After two days of video showing driveline parts falling out of, or being ejected from, race cars, it seemed appropriate to have our BangShift Question of the Day be about parts falling off your car. And in the name of full disclosure, I have lost a driveshaft on the drag strip, and it sucked out loud. Those of you who have heard the story know that lots of people almost died. Mostly because I was ready to kill them all. But I digress.
This question made me think about a time when something, other than the driveshaft, fell off my car. It also made me think about what sucked most to fall off because of general disgust over the failure, versus embarrassment over something falling off in front of people. I tried really hard to think of some embarrassing moment of car failure and the best I could come up with was the time I thought one #10 screw would be enough to hold up an Accel SuperCoil for a quick burnout and run around the block. It sucked. I didn’t look cool, but at least it was a fairly quick fix and we were close to home.
So…What is the worst, or most embarrassing, part to ever fall off your car?
That 75-lb fire extinguisher used for left side weight that exited the car out the right side door in turn 3 at Hickory when the hose clamps broke…
I was cruising behind my buddy when he lost his drain plug, what a mess.
Number 1 spark plug on an SBC coming unscrewed at about 6000 RPM in my ’56 Chevy while performing a “demo” on a boulevard.
The engine sounded like an Uzi “burping” on full auto. I was waiting for smoke and oil as I slowed the car down. ‘Hadta be a rod out or something…
The plug did stay hooked to its wire and jumped over to the frame.
‘Reinstalled the plug and drove away, feeling very lucky…
Oh, yeah, then there was the time a pressure plate decided to disintegrate at ~3000 RPM. Again, that was on the street in the ’56.
The floor hump was ripped upward and the radio was destroyed. The passenger-side exhaust pipe was severed and the remaining pipe/muffler assembly dropped to the pavement. Thankfully, it didn’t “catch”.
The passenger-side fender had dents going outward and a chunk o’ shrapnel dented the steel fuel line where it ran along the frame.
The three of us in the car (wearing white T-shirts) looked like we’d spent a week in a coal mine from clutch dust!
‘Believe that was the first time I ever had a car taken home behind a wrecker…
My dad gave me a big ol’ Ansen aluminum explosion-proof bellhousing as a gift, soon thereafter. Thanks, Dad!
71 Nova, reved up the engine and dumped the clutch for a burnout in front of friends. Car jumped about three feet forward and died. Inspection revealed engine moved enough for distributor to hit firewall and knocked cap off. I was lucky in that the two cap retainers and all eight plug wire terminals were still intact despite a large chunk was broken out of the side of the cap. Reinstalled the broken cap and drove away. Lucky it wasn’t raining or wet as I’m sure I would not have made it far. Was kinda interesting to be able to look inside the cap with car running and watch the points open and close. Still have that cap today. Lol.
Ah….
I was driving my 1969 Road Runner home from work one night. The car is equipped with a factory 6BBL fiberglas hood. I failed to realize that while at work, someone had decided they needed my hood pin clips more than I did. So, I hit the highway on ramp, push in the clutch to shift into 3rd gear and WOOOF! My hood flies off! I pulled over as quickly as I could, looked up in the rear view mirror and watched my hood crash land on the asphalt. Luckily, nobody ran over it and I was able to retrieve it and reattach it with an old coat hanger and a pair of pliers.
Ron
I had an old beater ’68 Impala when I was living in New York City. If you ever driven in New York you are familiar with the canyons they call pot holes up there. I had a bunch of friends in the car and was ready for a wild Saturday night. It was a little after midnight and we were doing the usual circuit and were about to head to the “connecting” to watch some street racing when I hit an enormous pot hole. Things got dim there was a “pop” then a louder “pop” and a noticeable lean. My right front headlight fell out and broke when it hit the ground. I ran over the broken glass and blew out my right front tire !!! Anyone not familiar with the “connecting highway” google it and check out the history of amazing street racing in the 60’s and 70’s.
I would have to say the castle nut on a lower ball joint. While the part coming off itself didn’t seem embarassing enough, setting the A-arm down on the pavement in the MIDDLE of the Flamingo and Decatur intersection, in Las Vegas, while making a left turn definitely left me quite embarassed and blocking some traffic in the middle of the day.
