3 hours from home, trailer behind me, busy intersection and...

[cabmandone]

My friggin transmission line running to the cooler decided to break... Not pop... break. The damn fancy fitting they use just broke! 86,000 miles on a 2012 and it just broke!

I was helping move my daughter to Cuyahoga Falls. We got everything setup for her. I hooked back up to my trailer and we take off. No puddle in the apartment complex parking lot. I didn't even make it 1 mile from her place when my truck refuses to move. No lights, no warnings, nothing.

I'm sitting at a light on this wonderfully busy four lane road on a decent incline. Light turns green... me no go. On with the flashers (I swear to god no one knows what 4 way flashers mean today), get out and pop the hood (which in defense of the who didn't know what 4 ways meant, the trailer blocked the fact that my hood was up) I immediately notice ATF on the road. As I'm waiving people around me I can see a nice line of what used to be in my transmission on the road.

So I call a towing company. They say they can't pull the truck and trailer together. I tell them I just need them to get me off the road and there's a restaurant to my immediate right that they can pull me into... Nope! Can't pull a truck attached to a trailer and they want to send two trucks. I tell them I'll pass. My daughter shows up and picks up my wife and younger daughter. I tell them to go to Autozone and buy 18 quarts of ATF. I put about 14 quarts in, fire up the truck, hang a hard right and into the parking lot I go! I shut it down and put a blanket under the truck to keep from dumping a puddle of ATF in the parking lot. I find that damn broken fitting broken. Back to autozone! 4 more quarts of ATF, 2 feet of high pressure power steering line, one small tubing cutter, 4 hose clamps. FIXED and I just made it back home about 30 minutes ago.

The one thing that stood out to me, other than no one knowing what 4 way flashers mean, was that no one bothered to ask if I needed help. A nice lady who was working at the bar was on break. I was telling her what happened and she brought me out a beer. I offered to pay but she said "this one is on me". I walked in, ordered another, dropped a $20 on the counter and told her to keep the change. She was one of the bright spots in an otherwise sh.tty situation.

[billybek]

Macgyvered it.... Nice!

[Arizona_928]

Didn't even say anything about how hot the bartender was. Slacking nick.


Old age on that fitting or did you pop something up in the undercarriage

[pwd72s]

Good job...I'm amazed autozone had the bits you needed.

[herr_oberst]

Nice workaround to get home. Not many here might have been as resourceful as you just to get the rig to the parking lot, let alone patch the doohicky and drive it home so you can do it all over again with new parts...

and thanking the barkeep, well, good on ya. I'm sure it made her day.

[wdfifteen]

Very resourceful and great job! It’s great to not be helpless in an emergency.

[Bill Douglas]

...chooses the moment to crap out

[cabmandone]

Originally Posted by Arizona_928

Didn't even say anything about how hot the bartender was. Slacking nick.


Old age on that fitting or did you pop something up in the undercarriage

I don't know what happened. It's one of those that you push together but need a tool to separate.. unless it decided to break. It had no pressure on the fitting since there was a rubber hose line before the fitting. It just snapped right at the fitting coupler.

[cabmandone]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Very resourceful and great job! It’s great to not be helpless in an emergency.

I wasn't helpless but I was P.O'd beyond belief. I mean this thing couldn't pick a worse intersection to just not move than the one I was at unless it decided to die in the middle of a roundabout. Once I got calmed down and figured out what happened and how to get the truck moving again, it all became pretty easy. The beer from the bartender DEFINITELY didn't hurt either.

[stevej37]

Nice job....I hope there weren't any bad words said.

[cabmandone]

Originally Posted by stevej37

Nice job....I hope there weren't any bad words said.

Ralphie: In the heat of battle, my father wove a tapestry of obscenity that as far as we know, is still hanging in space over Lake Michigan.

Let's just say that the "old man" from A Christmas Story had nothin on me.

[masraum]

Nice save! Although I'm sure it didn't exactly feel like a "save" at the time while your truck and trailer hung out in the intersection flashing away.

[stealthn]

I like the beer part of the story, there are still great people out there.

[cabmandone]

Originally Posted by stealthn

I like the beer part of the story, there are still great people out there.

There were two workers at the restaurant that offered help. The bartender offered a drink and the other asked if I needed any tools. That's more help than anyone that passed by me on the road offered which was a bit frustrating. Me, if I came across that situation and I'm in my truck, I'd offer to pull them out of the way. Not one person in a truck even rolled their window down and there were several that could have pulled both me and the trailer out of the way.

[GH85Carrera]

Nick, I have experiences a small part of some of that. At THE very busiest intersection in my suburban town, right on Rt 66, the speed and reference sensors on my 911 decided to go crazy. The engine died, just as the light turned green. I had a few mad motorists behind me, but not much I could do. I did hop out and wiggle on the connectors in the engine bay. I could get it to start, but the RPM's were all over the place, and then just dead. I did manage to make it through the next light cycle, and down the road to a side road. It was a challenge to drive it home at all. New sensors, and all was fine.

[Baz]

Good job, Nick! Did the same last year until I could get the replacement hose installed. Mine just corroded from the salt here. '02 with 235K on the clock.....

[recycled sixtie]

Very impressive Cabmando the way you handled it. At least you knew where the four way flasher switch was and how to fix the problem. Many folks would not know either.

I have been lucky and cannot remember the last time I was stranded. None of our vehicles have more than 60k miles on them which helps and we have no trailers.
Good on you.

[cabmandone]

Originally Posted by recycled sixtie

Very impressive Cabmando the way you handled it. At least you knew where the four way flasher switch was and how to fix the problem. Many folks would not know either.

I have been lucky and cannot remember the last time I was stranded. None of our vehicles have more than 60k miles on them which helps and we have no trailers.
Good on you.

Honestly, I think this is the first time one of my vehicles left me stranded. I was talking to my wife about this on the drive home and couldn't think of another time where something like this happened. I've never had a vehicle towed because of an issue with the vehicle that rendered it inoperable. I was in an accident once and had to be towed (btw, had a trailer on and the tow driver towed the truck and trailer) but that's the only time I've ever had a vehicle towed. I guess all good things come to an end eventually.

[creaturecat]

nice save!

[cabmandone]

The offending line! Notice there's a soft line that that the fitting used to attach to. The soft line is about 8" long then goes back to hard line. I'm not sure I'm even going to buy the new factory line to replace what broke. I'm thinking I'm just going to get a proper fitting piece of transmission line and clamp in on the steel lines like I have it now. I cant see spending a bunch of money on the factory line when the rubber hose will probably last longer than the factory piece did.