"there Arose Such A Clatter" Solved

[Charlie Olson]

MERRY CHRISTMAS MOPAR FAMILY. Plywood is doing great. I have previously shared with you about a strange buckshot sound coming from the floorboards of PLYWOOD. For the past three years, I have been experiencing and hearing an occasional clattering/blasting noise for a few brief seconds while driving PLYWOOD. Could never quite figure it out. Three weeks ago, while driving back to the barn, I hit a bump in the road at very load speed, heard a loud Ka-thunk and the car was somehow in neutral and I couldn't shift into a gear. After two flat bed rides and a check up by Art, my storage God and Mechanic, we learned the clutch had been slowly coming apart for a few years. I now have a new clutch, flywheel, linkage adjustments, etc and PLYWOOD runs smoother than ever. Art was amazed that I have even been able to drive the car because most of the assembly had been disintegrating for a few years. Mopars are built tough.

Tomorrow, Dec 22, I get her back from Art and storage and shall put a wreath on her smiling grill and drive her for the next two weeks. You may remember my former posts about a concern about the sound of buckshot hitting PLYWOOD over the past three years, but now, you know --- the rest of the story.

Merry Christmas--- Charlie

[Don Coatney]

Glad you got it fixed. There for a minute I thought you were going to tell me you found a bed spring around your driveshaft.

[PatS....]

Holy Smokes!!!! What a mess!!!!

Way back when a friend got some barbed wire caught up in the driveshaft but nowhere near like THAT!!!

I like how the bars are across the eyes to protect those involved!!! LOL!

[Reg Evans]

Pictorial proof why it's not a good idea to drive your pickup if the bed is rotting.

[Don Coatney]

Pictorial proof why it's not a good idea to drive your pickup if the bed is rotting.

Reg;

How much coffee have you had this morning?

[Reg Evans]

I'm on my 2nd pot now Don and might try some coffee next.

[Don Coatney]

I'm on my 2nd pot now Don and might try some coffee next.

I think I now better understand what is gold in gold country;)

[Plymouthy Adams]

I am not sure I would spend the time to cut that wire out of there..hokey smokes and I have seen some wire wrapped over items in my lifetime...

[PatS....]

Looks like you may be able to drop the driveshaft and slide most of it off without cutting alot.

It's amazing that it was able to wrap so much up around that driveshaft.

Some days you're the windshield and some days you're the bug...I guess this was a "bug" day!!

[Don Coatney]

These pictures have been making there way around the e-mail circuit for a week or so. I must have 4-5 copies from various friends. The story goes something like this. The car driver ran over a set of bed springs. Then continued to drive for 30 miles or so until the car quit running. The stuff on the driveshaft had torn a hole in the gas tank and the car ran out of gas. It is amazing that such idiots walk (and drive) amongst us.

Several years back I was driving down a road in California when suddenly I observed a set of bed springs in the center of the road directly in front of me. I jammed on the brakes and was able to swerve around them in a semi controlled slide. There was a whole string of cars behind me and I am sure not all of them were as lucky as I was.

[RobertKB]

Talk about getting wired. I can't believe anyone would drive his/her car for 30 yards let alone 30 miles with that on. Can you imagine the vibrations? The noise? The damage? As Don said, drivers like this live and drive among us. Be careful out there, very careful!

[Niel Hoback]

I'm glad to see that picture because I had that happen to me several years ago and besides me, some people didn't believe it could really happen.

I had a 65 LeSabre that I was junking so a few of us decided to have some fun. I was scooting thru the woods bouncing off trees and such just for the fun of it when we came to a stop for no apparent reason. The car would back up a few feet, and then go forward a few, but then stop. Somewhere we had run over and ol bedspring I never saw, and it caught a corner on the u-joint. I had to walk back home, get a jack and wire cutters to get it off. It did wrap up but a few feet of spring, but it was enough to stop that car.

Not learning very fast the next thing I did was to try jumping a shallow ditch. Well, you can't get up much speed in the woods and I didn't even come close to making it. Both front wheels tried to go in opposite directions and made it almost impossible to get it back home.

C,mon, admit it, some of you have done stupid stuff too.