Losing my alternator belt and taking out my ignition for a quite loud BOOM while making a pass on day 5 of Drag Week 2011 was a little un-nerving. Fortunately I didn’t lose any fluid and was able to coast off the track.
There was still a single exhaust in the car at the time when one of the baffles inside the muffler apparently came loose, the car became very quiet so I did what any young car enthusiast would do and punched the gas pedal… BOOOOM no more muffler, it had exploded. Was quite entertaining.
Forgot vib dampner bolt on a 327 ss/e malibu. It came off and sit there on the pavement spinning like a damn yo-yo gone wild. It ended up about 50 yards away.
1974 chevelle, attempting unilug keystone classics. Very dumb for 4000 pounds of sedan. Getting on the highway, felt the right rear drop, the get shoved up in the air..the wheel came off, rode the tailframe to pick the car up, then when the pressure of the weight of car let it go, it stayed in the sky for quite some time. when it hit the ground I caught a glimpse of the chrome, and it shot off into the forest in the middle of the highway median. Glad it was in rural maine.. it would have killed somebody. looking it over, it was simply 5 lugs sheered. This was in the early 90s, so the old runtime of alcoholic fuel had made some strangely brittle parts. Car was never rebuilt at that time, 19 years old. Wheel studs was one of those parts that died to chemistry..
Well I was trying to think of an embarassing moment and nothing comes to mind, the only thing I can think of is the wiper (Freiburger) flying off of the Purple II tube car at Gateway on a pass, the car left so hard (1.11 60 ft. time) the Wiper couldn’t keep up with it I guess, true story.
Not me,but I’m reporting for a friend.
Back in 1991 My friend Rob and I were out on a “tuning” run in his Javaline,we had just made several “tuning” passes and decided to head back to his place on the freeway. We were on the Superstition FWY in Mesa AZ. just driving along with traffic when a tiny vibration then BAM! Boom bang ett etc…. ALT lite cam on so we pulled over. The Damper and lower pulley were gone,belt haging on water pump and Alt. The engine bay looked hit everywhere but no damper and we didn’t see it leave either. As we were close to his house he just fired it up and drove home. We figured the damper had exited to the srubs so he installed a new damper/pulley/bolt and forgot about it. About 3 monthe later he was driving it to work when the brake pedal went to the floor! Seems he found the damper, it had jammed into the floor and was being held in place by the rear brake line that was now leaking.
front fender, rear license plate and rear foglight, all at the same time in a carwash, yeah, it was a good car 😉
Not mine, but a pal had a ver rusty old K car that the gas tank fell out of on the way home from work one night. He dragged it the last mile or so sparking on the pavement to get it home.
I had a friend in my Impala after I first bought it. He taunted me to leave a light hard. I did. At the next light the guy who was behind me pulled up beside me and honked. He was holding up a piece of the rear trunk trim that fell off.
A couple weeks later that same friend found and put a bumper sticker on my car that said “Honk if parts fall off!”. I left it on the car until it disintegeated.
my most embarrassing thing to fall off my car was actually a trailer – young and dumb, went to a service station and hired a dual axle car trailer – guy at the servo was dumber than me, so when we went to hook the 2″ tongue to the 1 3/4″ ball on my towbar, neither of us thought that’d be an issue…the weight of the trailer seemed to hold it in place juuust fine. And safety chains? what are they? so, driving along, going past a bus stop on a bumpy stretch, and I look in the rear view to see the trailer kinda following – but getting further away…by the time I realised it wasn’t actually connected any more it was too late – it did a quick right hand turn , scraped along the outer side of a concrete bus shelter and through a fence…. I had to back up and retrieve it by myself – none of the really angry folks sitting in the bus shelter wanted to help for some reason…..
Back when I used my stock 65 Mustang for a daily driver, I was dropping my daughter off at school. I guess she was about 13. Anyway, as I pulled up in front of the school and stopped, the passenger side hubcap popped off and rolled past all her friends. She slid down in the seat and said “Oh My God, just keep driving..”
