian Seibert Sr., is an ASE Master L-1 Technician and a competent, honest individual to boot.
I picked the truck up Monday and the bill was just a tad over $1100 with most of that in parts since I was charged $144.89 for labor. I was expecting to pay more and they also did a 10 mile test drive'
I forgot to mention that the left front wheel bearings seized which caused the problem.
Quite a harrowing experience and I guess my guardian angel was looking out for me.

wow - that would have been interesting in rush hour traffic!!
sorry to hear about your step-dad but 91 is a good innings

Sorry to hear of your loss.. and glad to learn you got the truck to a safe stop and were well treated by a local shop.

X2, sorry for your loss, but he was blessed with 91 years. Quite a story on the spindle failure! It could have easily been a whole lot of problems, but glad that you have this story to tell vs something worse. It's great to hear about honest shops taking care of people who run into problems traveling, and I hope a lot of Ohio folks hear your story.

Sorry for your loss also. Glad both you and the truck survived, it's nice to find and hear about honest and competent shops still being out there.

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Sorry for your loss.
But I have to ask, did ya have to change those shorts after that wild ride?????

You're very fortunate indeed Ken, glad you weren't hurt.

Thanks for the kind words everybody and I could say that I'm one hell of a driver, but I didn't panic and it was just dumb luck and I'm glad and so fortunate that no one got hurt and no property damage.
And no I didn't have to change my shorts, but for awhile there it was touch and go.

Wow!
Good to know that you're okay, and, as you say, no-one got hurt.
Something like that has the potential to be a 'major'.
You had an angel on your shoulder for sure!

Sorry to hear of your loss, and I'm glad your bad truck ride didn't end worse.

You picked a fine time to leave me loose wheel! My Dad had that happen when I was about 5 years old. We were going down HWY 41 in a '51 Ford sedan when a front wheel came off. Very scarey.

I too offer my condolences to you and the Family for your loss - - - - - your subject title is more than apropo to say the least - - - - you are certainly lucky but certainly an experienced driver to have overcome the many possibilities that "could" have developed had you not done the right thing.

Sure good to have you around still posting
Em

Sometimes your guardian angel will play gremlin to keep you from bigger problems.

On a 64 C10, my clutch linkage popped out. No tools, and I could not get it back in. I walked home. Next day, I came out to look at it before calling a tow, and the inkage just slid in. I gingerly drove it home, and grabbed wrenches to adjust.

Riddle me this, bat man: the adjustment was perfect. I couldn't see how it popped out, nor how I should have been able to slip it back in.

Originally Posted by firebird77clone

Sometimes your guardian angel will play gremlin to keep you from bigger problems.

On a 64 C10, my clutch linkage popped out. No tools, and I could not get it back in. I walked home. Next day, I came out to look at it before calling a tow, and the inkage just slid in. I gingerly drove it home, and grabbed wrenches to adjust.

Riddle me this, bat man: the adjustment was perfect. I couldn't see how it popped out, nor how I should have been able to slip it back in.

Originally Posted by firebird77clone

Sometimes your guardian angel will play gremlin to keep you from bigger problems.

On a 64 C10, my clutch linkage popped out. No tools, and I could not get it back in. I walked home. Next day, I came out to look at it before calling a tow, and the inkage just slid in. I gingerly drove it home, and grabbed wrenches to adjust.

Riddle me this, bat man: the adjustment was perfect. I couldn't see how it popped out, nor how I should have been able to slip it back in.

You think like I do, that there was a fatal accident just waiting for you a few miles down the road, so your angel fubared the linkage to prevent you getting there. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

By the way, there is a way to get home with no clutch. I had to do it one Sunday after fritzing the linkage (broke the pivot) on my '59 Studebaker at the Hamilton, Ohio drag strip. This happened on my last pass for the trophy, going into third gear and pulling ahead of my opponent.

From a standstill with the motor not running, put the trans in first gear. Key the starter and the car will go forward while starting the motor. Run up to 20-25 mph in first gear, then modulate the throttle to shift to second. You can shift without any grinding if you get the motor going the right speed to coordinate with the wheel speed. Run up a little in second and then do the same balancing act for shifting to third and so on. When you have to stop, go to neutral and kill the motor, coasting to a stop. When you have to go again, repeat the procedure. I drove the 40 or so miles back to home in Dayton with this procedure (thank God for strong starter motors back then). I don't know where Ken (NTFDAY) was that Sunday, he normally would have been with me, but that Sunday I was by myself.

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