didn't mean to come off as crass, but I have never heard it described as a sliding block and there was no reference to VTS so I was lost.
And correct, I'm willing to ask for clarification because as stated before, I don't embarrass easily so i'm willing to ask a dumb question, and then at least I will either:
a) know what the hell it is next time
b) help you clarify so myself/others can actually provide input.
i've never popped one, but i have bent the rod bottoming out and i've seen a bent rod #1 from a buddy dropping one off the back of the trailer #4 so at least in my small sample size the rod was the weak spot that broke/bent first.
at this point the only suggestion I could make besides the obvious is to buy spares, and follow the instructions above on checking to see if some misalignment is causing constant pressure on the block which would cause premature failure and correct that.