What have you broken while out hot rodding your car?

[Kern Dog]

Besides breaking "the law", what have you broken on the car? U-joints? Drive shafts? Motor mounts?
Oddly, for as much as I hammer the throttle, I've never actually blown up an engine to the point where it wouldn't run. My second 440 in the red car threw a rod but still ran. I've never grenaded a clutch or a main shaft in the transmission. I've had automatics lose 3rd or reverse but never go completely out.
I never have blown out a differential but I did lose a wheel and tire during a short burnout leaving a cruise spot 35 years ago.

 

[matthon]

Uni-lug slot mags came loose, sheared off all but 1 lug stud, possibly while doing burnouts.
That was a slow ride home.

 

[dadsbee]

44/45 years driving the **** out of the Bee.... it's always got me home!

Only time I actually broke anything is we had to beg for some rear axle U joint "clips" to get home from the drags in Luskville Quebec in 1980 as I broke one running the 1/4 at 101 MPH on 2:94 gears...

EDIT.. gotta add, I had it in Toronto at year end during post secondary. I rotted out a block plug on my way to my final exam. Temperature gauge pegged off scale I drove that 383 all the way across the city.. good 25 minutes or more... parked it and then ran in to write my final. When done me and the lads went and had a few brews in the pub and then I drove the sucker the same distance back as there was an autoparts store close to my apartment. Bought a couple plugs and installed them in their lot. Filled up an near empty cooling system and drove her home. Still driving it... 42 years later !!!

 

[funknut]

Just relatively small stuff for me. I threw a belt or three before I got the pulley alignment dialed in. Burned up a power steering pump, which wouldn't have been a big deal except I lost brakes (hydroboost) at a very inconvenient time. Luckily no major damage, just a bit of curb rash.

Oh, I did have a front brake caliper eject a bolt, which caused it to fall into the barrel of the rim. Lots of noise, but luckily nothing catastrophic!

 

[beanhead]

I had a band support strut break in the 727 while backing out of the garage, does that count?
It was actually a transmission I pulled out of a stock '68 Polara in the junkyard, wiped it down, put a new pan and fluid in it and stuck it in my car. It ran great for a few thousand miles of abuse, until it didn't...

 

[DeltaV]

Motor mounts, twice. Didn't happen a third time because the transmission mount was replaced when replacing the second broken motor mount.

Brake shoe linings because of maximum braking from a very high speed. They were only a few months old at the time. Layers of the linings were sheared off and what remained on the shoes were split/cracked down the center of the shoe. Ugly. They came from Sears.

 

[Dutchrebuild]

Worst for me was exploding the clutch disc and cracking the pressure plate in my 70 Roadrunner... oops! What a mess...but it all stayed in the original aluminum bell.

 

[HD539]

A drive line, rearend and a clutch. All on different cars.

 

[Cranky]

A few motor mounts over the years but can't think of anything major.....except for a valve spring broke just before the lights on the drag strip. Thing is, the engine didn't come apart and it didn't even drop the valve. The inner spring and damper hung on but it did eat the cam since it was a roller and the broken spring did let the lifter exit the bore and the sister lifter spun. Even losing oil pressure didn't hurt things much. The spring lost 2 complete coils and I didn't find anything bigger than a 1/16th" anywhere in the engine and pan. The engine looked like someone shot the back 1/2 of the bottom end with a 410 shot gun....and turning 7300 in the traps is probably why it looked like that. When I tore it apart, the flex plate had 3 broken ears. It was the last race of the season and was going to tear it apart after that anyways. The springs were past their expected service life and knew it.

 

[Cojohnso1]

Motor mounts, one clutch explosion. (That was messy, a chunk of disk hit the ground thru splash guard and cracked oil pan. Messier than actual damage.) Crunched a 10 bolt rear in GTO.

But no engine grenading that I remembered. Slow wear down? Oh yeah.

 

[Don selleck]

burned up the clutches in irs in my 2015 hellcat doing doughnuts on pavement it no likey. snapped half shaft at milan dragway on the line moved 1/4" and that was it hooked up a little too good. Thats the most recent

 

[Dako]

In the late '70s broke a coil spring on my '72 D100 longbed 2WD (happened twice). Apparently it did not like hard cornering. 2nd time swapped both out for 3/4T springs from a van. Never happened again.

Motor mount on same D100. Kids and power braking...

