That's Not Gone Well [updated!]

Scroll down a little to see the update (it’s fixed!)....

My father tried to move his ‘97 F250 today, but the plow had been melted and re-frozen into the ice. That’s not unusual, and you can work it a little with the hydraulics to free it up, go forward/backward just a touch and usually it breaks free. Or, this happens.

The thing is, it was about 15F and very windy today. He came over to my house to tell me about this debacle and ask for help, and I obliged. Amazingly, it came out easily:

And I called a friend who typically has lots of spare 90's Ford parts laying around, but he didn’t have one of these in stock. He’s welding up a solution and we’ll put it back together tomorrow I guess. Oh boy!

On the bright side, it’s easy to slide in and out from under the truck because it’s all ice under there. Yay?

Oh and while I was under there, I saw why the transfer case lever feels like it’s not attached to anything anymore... because it’s not. I mean, the linkage is attached, but the pivot point broke off so it’s not really doing anything. Leave it in 4WD and don’t ask questions.

I should mention, this is strictly a plow truck and it’s slated for replacement this coming summer. It seems he kept it one season too many, as it failed inspection in December, the driver’s door doesn’t really shut, it overheated in a recent snowstorm because a coolant hose sprung a major leak, the fuel tank leaks if you have more than about 3 gallons in it, and just this week one of the tires even said F-You and developed a huge crack for no apparent reason. My father sourced a replacement from a friend, just to get the thing through the winter.

Everyone’s got a story about a shitty plow truck, don’t they? Well I have a lifetime of them. This is the nicest plow truck my father has ever had, by a huge margin. So yeah.

update: FIXED!

Our friend welded up two pieces of used driveshafts together and we bolted it in today, all is well. I mean, to be clear: the truck is still a POS and does NOT go on the road, really. But it again has power to both the rear wheels AND the front wheels! Ready for the next snowstorm. Which is likely in 2 days.

You know, the truck looks OK from a few feet away:

But get a little closer...

The driver’s door doesn’t like to shut. I wonder why...

Its second tailgate:

These pieces of the truck were on the ground, not really all that close to where I was working on the driveshaft. It’s really trying to return to the earth.