How "Lucky" are you???

[4406v]

I was driving my 1971 Barracuda one night and the steering all the sudden felt "weird" so I slowed up from about 60 mph to around 15-20. All at once the car takes a hard right and I ended up in a ditch along the road. I couldn't figure out what happened. It was dark so I grabbed a lighter and went to inspect the front end. Apparently the cotter pin was not installed in the pitman arm castle nut and the nut had fallen off . The drag link simply fell off the pitman arm and the wheels cut right.

This happened by the only house in the area. So I walked up to the house to use the phone (this was about 1983 so there were no cell phones) As I'm walking to the house I see an A body Barracuda and a Charger sitting in the weeds along the tree line. I explained to the guy who answered the door what happened and he says "Let me get you a flashlight and a wrench if you can get the parts you need off the Barracuda help yourself" I was able to get the parts off the Barracuda ,put them on my car and was on my way in less than 1/2 hour.

What are the chances of breaking down in the middle of no where and there just so happens to be a couple cars in the yard with the correct parts, AND the owner allows you to take them for free? I drove away knowing I'm one "Lucky" sob!!!

In the years since I check EVERY suspension castle nut for cotter pins. This could've ended so much worse!!!

[1 Wild R/T]

Yeah that qualifies as Damn Lucky....
I've been plenty lucky through the years but your story actually reminded me of a story about my sister.... Many years ago, I'm thinking it was 1973 she was living in Houston Tx at the time.. Driving on a freeway, similar to you, she suddenly felt something in the steering but unlike you she wasn't aware enough to just slow down... She though she'd grab the next exit as she was in the left lane of a major freeway.... Well the car didn't want to wait that long, it didn't want to go right either... It made a gradual left turn down the only left off ramp anywhere in the city of Houston....   Same deal as you, the pitman arm had separated... Towed to a shop, Guy raised it up & basically told her she must live a blessed life... 

[Chryco Psycho]

Hit & Miss I have been totally stranded a few times we drove a 66 GTO back from Arizona decades ago & a rocker arm failed Near Panguich south Utah , we limped into Panguich & found some guys cruising & they new the owner of the parts store who opened the store & got us what we needed & continued on until we saw the Welcome to Montana sign when a con rod let go & went through the side of the block punching the starter motor off , we had to tow it all the way back to Edmonton .
 On the other hand I drove an average of 500 miles / day in the oil patch often on Ice roads & never had a failure while 4 other drivers all had accidents & 2 were killed . I was also meticulous with maintainence though .
 I broke an alternator bolt going around the north end of Superior & limped a lot of miles until I could find a way to repair that in my Challenger .
 Overall luck has never been an issue as I have never had it !

[GranCuda1970]

My 1st mopar died right after I bought it on the I-205 bridge in the middle lane halfway across going Northbound in heavy traffic. I put the hazzards on and poured tranny fliud in. Died because transmission gasket was just a silicone bead instead of a gasket thanks to my Uncles mechanical expertise. The whole time cars and semi's were roaring by at 60 mph shaking my aspen r/t as they screamed by. I wast so sure someone was going to rearend me not paying attention...pucker factor 10.

[Gumby]

A couple of years ago I hopped in my 'Burban and almost made it out of the driveway. Both front tires went flat! lol. I backed up, took them off and called a buddy to take me to the tire shop and get new skin.
It's an old worn out rust bucket, and it's cheaper to buy new tires every 3 years than to fix it and get it aligned. I don't plan on keeping it much longer - so it's not worth dumping money into.
It's lasted longer than I ever would have imagined, though.

[74 challenge]

Not luck or maybe lucky because nothing happened.

My buddy bought himself his first ever muscle car it was a chevelle ss 396 from somewhere out west. When it got to the USA border we had a buddy drop us off and he headed home down the highway. When he had purchased the car he didn't want the rims and negotiated with the seller that since he worked at an auto scrapper he would find 4 rims that bit the bolt pattern before he threw it on the truck.

To our surprise we arrived to find he had put 4 space saver type spare tires on the car, we only have to drive the 100 km's home but the roads were damp. Every time something passed us the whole car would get out of line and just all over the road. When we finally hit Ottawa we were so happy to see rush hour traffic because it means we could cruise at 30 km/h the rest of the way home. Easily one of the worst drives I have ever had.

A few days later after the roads dried out did that thing ever smoke those tiny tires.

[dfrazz]

When I was younger my dad and I were coming back from a fishing trip on Mt. Evans and he was going way too fast on a 10 mph curve.  His truck fish tailed toward the side of the mountain, he over-corrected and we ended up flipping 3x and it ended up resting on the passenger side.  Neither of us were ejected even though we were not wearing seat belts.  The wrecker flipped his truck over, we started it and drove back to Denver trying to see out the busted windshield.