1985, Leaving Pearl Harbor Naval Base in my '70 Duster 340 I lost a fan belt. Sunday evening in '85...NOTHING is open. Sitting on the curb, wondering how I'm getting back to NAS Barber's Point...I look down at my 'hi-tops' and realize how long the laces are. Strung one around the pulleys, fired her up...and it stayed on! Drove nice and easy all the way.

 

[Budnicks]

Not much of late, used to run the gambit
street/strip cars
broken rockers, pushrods bent, mostly on Chevys
universal joint or strap, broke driveshaft on my 69 RR
spun a few rod bearings in a few different BB Mopars,
mostly years ago
I never windowed one "yet",
I ran/drove into a big *** chuckhole, that tore my pass side header off,
during a race, to avoid hitting a dog (German Sheperd) running out
all of which was done while street racing 'usually',
it was the 70's & early 80's after all

Racecars you name it I've broken it
never windowed a block yet,
BUT;
doing a burnout at the Sears Point Autolite Nationals,
in a car my friend 'Stephens' owned
I had already qualified 15th IIRC, ran 3 times, good passes best of 5.95 @ 227
but the next run 1st round, supposed to race Corey Mclenithan #2 qualifier
I blew it up in the burnout
except, didn't window it, I did put a nice dent & huge *** crack
in a 500cid FI 14:71 Blown TA Keith Black Alum. Hemi block,
broke 3 rods & the crank was junk afterwards,
(after tell-tale tach said 13,000 rpm - was under no load)
messed up the clutch when the crank bent/broke too
it way over revved, no throttle stop, rear engine dragster, a strange beast (to me)
(wasn't 100% used to it) I couldn't tell the RPMs went up so damn fast
I saw the shift lite blink, it's set at 9,500 rpm, & still climbing when I lifetd
I knew I messed up or something else happened, coughed the blower
I was embarrassed like you couldn't imagine...
It didn't come close to that the previous 3 runs, in the burn outs
like just under 7,000 rpm, foot on the throttle like 15-20% maybe,
just cracked open
(we didn't run a 4th rd of qualifying, didn't have the parts If something happened)
It shouldn't have ever been able to get that high, not in the burnout...
A crew member never did put the limiting rod on the hat linkage,
to limit the opening of the Enderle Bird Catcher 'Hat' injector,
EXPENSIVE CATISTROPHIC STUFF
One & only time I ever did anything like that, broke rods & almost windowed a block...

4x4s trucks or Jeeps
I've broken pretty much every driveline part you could imagine wheeling
broke axles, broke a rear pinion gear/sheered the teeth, spinning then biting
on a Dana-60,
I punctured brake-lines, broke or bent drivelines, bent housings, broke carriers
broke off front steering knuckles, broke lugs/wheels off, split cases on automatics,
grenade'd manual transmissions &/or clutches, (spinning then bite)
broke shifter/s or shift-rods or cables, several times
punctured/or caved-in fuel lines or tanks, shredded tires
mostly all on the Rubicon trail, after Spyder Lake,
a few in the 'big sluice box' area, brutal but loved it...

Shitty motor mounts 'today' are weak
they don't count when it's junk to begin with

there's a lot more but you get the idea

 

[Cranky]

Not much of late, used to run the gambit
street/strip cars
broken rockers, pushrods bent, universal joint or strap, broke driveshaft
spun a few rod bearings in a few different BB Mopars, mostly years ago
I never windowed one "yet",
I ran/drove into a big *** chuckhole, that tore my pass side header off,
during a race
to avoid hitting a dog (German Sheperd) running out
all of which was done while street racing 'usually',
it was the 70's & early 80's after all

Racecars you name it I've broken it
never windowed a block yet,
BUT;
doing a burnout at the Sears Point Autolite Nationals,
in a car my friend 'Stephens' owned
I had already qualified 15th IIRC, ran 3 times, good passes best of 5.95 @ 227
but the next run 1st round, supposed to race Corey Mclenithan #2 qualifier
I blew it up in the burnout
except, didn't window it, I did put a nice dent & huge *** crack
in a 500cid FI 14:71 Blown TA Keith Balck Hemi block,
broke 3 rods & the crank was junk afterwards,
messed up the clutch when the crank bent/broke too
it over revved, no throttle stop, rear engine dragster, a strange beast (to me)
(wasn't 100% used to it) I couldn't tell the RPMs went up so damn fast
I saw the shift lite blink, it's set at 9,500 rpm
I knew I messed up or something else happened,
didn't come close to that the previous 3 runs
(we didn't run a 4th rd of qualifying, didn't have the parts If something happened)
it shouldn't have ever been able to get that high, not in the burnout...
A crew member never did put the limiting rod on the hat linkage,
to limit the opening of the Enderle Bird Catcher 'Hat' injector
One & only time I did that, broke rods & almost windowed a block...

