Just finished a family trip to Alberta. Threw a rod half way there. 15 km tow cost $300, and took 2 hours........ obviously we had to wait. No rental cars/bus nothing. Called one of the wife's relatives, and thankfully they drove in and picked us up. They drove us almost the rest of the way to our destination, where a friend picked us up. Took us 20 hours to make a 8 hour trip.

Ended up having my Dad and Uncle come and rescue the Blazer with a trailer

In the process of swapping engines. Just about have the old out, picking up the new-to-me one Monday am. Should be back on the road soon.

Next time the wife asks if we want to rent a car for the trip, I'll just have to agree with her........


Aaron

 

I have two, one with my s-10, and another with a Blazer that I was the passenger in.

About 10 years ago, we are both about 20 years old, buddy and I go to a music show here in SE Wisco one Friday night, we are both having some fun (me more than him, as I am not driving). Great night, on the way home, I fall asleep, its about a 40 minute ride. I wake up to a cop knocking on my window. I open my eyes (still feeling good we are stopped on the side of the road (middle of no-where), my buddy no where in sight. Cop asks, what happen, where is the driver, etc. I say and (Im honest) I have NO IDEA, I was sleeping the last 15 minutes. He does not buy it, have to call my old man from the cop (this is before cell phones) he comes at 130 am NOT HAPPY. Ben my buddy calls me 2 hours later, he hoofed it through a field to a phone..LOL...said he tried to wake me up and said the heJJ with it. We go get him, bad fuel pump.. Drag her home behind the old mans silverado in the AM.

Next one is on m 99 s10 back in 2003/04 COLD WISCONSIN WINTER NIGHT, heading to a basketball game with a buddy, had to pull over to grab something that was flying out of the truck bed (aka take a leak). Get back in, you feel the truck just slide to the right (the snow that was plowed had created what looked like a shoulder of the highway). So know we are sitting on a gnarley angle, pop her in 4WD, hammer on it, we slide in worse, oh shi&. Call a buddy, said get over here, well he was aways away. In the meantime it was -5 degrees so I keep the truck running to stay warm. The angle my truck was on, RUN OUT OF GAS.. Sh$%.. Buddy gets there with a smaller s-10 than mine (2WD 5SPD), and tow staps, just starts laughing, hey lets go get gas, enough to get the pump to start her back up. Grab the gas head back, jump down in the ditch, the snow is past my waist SUPER DEEP, I dont care at this point, gas on my hands, go to get out, lost my shoe..LOL.. I thought my hands were going to fall off. Hook up the straps, buddy gooses on it, his wheels are just burning rubber, I say hell with it, lets call another buddy with a jeep (buddy says no he will get it, his truck has pulled out worse..LOL..uh huh) Burns out for a good 2 or 3 minutes, POP, Clutch goes.. Seriously? Take him back to get his monte carlo, he is with a date mind you, we get back, and our buddy with the jeep pulls up, yanks me out. This is no joke, and still made the game! However my hands hurt for a good 3 weeks!

 

mines not all that bad compared to these other posts ive read but they were definitely annoying. first time was when i was headed back into kingman az on old 66 after dropping my girlfriend off in seligman az ~85 miles away. me and a friend had parked in a little alcove by a town called truxton which was ~40 miles out of kingman so we could go for a quick dip in a stream and he wound up forgetting the keys in the truck so we were locked out for a half hour or so until his knife magically unlocked my drivers side door. fast forward a week later were on our way back down 66 going the whole way to prescott to pick my girl up and in almost the same exact spot i blew a tire doing about 70. after waving for a good hour or so the first cop came and asked whats up so we told him and had him call back into kingman (no cell service) so my friends dad could bring a tire. all he had was a donut so we drove the rest of the 120 miles in his minivan to pick my girlfriend up and went back the next day with a spare to put on it (my original spare was already on my rear passenger from another flat a month earlier. damn those sun rotted tires). needless to say i learned to always have a spare tire and spare key outside of the truck before any trip

 

Thank god my truck never locks its self and also always have a spare =P

 

well thats the stupidest part of the story. i have a carabiner like device for my keyrings with the ignition and door key on separate rings because i have to let the truck sit awhile to warm up in the winter and that way i can leave it locked but have it running. my friend, who i had been letting drive when that happened, forgot to take the door key out of the center console lock after he opened it to get a fish hook and wire out and we both unknowingly locked our doors, shut them, and didnt realize they door key ring was still in the truck until we got back from our dip in the stream and catching a few fish. and he had the nerve to say *wait for it* so thats why the keys felt so light!

 

I actually had 2 breakdowns in the past 9 years with my Blazer. I get a little long winded and don't know when to shut up.

1.) Driving down to the beach in Delaware on a Friday night for the weekend and all of a sudden after leaving the Toll Booth, she won't shift properly, I'm thinking ok only 50 miles to go, I can make it, I call my friend and ask him for a reputable garage in that area, I'll drop it off and he can pick me up. 5 minutes later, it dies, wont even shift out of first gear, (automatic) 100 miles from home, no roadside assistance. Finally I get the name of a 24 hour towing service and they come out to tow it to a transmission shop. I had to rent a hotel room for the night with my dogs because the car rental place wasn't open. Next day I go rent a car and we head to the shore. Transmission was totally rebuilt 4 days later at the tune of $1800. Got it home and my insurance paid for the towing, every little bit helped.

