[Vwdiesel] Gauges & spun bearings

[mikitka]

I threw a #1 rod right out the front of the block, front as in the part
facing the front of the vehicle. I was driving my 79 rabbit diesel down a
regular 4 lane road on my way home from Va. to the base in NC and was only
traveling 55mph. I noticed that the engine started to sound louder as in an
exhaust leak at the engine then all of a sudden it made a loud pop and
stopped running and I notice a belt flying out from under the car in my rear
view mirror. I pulled over to the side of the road popped the hood and there
was a connecting road sticking out of the engine and it pushed right through
were the water pump sits. 

After I took the engine out I pulled the oil pan and from what I can tell
the nuts backed off the connecting rod, they were laying in the oil pan. The
engine had 134k on it at the time.  It was quite the day. I did manage to
make it back to the base and to work on time by 4 pm since it was a three
hour drive from where I was at and this happened at 10am that morning.

Nick