As some of you may or may not know, I have a 2003 Cobra that is basically my toy. I finally got it running after the last wave of upgrades I did to it, so I drove it to the movies (About 6 miles away) but it requires me (well not really requires, but it's faster) to get on the Interstate to reach my destination. So I pick up my friend and we head out. Everything is working fine, until I go to get on the Interstate. It's two lanes that merge into one lane, then merge onto the Interstate. Well I was in the outside lane and the car ahead of me was going extremely slow and the cars to the left of me wouldn't let me in, so as soon as the car in front got some distance to where I could go around it, I took it. Accelerated the car from about ~30ish MPH to around 70/75 MPH in less than a second, then I hear a thud/popping noise and suddenly the car starts vibrating VIOLENTLY. So I pulled over immediately. We jumped out the car, popped the hood and looked for something that didn't belong. Engine is still running and purring like a kitten. (well, more like a lion, but anyway) Grab the throttle and give it a little gas, perfect. Check under the car for fluid leaking, nothing just the steady drip of water from the A/C. Check all the tires to ensure none of the belts were separating, lugs might have come loose, anything and all was fine.
So I jumped back in the drivers seat and pulled forward slowly. As I went faster, the vibration increased until at about 25mph, it sounded and felt like all hell was breaking loose. So I dropped it back down to around 20mph and cruised on the shoulder till I made it off the Interstate. Limped it all the way home (roughly 10 mile trip) and tossed it up on some jack stands. Rolled under it, seen that the front ujoint was coming off. Apparently the snap ring broke off and the cap fell out, thus one side of the ujoint was dangling freely (its got 4 sides) causing the drive shaft to become unbalanced which was causing the noise and vibrations.
Now... being that it was the front of the drive shaft, if it would have let go completely at ~70mph, chances are the car would have pogo'd itself rear over front, possibly landing upside down. Even though we were wearing seat belts, the end result wouldn't have been pretty at all.
So the next night (lastnight) I pulled the d/s off and I'm sending it to the dealership where a friend of mine works so he can repair it for me and send it back so I can put it on. Just got done ordering trans fluid to be shipped over night from Jegs, hope to have her back on the road by the weekend. Cars is an expensive hobby.
