How many times have you found the weak link in your vehicle the good old-fashioned way? Let’s see…I shattered three U-joints in my old four-speed Diplomat, roasted a transmission out of the Imperial, turned the brake rotors on a Mustang into Pringles-shaped discs, and I’ve killed more tie-rod ends on the Angry Grandpa Chrysler than I’m willing to admit. But I’ve never, ever broken anything as badly as Cleetus McFarland did on the “Dale Truck” recently at Bradenton. Keep in mind before you watch the video that this is a racing vehicle that has been made street-legal, not the other way around, and that the underpinnings are very stout, to include the Ford 9-inch rear axle unit, one of the most renowned rear axle setups ever built. They simply work and take abuse, but any part can have it’s limit and apparently the one underneath the circle track Chevy found that limit right at the 1-2 shift. I’ve seen rear center sections get dumped on the line following a burnout or a stout launch, but usually the shifts themselves are safe. Not here…out comes the pinion shaft with the twisted-up remains of the driveline on it, along with some other shrapnel. The noise inside the cab (and Cleetus’ wide eyes) tell the tale, but seeing the whole assembly bounce out from underneath and towards the retaining wall is something else. Time to build it better than it was!
