> If anyone has any suggestions they would be greatly appreciated.
Time for a story. I think I've told this one before, but it's been a
while...
I had just bought my Alpine, ~100 miles from home. Everything was
going great, roaring up I-65, top down and a huge sh*t-eating grin
plastered from ear to ear. All was right with the world.
Until. Around sunset me in the Alpine and Susan in the car we had
driven down in turned off the the interstate onto a heavily travelled
2-lane country road. About 10 miles from home, there was a huge THUD
from under the bonnet and the engine quit. I put on the brakes and
started to pull off the road when I heard screeching tires behind me.
Susan was fishtailing all over the road. Fortunately there was no
other traffic at the time and she regained control and stopped. After
verifying that everything was OK with her, I tried to restart the
Alpine, but no go.
I had anticipated the worst by renting a tow bar and taking it with
me. So we hitched everything up and went on home. Later inspection
revealed that the loud thud I had heard was the damn crank pulley!
The nut had come off at speed and sent the pulley bouncing around the
engine compartment and down the road. Susan had nearly hit me
because she was watching this piece of the car rolling down the road
while I was slowing down. She glanced up just in time to avoid
rear-ending my new toy.
We searched for a while in the dark, but couldn't find the crank
pulley. We went back the next day in the daylight, but still couldn't
find it due to the tall grass along the road. It turns out that such
pulleys are hard to come by for Alpines. Apparently I'm not the first
one this has happened to. A new pulley cost me $80. Ouch! Not the
best way to start off a relationship with a new LBC.
Moral of the story: be GLAD it's so hard to get that dang nut off!
--
T.J. Higgins | higgins@ingr.com | Intergraph Mapping Sciences | Huntsville, AL
"Feed my brain with your so-called 'standards,'
Who says that I ain't right?" -- Metallica
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