Sweet Ride
Enthusiast
So I'm sitting at home Friday night (the 9th) watching a movie when I hear the dreaded "get your ass to work" ring of my phone. One of my fantastically talented drivers locked his keys in his truck and I had to go bail him out. 
I figure I'll take the Viper to go get him so that I can count the mileage as business and get reimbursed by the company. 
On the freeway doing 80 for about ten miles... Exit said freeway. Hit gas at stop light. BANG! Thump, Thump, Thump.
I instantly knew what was broken as this has happened to me in other cars. Fortunately, I was about 20 feet from a driveway and pulled right in. Looked under the car and saw that the passenger side half shaft had completely split apart. 
Unreal...
I call my towing company (edited for time).
Me: I need to have a Viper towed.
Them: I'm sorry, what?
Me: A Dodge Viper.
Them: Oh, hang on. Let me make sure we can do that.
...On hold music...
Them: Yeah, we can do that, but we can't do it for your company rate due to the difficulty of the tow.
Me: Well, whatever, it's not like I can drive the car.
Them: Be there within the hour.
Then the phone call to my wife:
Me: I broke the Viper...
Her: Seriously?!?!?! I knew that was a bad purchase.
Me:
Her:
Me: Ok, I'll see you when you get here.
Then the phone call to my Dispatcher:
Me: I broke my Viper...
Them: Well, the guy is waiting at the truck and by the way, it's still running.
Me:
Them: Ok, we'll see you when you get here.
So tow truck guy shows up. "Wow! I don't get to tow these that often." Yeah, probably not... Anyway, the real fun begins with trying to get this car on his roll-back. He gets it hooked up and starts pulling. All good so far. SCRAPE!!! You guessed it. Front facia paint all over the parking lot... He stops (thankfully). Short version is that it took the guy about an hour to get my car on the truck. Minimal scrapeage after that initial one. I actually appreciate the job he did. He was very careful after that initial scrape.
Get the car to the garage. Unload it. Push it in. Sit and wait until I can order parts Monday morning. Also wonder how I am going to get to work, as this is my daily driver.
Order parts Monday from Roe Racing. Bye-Bye economic stimulus check... Dave and Sean at Roe are awesome and very helpful. They assured me everything would be delivered by Wednesday morning. Everything showed up as promised. 2 Unitrax half shafts, 2 Unitrax safety loops, and a strap kit.
Install time! Jack the car up and all that stuff. Wrench to half shaft strap bolts. ***?!?!?
Half of the bolts that hold the straps on are no more than hand tight on the right side. 
My guess is that was partly the cause of the failure. That and the excessive HP, sticky tires, and heavy right foot... Right side comes out easy. Likely because it was split in two. Getting the new half shaft in is quite the challenge. It's pretty straight forward, but the Unitrax shafts are slightly larger than the stock ones and barely fit through the coil over mount. Lots of wiggling and cajoling finally got it in. Left side was much more of the same.
Installing the safety loops was pretty straight forward as well. That is until you get to the left side. On the right side, there is plenty of room to move the mounting block to get the bolts in. With the fantastic suspension design, the left side does not offer you any space to move the mounting block to get the bolts in.
I'd remove the exhaust to do it, but at this point, it's 11:30 P.M. and I just want to get it done. Unfortunately, the bolts are too long to simply reverse them. So I had to dip into the supply of shop bolts to find one that was shorter, but long enough to still hold the block. Found one! Got everything installed and was out of the shop by 12:15 A.M. The job took about 5 hours from start to finish. Seems excessive to me, but this was my first shot at Viper half shafts.
Nothing like not driving the Viper for 5 days to make me appreciate the Viper that much more.
Everything seems good now. I will be bringing the car back into the shop this week to make sure everything stayed tight.
Lessons Learned:
Don't break your half shafts.
Avoid towing at all costs.
The economic stimulus checks are working.
Check your half shaft straps every now and then to make sure they are tight.
Be thankful for the ******* that caused me to get called out on Friday night because I broke down 2 miles from the shop rather than the middle of nowhere. Furthermore, I would have been way more pissed if this happened while driving to work Monday morning.
