As some of y’all already know, I had a few things go awry on the Moab trip. First was my leaf spring plate broke on Top of the World trail. It was a first Gen Schwarttzy high clearance leaf spring bolt plate. When it was discovered a few years ago that the shop Eric manufactured his plates through was welding several plates together rather than bending on piece of steel, we talked and he got me a new set of one piece plates to replace mine with. But I was too lazy to swap them out and just thought, “well they haven’t broken yet” lol. Just want to be clear that I do not think it’s Eric’s fault hold him responsible in any way. He even messaged me while I was stuck on the trail saying he can overnight another set if iwant. But it was not necessary as Jacob was already bringing me a set of OEM plates and the guys were going to weld the broken plate together to get me off the trail the next day. It is also important to note that the plate was cracked a while ago as there is sign of rust at the weld and it looks like it was only held on by 2” of clean weld. Luckily it broke on trail and not while speeding down the highway. Call me lucky in that way.
View attachment 27464
so when the plate broke, the axle separated from the leaf springs, and I was on an incline. Everyone sprung into action and centered the axle on the leaf spring. I stayed with the rig and waited for the guys to bring the welded plate the next day
View attachment 27465
so the other thing that went wrong was likely related to the axle separating. Especially since I was on an incline, the driveshaft probably got pushed into the transfer case. We didn’t know anything was wrong as I was able to wheel with the group the entire week after the leaf plate incident. So after the week was over while I was driving back to Norcal, we stopped to camp in Nevada. The next day we did some exploring around the area and the H3 started making clicking noises. We thought it was the driveshaft so we pulled that out
View attachment 27466
After that there was still clicking and it was coming from the transfer case. We were still
5 hours from home. The H3 still drives so we decide it would be best to push it and make our way home. Made it from Lovelock, NV all the way to Auburn, CA before the transfer case just started spewing fluid everywhere. Grey metallic fluid.
View attachment 27467
after a 3 hour wait the tow truck finally came drove us the last 2 hours to home.
View attachment 27468