4x4s trucks or Jeeps
I've broken pretty much every driveline part you could imagine wheeling
broke axles, broke a pinion gear, spinning then biting on a Dana-60,
punctured brake-lines, broke or bent drivelines, bent housings,
broke off front steering knuckles, broke lugs off, split cases on automatics,
grenaded manual transmissions &/or clutches, (spinning then bite)
broke shifter/s or shift-rods or cables, several times
punctured/or caved-in fuel lines or tanks, shredded tires
mostly all on the Rubicon trail, after Spyder Lake,
a few in the 'big sluice box' area, brutal but loved it...

Shitty motor mounts 'today' are weak
they don't count when it's junk to begin with

there's a lot more but you get the idea

I broke motor mounts in the 70's and they were fairly new with the engine swap I did and the engine was a mild 383....that was the first one I broke. 2nd one was on my 71 340 Cuda and the 3rd is still broke on my 95 Dakota V6 but I just chained the engine down and that's still holding after more than 15 years and the 1st motor mount that broke on the 383 was in late 1970

 

[kiwigtx]

Where does one begin.....?

 

[1967coronet]

Blown clutch went through the dust cover.
Stuck a pair of ladder bars through the rear floor pans. ( several mistakes led up to that ) that same time broke the tail of a top loader and trashed a drive shaft.
Few motor mounts over the years.
Blew a 727 going from low to second by way of reverse on a column shift charger.
Plus the normal bent push rods and valves that go with being a knot head kid with a cooler of Bud.

 

[Cojohnso1]

My last go at test & tune. Rebuilt 451 with now B1/BS heads. Spinning at about 12.7:1 compression vs 10.25:1 pump gas setup ported 452 heads. Rear 8 3/4 spooled 4.56:1 gear with Moser 35 spline axles. New 30x10.5" Hossier slicks. Goal to see if Duster can nip under the 10 sec barrier.

What I forgot? DRIVESHAFT! Snapped right on the line on first attempt. (Yes, it was louder than actual damage. But still a failed attempt.)

I'm sure this hobby would be easier if I was just a little smarter?

 

[copper67sat]

All these happened on my Satellite shortly after putting it back together.

Broken motor mount. Worst part was that it happened when I floored it while making a left turn and the PS return hose pulled off when the engine rocked. Mostly just made a mess under the hood, but losing power steering in a turn was 'fun'. Reconnected the hose, refilled the pump and drove home.

Stuck t-stat and I didn't notice it was over temping until I floored it passing a dump truck on a 2-lane and the pressure blew the lower radiator hose off dumping all the coolant. This was before cell phones and I was in a rural area so I drove it about 5 miles until I got to a place with some houses where I could get help. Engine died when I slowed down for a traffic light so I pulled off the road and walked to the nearest house. We put some water in it, but it wouldn't refire so we called a tow truck to get home. Still wouldn't start and I was getting worried I had damaged the recently rebuilt motor. Turned out the coil had shorted out from the heat and/or all the water under the hood. Put a new coil on it and it's been fine ever since.

Started hearing a "tick" that I thought was an exhaust leak. Lifted off the gas to slow for a traffic light and turn and the tick went away under compression braking. Made the turn and got on the gas, but it was clear something was wrong. Engine was missing, oil pressure was erratic and white smoke was coming out the exhaust. Nursed it home and tore into it. Found #5 intake pushrod had come off the rocker and was bent up underneath it. Turned out that valve was sticking open and the ticking was the piston closing it, but fortunately it didn't bend the valve. Pulled the heads and all the intake valves had bronze smeared on the stems because the machine shop had not set the clearances correctly on the new guides.

Put over 30k miles on it since then so I must not have hurt it.

 

[Hey-O]

As long as I left things stock, parts are made to work together, I broke very little. The ring gear in my 69 Dart, all stock. Building cars requires not only big engines, big transmissions, and big rearends. After learning that, things got bulletproof.

 

[WileERobby]

Over the many years I've broken... many things. But a couple broken fingers and knuckles hurt the worst. ( at different times, as well ! )