Loosing a wheel at 60 on Central

SilverCobra · #1 (**permalink**) 05-31-2003, 12:06 AM

Cool morning and no rain the forecast, so I decided to drive the SilverCobra to work this morning, before the summer heat sets in & makes that commute ugly. Left the office around 6:00 p.m. and the gas gauge was empty and had left my cell phone at home. Nope - don't want to run out of gas & be stranded on Central in Friday rush hour, so hit the only gas station in downtown Dallas and chatted with the attendant about Cobras and cars.

Stopped at General Joe Chopstix at Mockingbird for take out for me and the Mrs. - headed back on Central for the 15 minute trip home. I had just gotten to cruising altitude at 60 mph when all of a sudden I felt a jolt - the rear end drop about 6 inches - and a rubbing/grinding noise. It took me about 2 seconds to figure out that I had lost my right rear wheel & could not figure out how I could loose a Compomotive that did not have a spinner.

Luckily, I was still in the right lane and made a slow stop after about 200 ft on the right shoulder with cars still whizzing by. Sure enough - the right rear wheel was off the axle at about 30 degrees and had nudged up in the wheel well. I feel very fortunate that the wheel did not catch or bust out the fiberglass wheel well - but there was not a scratch.

Another motorist saw my plight and stopped and let me borrower his cell phone to call Meadows thinking that he had a trailer - and said he would be there in 20 minutes. Before Tom could show up, a crusing flatbed tow truck showed up. The guy did not seem too smart or give me a lot of confidence in his ability to load a Cobra without damage, but he said he knew of another truck that could do it. The second guy had a longer bed on his truck and I could tell he knew what he was doing. The first truck had to pull into the right lane of traffic to act as a block to allow the the bigger truck to pull around and load the Cobra from the rear. We were able to lift the rear end of the car with the ramp to get the wheel reseated in the axle to at least winch it about 15 feet onto the ramp bed. With the first truck acting a blocker again, we made a u-turn back heading north and dropped it off at a Mobil station down from my house that is full of car guys. There was no way to get the crippled car down my alley and the 15 degee angle down the driveway into my garage. I am going back in the morning to work on it to see what went wrong.

Now looking back, that seems kinda scary. I'm glad I was only driving 60 miles per hour in a straight line instead of on a road course somewhere coming out of a turn for the back straight away. I don't know if anyone else has ever lost a wheel like this on a Jag IRS, but nothing that I would have expected.

Tom - thanks again for showing up buddy.

Excaliber · #2 (**permalink**) 05-31-2003, 12:51 AM

Well dam! Keep us informed on what happened to the wheel and all that!!!!! Amazing, you very lucky not to have sustained body damage, to yourself OR the car!!!

Ernie

joe garland · #3 (**permalink**) 05-31-2003, 03:45 AM

Dick, Glad to hear that you and the Unique are O.K.

Keep us posted!

keithw · #4 (**permalink**) 05-31-2003, 04:38 AM

Dick,

Glad everything turned out OK!! Haven't lost a wheel yet but lots of other failures that are scary as well.

Take care,

Keith

casaleenie · #5 (**permalink**) 05-31-2003, 06:04 AM

That's interesting... I was told by someone knowledgeable that a break in the Jag IRS suspension is usually severe when it happens..Just about what you went through.. Please keep us posted on what exactly happened...

Keithw,

What other failures did your car suffer???

4RE KLR · #6 (**permalink**) 05-31-2003, 07:14 AM

Dick
Glad to hear no one was hurt. Hope the damage is mimiul.

SilverCobra · #7 (**permalink**) 05-31-2003, 06:25 PM

Well, by the time I got to the Mobil station this morning, Ricco and his guys already had the right drive axle assembly off the SilverCobra. Basically, the outer right drive axle (Yoke?) had just broken off about a 1/4" from the inside edge of the outer lock nut and cotter key. This is a 3/4" hardened shaft. Anyway, the broken off outer drive axle spun around enough to beat up the inside of the aluminum outer hub assembly and that will need to be replaced, too. The bearings look ok, but I have already purchased new over at the Jag dealer.

I knew that Stretch would be over at Jay's working on the hail dents so drove over there for their opinion. After examination, Jay thinks that it was basically a weak metalurical cast from the start as there are little indications of air bubbles at the break. Who woulda thought that microscopic air bubbles could cause all this commotion?

I spoke to Alan at Unique and he offered to send me the outer drive assembly piece , but he would not have the aluminum hub assembly. I think I that I can find the parts locally as Tom and Jay have given me a couple of places to check on Monday. I also found a place on the internet last night - CWI - Concours West Industries that seem to offer Jag - IRS parts. Any other Jag parts suggestions appreciated.

jwoodard · #8 (**permalink**) 05-31-2003, 07:57 PM

Dick, you are very lucky and I'm sure glad to know you are OK! That was one scary ride I'm sure. I'm confident you'll have it repaired in no time and back on the road.

Jim

Boudy · #9 (**permalink**) 05-31-2003, 08:35 PM

Oh man... Sorry to hear about the car but glad that you're OK.

Boudy

Buzz · #10 (**permalink**) 05-31-2003, 10:30 PM

Thankfully you were not hurt and the car is relatively unscathed. This is something that is never far from my mind when I'm driving my Unique at speed. The absence of an upper control arm on the Jag rear suspension can result in catastrophic loss of control in the event of an axle or joint failure. Accurate Machine Products builds a Jag rear setup with beefier axles and an upper control arm. It ain't cheap though. I wonder if anyone has come up with an easy retrofit upper control arm to address this problem?

427Aggie · #11 (**permalink**) 05-31-2003, 11:26 PM

Dick try XK's unlimited..>They do CSX cars but mainly do Jags

Matt

https://store.tolosatech.com/xks/

PJ UPTMOR · #12 (**permalink**) 06-01-2003, 10:17 AM

DICK GIVE JAG MAC INC. AT 11202 GOODNIGHT LANE DALLAS TX.
PHONE 972-241 5747 . IAN IS A GREAT GUY. HE HELP ME WITH MY JAG REAR END.

PAUL

Robert T. Day · #13 (**permalink**) 06-01-2003, 10:55 AM

Dick- did you have the left axle checked?? In the event you don't get the rearend totally replaced, I'd have that evaluated as well.

Why take the chance of a repeat accident? (just my 2 cents)
Glad to hear that you came out of it intact, and able to talk about it.

-Bob

stuck · #14 (**permalink**) 06-01-2003, 04:28 PM

Hope you're back on the road soon...I need to get up to Dallas and see you guys!

Dennis Mosley · #15 (**permalink**) 06-03-2003, 10:12 AM

good to hear you are ok my friend...

Tongue Pirate · #16 (**permalink**) 06-03-2003, 10:42 AM

Ouch! All is well that ends well! Good luck on repairing the problem & getting her back on the road quickly.