OUCH - Tailshaft let go....

[wbute]

A dropped front uni(which it isn't as you can still the uni on the shaft) will pole vault a car as it digs into the road. That's why you fit a tailshaft loop to anything that makes power. A rear dropped one will allow the shaft to flop around like mad until it falls out of the trans onto the road. I would say that's the most likely and that's where the trans oil would have come from. There is next to no chance it would have ignited on the exhaust I reckon. More likely a spark lighting the fuel leaking out of a ruptured fuel tank.
Fairly amazing if it twisted the shaft up though. It must have been made from exhaust pipe.

[Blue victor]

That would suck, not just for the lost $$ but as we all know, the hours upon hours put into a restoration.....grinding back a weld, sanding till your fingers bled etc.

Saw a Navara 4WD twin cab roll in the 90s due to a rope holding motorbikes come loose. I was about three cars back coming from Healesville to Lillydale area (Vic) when that flapping rope we all saw in traffic for the last 20 clicks, finally wrap around the tailshaft and possibly handbrake cable and just lock up the rear at 90kmh. I always think of it when I see a loose rope and try and alert the driver who usually looks at me like WTF?

Any theories as to why the nosecone is inverted? Would that be fire related and just dropped? The fire looks all underneath so I don't think they smashed it to get the bonnet open to get to it

[Kiwivan]

Insurance is a must
What if someone else got caught up in it.
Every thing I own is insured.
We work too hard to lose it.
Kiwivan

[Valencia]

Insurance is a must
What if someone else got caught up in it.
Every thing I own is insured.
We work too hard to lose it.
Kiwivan

Totally agree insurance should be standard on any car driven on the road

[wbute]

Totally agree insurance should be standard on any car driven on the road

Third party property should. But I don't want compulsory comprehensive insurance on my mums 2006 Nissan Pulsar. It would cost more than the heap was worth.

[SLR_dave]

A dropped front uni(which it isn't as you can still the uni on the shaft) will pole vault a car as it digs into the road. That's why you fit a tailshaft loop to anything that makes power. A rear dropped one will allow the shaft to flop around like mad until it falls out of the trans onto the road. I would say that's the most likely and that's where the trans oil would have come from. There is next to no chance it would have ignited on the exhaust I reckon. More likely a spark lighting the fuel leaking out of a ruptured fuel tank.
Fairly amazing if it twisted the shaft up though. It must have been made from exhaust pipe.

I totally agree, although I would change the word "flop" to "fling"! A tail shaft which becomes disconnected toward the diff end has to be presumed to still be turning under engine torque until it falls out of the gear box. So its not just freewheeling, its potentially still under power. The shower of sparks even if it just neatly dragged against the road are easily imaginable of course. I think WB brings up the best consideration though when asking what the tailshaft was made of.