Well the other day my wife took the car to go run some errands. Wouldn't it figure that only 4 days prior I was commenting to her about how the Hooptie (our 66 bug) has been such a great car since we put it on the road 10,000 miles ago. I must of put a jinx on the car, because after she turned out of our neighborhood, she stopped at the stop sign. As she went to go, she said the whole car shuddered! It wouldn't go at all. She thought the transmission crapped out on her.
My first assessment over the phone was the same. But I knew that she wasn't hot doggin' and doing burn outs, "How the heck could that of happened?" I wound up taking the rear tires off and I saw the metal shavings and "sandy" looking crap all over the inside of the wheel and on the drum itself. I held the axle nut in place and tried to roll the drum around. It moved all over the place.
Bottomline, after 10,000 miles my little 1776 striped out the splines on the brake drum. I'm not sure how the heck the nut could have gotten loose, because it was torqued down and cotter pinned in place.
Moral of the story... check your axle nuts!
Film at eleven...
(Seriously, I'm going to place a video of the carnage on you tube and display it here.)
Scott Faivre
