Bella Coola adventure (part 2) - shorter this time.

[Livolsi, Stephane]

The European Princess is home.  Tihol drove me to Bella Coola Saturday AM in
his 88 90Q (uneventful except for the ptarmigan squishing incident) and it
took all of 30-45 minutes to get the new pump in.  Tested by jumping the FPR
and it ran fine.  Adventure #1 ends.

Adventure #2.
I was concerned about the durability of my left front outer CV as it had
been making noise before the incident and seemed to be noisier after the tow
- you just know I'm going to blame it on the tow truck driver, right?
Anyway, before heading down there, I had picked up a new (rebuilt) axle from
UAP/NAPA and we brought it with us, just in case.  Tihol convinced me to
forego the swap while in Bella Coola for lack of a proper puller so off we
went.  Actually on the straights and the paved sections of road, the CV was
normal.  The hairpins on "the" hill were another matter and I heard some
nasty noises.  However we made it all the way up (against 18% grades) in
partially snow covered, partially thawed and muddy road without incident.
The problem came when we pulled in for gas 50 or so Kms down the road.
After gassing up, I get back on the road about 50 meters or so and get a
nasty crunching, then rattling and I can feel and hear some cv joint
bearings bouncing along under the car.  RPM's shoot way up but car starts
slowing.  The CV calved.
Lock the center diff and return to the gas station slowly.  Get permission
to do a bit of work and we're done like dinner in about 45 minutes.  Again,
Tihol's voice of sanity prevails and I agree to just take out the existing
axle without replacing it and continue with the center diff locked,
essentially turning the quattro into a rear wheel drive type 44.  So I undo
the triple squares holding the axle to the tranny flange (yup, I have the
right tool) and the axle came right out because the CV cage at the outer end
was all broken up.   The stub axle stayed in the hub. Tihol captured the
event on video for posterity.

We decided that rather than try to get the stub out of the hub I could
continue the trip (still had about 350 kms to go) without damage to the
wheel bearing.  Off we go and made it home uneventfully except for a bit of
right front wheel vibration which developed when we were almost home.  I
think it is unrelated to the current incident.

All in all an interesting tale to tell the grandkids (when I have em)

Stephane