At the first WSCB myself and 2 other cars were traveling back on Sunday afternoon near Grass Valley on Highway 80. I was in the lead followed by John Peterson , and Cindy. We we doing about 60-65, just cruising. I had been checking my mirrors regularly as we were winding through the fabulous Sierra Nevadas back to the valley. I went around a big sweeper and looked in my mirror after a couple of seconds and neither John's nor Cindy's cars followed in what seemed like a sufficient amount of time. I had the oppotunity to pull to the left shouder (road construction had an unopend lane that I was able to pull down onto) and I waited for another minute or so. I then got out and walked back the 4-500 yards to see around the corner where they were. To my horror Johns car was off to the right of the roadway partially up an enbankment, he was out of the car and appeared ok. The fresh transmissiion (first trip out) that John had purchased from an advertiser on this forum had locked up in 4th gear at 60 mph sending his car into a 360 degree spin. Fortunately for John there was no other cars nearby except for Cindy who was following far enough back. Cindy said Johns car spun in front of her and then heade off the road missing any potential obsticals. Had there been cars nearby or and trees etc this could have had an entirely different outcome. Later after investigation it was determine that the front seal had failed and the majority of the gear
oil was lost out of the Toploader. The forces involved when it locked up stripped some of the teeth off of the mainshaft and other gears, the gearbox had less that 2-300 miles before the trip. A real mess and a bad day for John.