Another Tiring Late Week

This past week was an interesting week to say the least.  After hauling hay last Sunday I left the trailer hooked on the truck so that Tuesday Allyssia and I could finish cleaning out the old barn in Livermore Falls.  I ran home after work Tuesday and met Allyssia at the barn with the truck and trailer and we loaded the trailer up.  I headed home and Allyssia was following a little ways behind.  I made it half way home and the front universal joint of the rear drive shaft blew apart. 

Where the drive shaft dropped out was far from a good spot for me to be broken down let alone trying to crawl under the truck.  Luckily an extremely kind lady drove around the corner from where I was broken down, put her four way flashers on and slowed traffic down while I worked on removing the driveshaft from the rear end of the truck.  Another thing that really saved me is the fact that I carry a small adjustable wrench in my pocket and I was able to remove the U-bolts from the rear yolk to remove the driveshaft.  Once the rear drive shaft was out a I took off for home once again with the truck in four wheel drive.  I guess that this would be a good place to interject that my headlights were progressively getting dimmer as I went along.  Thinking that I could make it home I took the route with the least uphill's to minimize the hard work on the front end.  I was coasting down one of the hills hoping that I could limp home when I heard a clanging from the rear.  I immediately pulled over and found the slip yolk that comes out of the transfer case to be missing.  More on that later.  As it was dark out and I had fading lights I continued home and was coasting down the last hill with practically no lights and the truck shuts off.  Thinking that I could coast to the dirt road and leave it for the night I popped the transmission in neutral and hoped for the best.  Unfortunately I stopped once again in a less than desirable spot.  After borrowing booster cables from a nearby house and flagging down a good Samaritan and almost a half hour of his truck charging mine I was able to get the truck started and slowly limp the remaining mile home.  It was a very stressful night but I am thankful that the trailer did not have horses in it and that Allyssia was not driving.  I think that Allyssia would have handled it fine but I would prefer that it happen to me. After all that, the next day I called every junk yard around looking for a slip yolk but there were none to be found.  In Motor supply they could order me one but needed the old one for dimensions. 

As this picture shows I did indeed find the slip yolk.  After work I walked up and down Rout 156 in the area I thought I heard the noise.  In all, I probably walked a mile and a half looking for the slip yolk and luckily found it.  Tomorrow I should have a new slip yolk and all the fluids and parts to do an oil change, transmission service, fuel filter, and transfer case service.  Between working on my truck and the many other things that I have not posted about there should be a post every other day this week, if not every day.  As always stay tuned and stay patient, we are always working here at the Rusty Gold Farm.