If you have any questions about installing the shafts, I think I can help you out.
Thanks for reading!
I figure I'll take the Viper to go get him so that I can count the mileage as business and get reimbursed by the company. On the freeway doing 80 for about ten miles... Exit said freeway. Hit gas at stop light. BANG! Thump, Thump, Thump.
I instantly knew what was broken as this has happened to me in other cars. Fortunately, I was about 20 feet from a driveway and pulled right in. Looked under the car and saw that the passenger side half shaft had completely split apart. Unreal...I call my towing company (edited for time).
Me: I need to have a Viper towed.
Them: I'm sorry, what?
Me: A Dodge Viper.
Them: Oh, hang on. Let me make sure we can do that.
...On hold music...
Them: Yeah, we can do that, but we can't do it for your company rate due to the difficulty of the tow.
Me: Well, whatever, it's not like I can drive the car.
Them: Be there within the hour.
Then the phone call to my wife:
Me: I broke the Viper...
Her: Seriously?!?!?! I knew that was a bad purchase.
Me:
Her:
Me: Ok, I'll see you when you get here.
Then the phone call to my Dispatcher:
Me: I broke my Viper...
Them: Well, the guy is waiting at the truck and by the way, it's still running.
Me:
Them: Ok, we'll see you when you get here.
So tow truck guy shows up. "Wow! I don't get to tow these that often." Yeah, probably not... Anyway, the real fun begins with trying to get this car on his roll-back. He gets it hooked up and starts pulling. All good so far. SCRAPE!!!
You guessed it. Front facia paint all over the parking lot... He stops (thankfully). Short version is that it took the guy about an hour to get my car on the truck. Minimal scrapeage after that initial one. I actually appreciate the job he did. He was very careful after that initial scrape.Get the car to the garage. Unload it. Push it in. Sit and wait until I can order parts Monday morning. Also wonder how I am going to get to work, as this is my daily driver.
Order parts Monday from Roe Racing. Bye-Bye economic stimulus check... Dave and Sean at Roe are awesome and very helpful. They assured me everything would be delivered by Wednesday morning. Everything showed up as promised. 2 Unitrax half shafts, 2 Unitrax safety loops, and a strap kit.
Install time! Jack the car up and all that stuff. Wrench to half shaft strap bolts. ***?!?!?
Half of the bolts that hold the straps on are no more than hand tight on the right side. My guess is that was partly the cause of the failure. That and the excessive HP, sticky tires, and heavy right foot... Right side comes out easy. Likely because it was split in two. Getting the new half shaft in is quite the challenge. It's pretty straight forward, but the Unitrax shafts are slightly larger than the stock ones and barely fit through the coil over mount. Lots of wiggling and cajoling finally got it in. Left side was much more of the same.Installing the safety loops was pretty straight forward as well. That is until you get to the left side. On the right side, there is plenty of room to move the mounting block to get the bolts in. With the fantastic suspension design, the left side does not offer you any space to move the mounting block to get the bolts in.
I'd remove the exhaust to do it, but at this point, it's 11:30 P.M. and I just want to get it done. Unfortunately, the bolts are too long to simply reverse them. So I had to dip into the supply of shop bolts to find one that was shorter, but long enough to still hold the block. Found one! Got everything installed and was out of the shop by 12:15 A.M. The job took about 5 hours from start to finish. Seems excessive to me, but this was my first shot at Viper half shafts. Nothing like not driving the Viper for 5 days to make me appreciate the Viper that much more.
Everything seems good now. I will be bringing the car back into the shop this week to make sure everything stayed tight.
Lessons Learned:
Don't break your half shafts.
Avoid towing at all costs.
The economic stimulus checks are working.
Check your half shaft straps every now and then to make sure they are tight.
Be thankful for the ******* that caused me to get called out on Friday night because I broke down 2 miles from the shop rather than the middle of nowhere. Furthermore, I would have been way more pissed if this happened while driving to work Monday morning.
If you have any questions about installing the shafts, I think I can help you out.
Thanks for reading!
I'm getting one but I would rather not... next yr I won't qualify if they do it again 
