[rgunlock]

The explosion turned out to be the u-joint connecting the driveshaft to the transfer case. My brother and I replaced that the next morning. The driveshaft didn't "appear" to be too badly damaged. Some bad road rash on the yoke that hit the pavement. Skinned a bunch of undercoating off the bottom of the cab when it bounced up and slammed the floor also. Decided to drive it to my niece's place near the coast to see if it was going to be roadworthy to get us home later. Still had vibration at 70+ MPH, but didn't seem too bad if I held it to 65-70 max.

On the way back to Cary, the truck started to overheat. No steam, but temp gauge into the red. Pulled off, added coolant and seemed ok. Made it back to my brothers. Next morning we replaced that flexible fuel line with a reinforced line. While doing that, I noticed the AC compressor was way loose. The bolt holding the bracket was also one of the water pump bolts. Tightened that up and stopped the coolant leak. Another catastrophe averted! Rotated the tires to try to get rid of the remaining vibration.

Wasn't the way we planned to spend our visit, but working on the truck was good bonding time with my brother.