Torqueflite Exploded on Freeway

[Brandy]

Glad I saw this thread. I had a shaft come off on a mil truck back in the day. U joints failed. Scared the crap out of me.

 

[BDF6]

Made me cringe...

 

[-Mike-]

To be honest, I still don't fully understand the mechanics of such a chain of things failing. If the yoke failed first, wouldnt there have been any rattling noises or vibration at first? To me it seemed like a sudden loud bang, I immediately left a huge trail of smoke behind me (vaporized tranny oil on exhaust pipes?) and right after the bang the rattling and vibrating started. I actually suspected some transmission oil pump has failed, then a bearing, then the whole thing seizing up, disintegrating and then the shaft shearing off as the wheels were still spinning.
Don't know if that makes any sense and the driveshaft connection failing first is obviously not so uncommon.
Only thing that astonishes me is that it happened so quickly, basically out of the blue, without any warning.
I will see what the transmission shop says and will keep you guys updated.

 

[Dodge Bros]

When it happened to me there was no warning at all. No vibrations, the car didn’t slow down, engines made no extra noise. Nothing.

In my case it sheered the bolts on the u joint straps clean off. Then the drive shaft caught both mufflers. Then the tranny chase went bye bye. Even the part of the case that the starter bolts too was gone. With the windows down the interior filled with white smoke, the passenger and I couldn’t see anything from the waist down.

I think my brother was driving the car when the tail shaft housing broke. We drove that one back on to the trailer.

 

[66Satellite47]

I should have asked if drive shaft was bent/broken or just the yoke or front yoke end of the shaft. If it was just a drive shaft failure the internal 727 components would still be intact, but a good look at the sprag should be done. Sprag failure would likely cause the front drum to explode, front half of case would be gone. I can't see how a pump failure causes this. Does the rear end turn & sound normal?

 

[myk r sanchez]

Glad YOU are OK!
Here is an option I like & need to install:
http://www.manciniracing.com/bofrdrlo.html

Thanks man, I'm going to try and pick that up. Looks like those hood turn signals always i need always keep getting bumped to the back of the line lol...

 

[khryslerkid]

Could have been worse!

Hey, glad nobody got hurt. That makes a slippery mess for sure.

 

[dvw]

This was not an internal trans problem. This output shaft came out of the 1st 727 that lost a cap. I've seen it happen 4 times. Every one broke the tail shaft. Some did more damage as well. I did it myself with my 4 speed Challenger. Broke the bell housing clean off the back of the block. In every case it spit a cap. Unbelievable amount of force when the shaft gets that far off center and out of balance. Believe or not the trans this shaft came out of only needed a shaft and tail housing.
Doug

 

[Dajkzo]

To the original poster, you are very lucky. I saw a 1970 chevelle drop a driveshaft at the track and almost destroyed the car. I have one of these on my RR. https://www.manciniracing.com/mabebofrdrsh.html.

 

[Curiousyellow71]

I would look over the rearend very, very closely after a failure like this....

 

[493 Mike]

I wouldn't call a slip yoke failure a "transmission explosion". Same thing happened to me under the same circumstances but I had a driveshaft loop.

View attachment 982007 View attachment 982009

Ouch!
Mike

 

[4406bbl]

I think every car should have a front loop. I have seen that happen after they balanced a stock driveshaft, turns out they heated it in spots and pulled the little dings out, it never fully came out because of front and rear loops, the shaft bent right where the heat was applied, failed the front joint, bent the mainshaft and broke the housing. Everything else was fine, a good shaft from Dennys driveshaft is worth the money , I will never balance a stock one again

 

[4406bbl]

Or deal with the local shops....

 

[origcharger]

Years ago I had a rear ujoint cup get loose at about 60 mph. It also broke the trans tail housing and bent the tailshaft. Driveshaft never became disconnected so there was enough vibration that i remember my interior rear view mirror rotating. I do believe the tail housing broke immediately as the smoke from fluid on the exhaust was instantaneous

 

[threewood]

Trans blew apart because of the yoke/strap failure. Overrun clutch grenaded at the tailshaft/housing because it went beyond design parameters.

If you were in it to 4k rpm @100, what did the rpms jump to once it let go?

 

[440 Charger]

Hi everyone,

while accelerating full throttle at around 4000rpm doing about 100mph, my transmission suddenly and with no previous sign of failure, exploded. No one was hurt, no shrapnell inside the car. Drive shaft yoke at the tranny has sheard off. I was able to coast and stop safely on the breakdown lane. Apart from the destroyed transmission and the driveshaft, everything else is fine. Does anyone have any idea what could have caused this?
69 Road Runner, 76 440 with purple cam, TF727, 3.23 gears, 2500 stall, no extra tranny cooler, only stock transmission oil cooling through stock (wide version) radiator.
I've had the car for six years now, engine/transmission worked absolutely fine until then. Small oil leak at the rear of the transmission. Tranny oil changed two years ago. Everything seemed to be balanced just fine. No vibration or anything.

I was driving for roughly 15 minutes when the tranny failed and had been rolling around at 2000rpm until then. I always try to give everything time to reach proper operating temp. Engine water temp has reached 180F ca. 5min before I put the pedal to the metal and the transmission destroyed itself. Water temp was still at 180F when it happened.
Thanks for any ideas on why this could have happened or how to avoid this in the future. No speed limit, by the way, as the "Freeway" is an Autobahn here in southern Germany. Regards Mike

sounds like over running clutch bad ****

 

[440 Charger]

Trans blew apart because of the yoke/strap failure. Overrun clutch grenaded at the tailshaft/housing because it went beyond design parameters.

If you were in it to 4k rpm @100, what did the rpms jump to once it let go?

Yep

 

[440 Charger]

Years ago I had a rear ujoint cup get loose at about 60 mph. It also broke the trans tail housing and bent the tailshaft. Driveshaft never became disconnected so there was enough vibration that i remember my interior rear view mirror rotating. I do believe the tail housing broke immediately as the smoke from fluid on the exhaust was instantaneous

Overrun clutch

 

[440 Charger]

Overrun clutch

Awsome transmission understand how it functions

 

[dvw]

sounds like over running clutch bad ****

Nope. The lower roller clutch is used in 1st gear only. They get a bad rap.
Doug