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Scott,

Hate to chime in late here but I now find myself in your situation, just a little bit worse... Funny thing is I have the same set up in my car, 68 Road Runner-426-727-4.10 dana and live in Virginia...go figure... Car is a total restoration,and I had my drive shaft balanced prior to installation with new joints. Up to this point I had only driven the car around the neighborhood and a few small burnouts in front of the housewith no issues. I drove the car through town (3 miles/40MPH) for the alignment. After that was done I took it out for the highway run it it felt really good under throttle to about 70 or so and then I let off the throttle and it started the vibrations pretty strong. I slowed down and varied speeds and it seemed like it was more pronounced during deceleration. I took it home and put it up on the lift and everything looked and felt OK. In my mind I was thinking something from the rear end since the vibration was in the body and not the steering wheel. I took it out one more time and still had the same problem...all of a sudden the vibration went away and for a second or so I was pretty happy until I looked out in the mirror and saw nothing but smoke...and I mean a LOT of smoke... The heavy smoke cleared up but I was still getting intermittent puffs as I slowed down and got off the highway. Once off I pulled into a parking lot and discovered trany fluid everwhere under the car. I nursed the car back to the garage but had to go under 25 MPH as the car had vibrations bad enough that I did not want to chance anything by pushing it. Once under the car I found the tail shaft housing in two pieces, it broke just after the mount. Once I got things cleaned up a bit I pulled the driveshaft (the weights are still in place)and the U-joints still feel good through full travel. I spun the shaft out the back of the tranny and it is straight as best as I can visibly see. Good thing was that there was no damage to the body other than the mess from the tranny fluid.
This happened last weekend and I had to leave town before I could have the driveshaft re-checked... I also still need to drop the tranny pan and see if there may be any suprises...I love this hobby...

Anyone else ever bust a tailshaft housing???

Jim
68 Hemi Road Runner

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