Greetings everyone,
Before I start this thread I want to give thanks to God for Hid blessings and protection. As you read this you will see why I'm starting this thread this way. I travel an avg of 125 miles round trip Monday - Saturday all highway at an average speed of 70mph to and from work. On Monday I was returning from picking up my lunch and as I was backing into my parking space I heard and felt and big bang as if I ran into somehing. I checked my mirrors and could still see the vehicle parked behind me so I know I didn't hit anything. Shrugging it off until I finished parking I proceeded to back in. As I started to turn my steering wheel the opposite direction to straighten out my truck I noticed the sterring wheel just twirled around yet the truck was continuing on it's curved course. I stopped, got out, looked under the front to see what the problem was. I was stunned to notice that the the drop pitman arm was laying on the dual steering stabilizer shocks still attached to ball joint however the steering gear unit's shaft was snapped in half with part of it still in the pitman arm. Upon closer examination of the broken shaft it was apparent that the shaft had been broken halfway through for sometime due to the rust and discoloration that was present. The new break was was silver looking. The guy at O'Reilly's where I ordered the new unit said he has never seen anything like that in all his yrs as a mechanic that wasn't related to an auto accident. Yall I have been driving this truck everyday for the past 2 yrs and what if this had broken while I was on the highway?????? Any of you ever heard of this happening? If so what would cause it?

 

Holy wall of text Batman.

 

wow man I never heard of that happening... You are some damn lucky it happened in a parking lot and not out on the highway!

 

wow sounds bazaar, but thank god it happened where it did.

 

Sorry about that Viper but I wanted to put you guys in the driver's seat, in order to do that I had to be very specific.

 

Thats crazy...i have not heard of a steering spline doing that. It must have been a hairline crack that kept getting worse.

 

yeah becuase I bought the truck used and the guy who had it befoer me went through 3 transmissions, a rt sided sterring knuckle, and multiple ball joints. I know this because I live in a relatively small town and my best friend was the service manager and the Don Elliott Autoworld dealership and since it was bought new there he took it back to have the work done.

 

Is it worth a report to government data base????

 

Get a Carfax on it and see if the guy ever wrecked it. Most of the parts they replaced on the suspension could be chalked up to common things to replace, except the steering knuckle. Someone hit a rock hard, wheelin' it, or a curb atleast, in a major way . And 3 tranny's? Crappy work was done, or it was just plain beat to hell.

 

I think so hell man if the Lord wasn't watching over me could you imagine wht would have happed at 70mph on the highway that crosses multiple rivers including the Colorado. How would I do this?