[martybose]

I've got another one of the you-wouldn't-believe-it stories. I was driving home from work in my Honda commute car, and saw a large plastic trash bag floating along in front of me on the freeway. I ran over it and didn't think much of it. Ten miles down the road the freeway slammed to a halt; I hit the brakes and ran into the truck ahead of me. It turned out that the plastic bag had wrapped around the front hub, where the heat from the brakes melted it so that it flowed into the caliper, then hardened up, effectively locking the caliper solid. It took almost 3 hours to get all of the melted plastic out of the brakes.

I am much more careful about avoiding plastic trash now!

Marty

[Charlie Olson]

WOW Don, am I ever glad I didn't find something like that mess under old PLYWOOD.

[wallytoo]

i've got another "ran over it" story of my own.

back in my college days, i was driving a fuego (called a few-go by most mechanics, since very few go) on a snow covered road when all of a sudden, there was a loud whump and the next thing i knew, the passenger seat had slammed into me (in the driver's seat).

after stopping, i investigated. turns out, i'd run over a leaf spring, which had then been jammed up through the floor of the car, dislodging the passenger seat and slamming me with it.

[captden29]

one of the drivers for the bus company i worked for ran over a boxspring on the expressway and dragged it for a couple miles until the sparks and heat generated set the bus on fire. the few people on the bus got out safely and the entire bus went up in flames in about 2 minutes. another driver about 2 years ago ran over a mattress and kept dragging it hoping to dislodge it. he finally had to pull over when enough motorists blew their horns, and the mattress was smoldering, the fire department came and put it out, but it did alot of damage to the bus even though it did not fry completely. seems lack of brainpower is everywhere. dennis

[Norm's Coupe]

Not saying who did this, but it was done in a 58 Chevy. How many of you have driven through a train yard, down the tracks for a couple of blocks, to take a short cut?? I happen to know someone very well that did that in his younger days.

[steveplym]

These pictures have been making there way around the e-mail circuit for a week or so. I must have 4-5 copies from various friends. The story goes something like this. The car driver ran over a set of bed springs. Then continued to drive for 30 miles or so until the car quit running. The stuff on the driveshaft had torn a hole in the gas tank and the car ran out of gas. It is amazing that such idiots walk (and drive) amongst us.

Several years back I was driving down a road in California when suddenly I observed a set of bed springs in the center of the road directly in front of me. I jammed on the brakes and was able to swerve around them in a semi controlled slide. There was a whole string of cars behind me and I am sure not all of them were as lucky as I was.

What is sad is this will be covered under collision coverage on the guys insurance if he wants to turn in a claim. I've got several stories of my own being in the insurance business, but if I ran across that mess it would top everything I've seen.

[BobT-47P15]

Several years ago I had been to Tulsa to an ice show at the fairgrounds,

and had a couple other people in the car also. On the way home, along

the interstate, I saw something coming toward the car......rolling thru

the median (which was fairly shallow). It was moving right along. Just a

couple seconds after I spotted the thing, it rolled in front of the car, and

there followed a "bang"....then saw the item fly off to the right side of the

road into the field. Had no time to dodge it. Put a dent in the front

bumper (which was metal, back then).

It was a brake drum......which must have fallen off a truck load

of junk going the opposite direction in the other lanes, then rolled thru

the median on its edge. The good thing was it didn't hop up and

come thru the windshield.

[Frank Elder]

In south Texas your "Mattresses" fly! Actually I'm talking about turkey buzzards, they always have to get one more bite before they take off, sometimes they are too heavy and will deal out some serious damage to your car! PS horns don't phase them, they think you are another predator trying to steal a meal.

[Norm's Coupe]

Several years ago I had been to Tulsa to an ice show at the fairgrounds,

and had a couple other people in the car also. On the way home, along

the interstate, I saw something coming toward the car......rolling thru

the median (which was fairly shallow). It was moving right along. Just a

couple seconds after I spotted the thing, it rolled in front of the car, and

there followed a "bang"....then saw the item fly off to the right side of the

road into the field. Had no time to dodge it. Put a dent in the front

bumper (which was metal, back then).

It was a brake drum......which must have fallen off a truck load

of junk going the opposite direction in the other lanes, then rolled thru

the median on its edge. The good thing was it didn't hop up and

come thru the windshield.