The fuel tank in my 93 Dodge pickup nearly fell out. The gauge dosent work so I went by milage, figured I had about 50 left but it died on me. Wierd, and being a diesel it just sucks, why I packed around a flare wrench. Called a buddy who brought a gas can and tok me to the only station in the area with diesel (seriously southerners you have got to do better on the green fuel)bled the lines, nothing. I spent an hour messing with it, getting more fuel and then it started to rain. When I came back in the morning I could see that the back strap on the 4 1’2 foot long tank had rusted through and stranded me. A motorcycle strap later and a little bleeding and I was back in business feeling like a dumbass for not looking under the pickup.
old style, cheap, twisty, cheap, front coil spring spacers….you the ones you installed with a ratchet…..’67 Camaro with 6cyl. springs & 327 V8…..and a unexpected railroad crossing ‘jump’…..had 2 in each spring…..3 exited at the same time!…..one punctured the inner fender & dented the inside of the outer fender…..sounded like 3 LOUD gunshots!….happened at least 30 yrs ago & I can still hear the sounds…..still have car too ;<)
I can’t remember who it was except this was stuff legends are made of….this happened at Bathurst 1000 years ago……driver pulls into the pits with a very quiet 350 Monaro and exits the car…..tells the co driver they have an electical problem which developed at 160mph coming down conrod straight!….the electrical fault was caused by a conrod and piston removing the distribitor!
When I was 16 I was given the family piece-o-crap mini van. The whole thing was falling apart, but one aweful day I turned a corner sharply to the left and my SLIDING DOOR fell off the damn thing! Fortunatly, the thing died shortly after!
Apparently I dont know how to spell my last name…..
Broke the tie rod on my 74 Ford 4×4 beater (To be generous). Came to a fill your pants stop facing the wrong way in the left lane and blocking rail tracks. Took 8 good semaritans to manhandle the truck off the road and into a parking lot. The 2 guys trying to coordinate the direction of the front wheels almost came to blows over the experience. Ended up with a ticket for overnight parking in the lot. Luckily, a train never did factor into the situation… now that would have been embarrasing.
Back in the early 80’s I was into Mopars. One was a 74 Duster 318/4spd and the other a 70 Cuda conv’t 383/4spd. I was convinced these cars were cursed. Both of them had mufflers fall off from raised manhole covers.
74 olds had a faulty ignition coil. Started with spark plugs and worked my way towards the dist and points replacing them and checking to see if it would improve. Backfired exploding my oval muffler int a round one. Lost the baffles from inside the muffler as I was approaching state troopers in a road block. Car kept getting louder and louder even as I slowed down.Cops didnt laugh as I received my ticket for noise.
I once had the sliding drivers door fly off my Ford panel van in the 1970’s.As I turned at a junction it left the vehicle and flew over the roof of a stationary car with two old people in it and landed in a ditch! Thankfully nobody was hurt or any damage done.
1969 nova
line 6 cyl 2 speed hydromatic
options: jack holding right side leaf spring ~ down to were it should be 🙂
The motor litterly fell out
clunk, bang My inline 6 was now in the low slung boxer for mate.
🙂
Only “sort of” a car.
The entire tailpipe & muffler fell off our Rose Parade float during our first road test one year, onto the street, in front of over a dozen Tournament test personel and several local town folk come to watch the test.
Was racing on 465 in indy ,Had a SBC monza with just glass packs on the headers. Went under the allisonville bridge at about 110 after blasting past my friends opel manta. Blew the left muff off .It looked like a propane cylinder rocket.Sparks flying everywhere. as it was spinning down the road. Went back to get it since it was a couple weeks old. Never found it.
Dropped a driveshaft in the lights at 110mph in my 68 camaro. rear joint blew and it bounced around the loop and slipped right out of the transmission and onto the track without beating up anything. Problem was it was a night test and tune and the starter wasn’t watching me and launched the next car as i rolled to a stop in the shutdown area. 5.0 liter mustang ran over my driveshaft before we could get the track shut down so i could walk out there and get it… didn’t hurt the mustang, but didn’t help the camaro’s reputation any..