drivetrain

Yesterday I reinstalled my drive shaft. The carrier shaft center bearing had failed, and sidelined the Ford until I got it replaced. This is a non-trivial job that often requires the loving touch of a driveline shop; on some vehicles the bearing can be trivially replaced, but on most (including this one) it must be pressed on and off.

On my way up Cobb Mountain I started hearing and feeling click/thump noises from somewhere in the middle of the truck. It turned out that the carrier shaft bearing's rubber isolator had failed, probably because of added vibration because a bolt was falling out. I was lucky enough to have an appropriate wrench handy, and made it home; as long as you are very gentle on the accelerator you can even go up hills with the isolator broken, but jam that pedal and THUMP THUMP THUMP as the bearing bounces around in the bracket.