I've had two similar incidents like this happen to me. One was back in the late 70's/early 80's when I was working with one of our salesmen in St. Paul/Mpls. Was driving on the Bypass at on the southwest of the city. A pickup truck in front of me was loaded with lumber. All of a sudden a bunch of 2 x 4's started flying off the truck and bouncing all over the freeway. Luckily I was able to slow down and back off, then dodge all of them. Not fun seeing that stuff fly toward you though.

Second time was in the mid 80's in the Chicago area going south on the Edens Expressway during rush hour. Of course that freeway all 4 or 5 lanes is always jam packed bumper to bumper at that time of morning going about 50 MPH. I was in the left lane near the medium and concrete crash wall. Was a flatbed truck carrying a road grader on it in the lane next to me to the right just about 2 cars ahead. All of a sudden a large 4 x 4 (approximate) piece of sheet metal flew off the flatbed straight at my windshield. Really couldn't slam on the brakes. If I had it would have caused a chain reaction accident of several cars including myself getting rear ended. So.....I did slow as much as I could safely and swerved over inches from the concrete crash wall (as close as possible without actually hitting it). Luckily that was enough to keep the piece of sheet metal from coming crashing through the windshield. Still got the quarter panel of the car though, the sport wheel on the car. Had a nice long dent and scratch back there. From there it bounced and hit another car. Don't know what happened to it after that. Everyone kept going about the same speed though. Luckily I was able to make my way up to the drivers door of the truck a few minutes later. Wrote the name of the company and their phone number down, along with the license plate number and time of the accident. The next day I called the trucking company and reported the incident. They had me get 3 estimates and mail them to them. Did so. Thought they would just pay the lowest estimate, but.........they immediately sent a check for the highest one. They also thanked me on the phone for not filing a police or insurance report. Doing it this way helped keep their insurance rates lower. Guess that's why they paid the highest estimate.

None of these compare to what happened to one of our salesmen back in the late 70's though, again in the St. Paul area. He was northbound on the east side of the city on I-694 one night after shopping. A woman jumped off the overpass just as he was coming up on it, right in front of his car. Of course, he couldn't stop and hit her. Guess a few other cars also ran over her afterward. Was her way of committing suicide. Really did a number on the salesman though. He had a lot of trouble getting over that, even though it wasn't his fault.

[garbagestate 44]

Back in the post civil war era before steel came along, of the many gruesome railroad accidents, one that sticks out in my mind was when rails would split length wise as the train passed over and the curving piece af rail would punch a hole through the floorboards and kill anyone unlucky enough to be seated in the wrong spot as this thing ripped its way from one end of the car to the other like a can opener.As I recall, It was a common enough occurrence that there was a slang expression for it among railroaders but I can't remember what it was.

[martybose]

I've had two similar incidents like this happen to me. One was back in the late 70's/early 80's when I was working with one of our salesmen in St. Paul/Mpls. Was driving on the Bypass at on the southwest of the city. A pickup truck in front of me was loaded with lumber. All of a sudden a bunch of 2 x 4's started flying off the truck and bouncing all over the freeway. Luckily I was able to slow down and back off' date=' then dodge all of them. Not fun seeing that stuff fly toward you though.

(snip)[/quote']

Oh yeah, had one of those too. A lumber truck in the right lane lost some lumber, and the semi behind him clipped one just right and sent it heading up and over towards my car in the next lane. I had time to recognize a piece of wood that was a 4x4 about 6 ft long as it headed for my windshield, then I ducked! It hit end on just below the top of my windshield, which apparently was angled steeply enough that it caromed off of it back into the air. I have no idea where it landed next, as I was looking at the creosote stain at the top of my windshield and was thinking how lucky I was. It didn't hit the body at all, and kerosene took the creosote off.

Marty

[fireman_033]

I was driving home one night and it was drizzling rain when out of nowhere who knows what hit right in the center of my z71 windshield sent glass all over the inside of the truck it hit so hard it busted the inside and outside of the glass leaving only the laminate in the center to this day I still dont know what hit that glass but it scarred the crap outta me. Scott

[moparalltheway]

Yeah and last year at band camp..................................