Oh no just screwed up! oh wait no I didn't, what's that?

[John Redcorn]

Ever since I got my tahoe a month ago there's been a clear plastic bag all twisted up in the little quarter inch gap between where the passenger side half-shaft meets the axle tube.

Tonight I was down below already, putting on a splash-shield I forgot to put back on when I changed my radiator a couple weeks ago, I thought I'd go ahead and get the bag out and went at it with the smallest little pocket knife I have to fit up in there.

As soon as I had cut all the way through I saw I had cut through a black formed shape. Crap! I've just cut through some kind of seal! the whole spindle's going to have to come off the ball joints to pull the halfshaft out to fix this!! I don't think I can do anything relating to balljoints myself so it's huge bill at a shop time! probably not okay to drive like this so tow-truck time too! crap!!

But wait, I looked closer and it was no seal. That bag had got so hot it formed itself into that shape. (celebratory beer!)

truck had 134k on it when I got it, wonder how long that thing's been there?
I've been getting a weird noise/vibration from the front end too, now that I see what this bag turned into I'm hoping I've just fixed that, get to go road test in about an hour.


(and actually I said better words than "crap" but I'm not sure if I'm supposed to type them here)

 

[Mike97]

You are lucky the bag didn't damage the seal. I once had that happen on an old Chevelle I used to own. The bag got caught up at the rear end, where the seal is for the pinion shaft. It was only on there for a few miles. When I removed the bag, most of my rear-end fluid drained out onto the ground. I had to replace the seal because the garbage bag had ripped out the rubber in the seal, and the bag itself was so wrapped around the shaft that it formed a seal until I removed it. No celebratory beer for me that day. Keep an eye out for leaks, but hopefully do damage was done.