LOL guys.
Anyways, I better own up. It's not mine. A very good friend in San Diego bought it on ebay last week, and since I live 53 miles away from the seller (while he lives 530 miles away) I went to check it out and pick it up for him. I drove it home and checked things out over the last few days in order to determine if it was roadworthy for the 480 mile trip back to SD under it's own power. It never gave me a lick of trouble, all the fluid levels checked out, nothing leaked, everything important was present and tight, and it did rather well during some pretty hairy off road antics over the last few days (heheh, Mog-sitters prerogative, with permission from the owner!) so I declared it good to go.
He drove up this morning in a rental car and left in the Mog. Things were going just fine until about 35 miles down the road. Our best guess is that it ate a bearing for the front axle where the torque tube for the front axle enters the transmission/transfer case. Not good. He was cruising down the freeway at 48.5mph and noticed something smelled hot. Then it started to smoke. Pulled over and saw smoke rolling out of the accordion boot between the front torque tube and the tranny, and the bearing housing was scorching hot. So he turned around and limped it home, giving it breaks every 8-10 miles. By the time it got back in my yard it smelled like someone had been welding, and it was making very nasty crunching noises. We're hoping the bearing/race took all the damage, since they're cheap and easy to replace.
Needless to say, it's now being trailered down to San Diego. A transporter is due to arrive at my house Thursday.
The good news? Another good friend of mine, also down in San Diego, is looking at a 1958 404 'Mog over in Palo Alto. Looks like I get to go pick up another one in another day or so and cruise around for a while. This one is super-clean, it's a dry-chemical fire truck, with 45 years (!!!) of maintenance records included from the phone company that owned it from new until 2003. With 2 Mogs out front my neighbors will think I've gone totally mad, rather than my typical partially mad.
Unfortunately the suckers are rubbing off on me. I've eyed them from time to time over the last 3 years. I've always thought they're cool, and having finally driven one I can see why people love them so much. I may end up with one of my own, probably a Radio/Mapping truck with the box on the back so I can convert the interior of it into a camper for hunting trips and the like.