2.) I had all 4 ball joints replaced on my front end for inspection, front end handling nice, wife is at the beach house already so I leave after work on Friday to go join her. Now keep in mind, I am near deaf and without my hearing aids, I can barely hear a siren behind me. I am driving down the Coastal Highway and something just doesn't feel right so I pull over, crawl under the Blazer looking but can't find a damn thing, check the wheels, nothing so I hop in and continue on. I get to the beach house 3 hours later, park it, get out, greet the dogs and my wife, in that order - lol, look at the Blazer and the left front wheel is leaning sideways, my heart stopped. Called for a tow truck, next day they asked me to stop out at the garage. Here the jerk (being nice) never tightened down the bolts on the upper joint when he put the new ball joints in, bolts sheered off, upper ball joint was just flopping around, mechanic said you could have been in one hell of a wreck, tell me about it. He checked the entire front end while he had it there and the others were ok except for 2 wrong type bolts but he replaced the bolts in them to be safe. Called my mechanic at home and reemed him a new butt, told him he is reimbursing me $600 when I get home, after I go see him, he said I should have towed it home and left him fix it. I said you never gave me that option when I talked to you from Delaware, too late now, he paid up and the kid that did the work got fired.

I have roadside assistance now for all vehicles, even motorcycle, unlimited distance including any trailer I might be towing. $100 a year, well worth the peace of mind.

 

I've had 2 great break downs in my 1992 s10 blazer one time last year i decided to climb mount washington with it...i just replaced the sparkplug wires, about half way up my truckl lost tremendous amount of power... and i could smell smoke. i pull off to the side in a pull off. my buddy steps out of the passenger side...FIRE is flaming up one of my sparkplug wires i put the fire out with my hand. had to gimp it downt the mountain with 5 cylinders ... see what happen here was the heatshield you put on the boot didnt fit the new wires i had on it now i have the heatshield on lol...

2nd one last year during the dead of winter during the huge snowstorm we had i was driving my flexplate snapped. i knew it was going to but i was trying to gimp it out of the rest of the week then replace it. do to that insident i now have a 3 inch body lift and a ton of new parts to keep my 275k miled blazer still running...so it worked out in the end ?!?

 

In my blazer.....

Went to my girl's mom's house to help clear a tree that fell. Jumped in the truck after and crank but no start....don't hear the fuel pump...well that was abrupt. Checked fuses, swapped relays, nothing...CRAP. Stuck in a snowbank on a 18% grade gravel driveway that's too narrow for a towtruck and icy as crap. Got lucky though, smacked the bottom of the tank and got it started...drove it straight to my shop. shut it off, hasn't started since.

 

hmm i forgot about this thread

keep them storys coming

 

I live about 20 minutes south of Atlanta. The miserable trip I had planned to go aprox. 100 miles to get a 1998 Blazer for my girlfriend started the evening before the trip day. I borrowed a tow dolly to bring the Blazer back with my 2dr. Jimmy. After attaching the dolly and turning onto the road the problems began. One of the supports that stabilize the dolly was broken. This caused the dolly to sway back and forth. The sway was so bad at 35 miles/hr I had to go 30 with the flashers on so as to not scare other drivers. I don't know how to weld and it was late on a Friday so I took the swaying dolly back to the shop where I worked and did my best to weld the thing back. I somehow got the thing to stay together after burning several rods.
The next day I was off at 8:00 AM with my girlfriend's son to get the Blazer. Little did I know that the violent swaying of the dolly caused the bearing in the rear axle on the drivers side to separate. I was clueless and traveling 70 on the interstate. I had the radio up loud enough the extra roar of the axle with no bearings was not that noticeable. The gear oil in the rear end was pouring out and had soaked the fender on the dolly. I soon noticed a foul odor and smoke pouring from the rear. I was just north of Atlanta when I noticed this. I pulled over and looked at the underside of the Jimmy. The smoke I first noticed was a vacuum line melting on the exhaust. Luckily I found a pen and was able to connect the vacuum line back together. I thought my troubles were solved. This is when I noticed the fender on the dolly was coated with some type of fluid. I stopped at an Autozone and removed the rear wheel. I realized the bearing was gone and the axle was grinding on the outer race. I brought tools so I thought I might fix this. Oh **** !, there is a sign that says no working on cars in the parking lot. Sales people said the police really enforce this. I put the wheel back on and drove my disabled Jimmy directly across the street from the Autozone and then got some bearings. I jacked up the rear and proceeded to remove the axle and install the new bearing. Oh ****!, someone has already replace the bearing before with one that fixes the spun bearing problem. Back to the store and hope like hell they got this. Whew! they had it. Now the axle. Knocking the inner race off was easy enough but the axle was eaten up pretty bad. I knew all this was a patch job just to get home. I managed to get everything back on and filled with fluid but no chance the seal was going to hold anything back. I lost all the gear oil within the first 100 feet and just kept driving. I got home around 8:00 PM. I really hate the factory jack but it saved my *** this time.