Hello again
Now where was I, Oh yea. It was pouring rain when I got the alternator.
Well I pulled the Midget up under the tarp we had set up for the picnic
table so I could get under the bonnet without getting soaked. I had the
New fried alt out in about 10 min. Pulled the Moss unit out of the box
and found I'd forgotten one minor detail. The Moss rebuild ships without
a fan or pulley. The Pep Boys unit came with both. Well after struggling
with the nut and fan for about 15 min I got the fan and pulley off only
th find that the spacers on the end of the shaft were different. (Moss's
was shorter) so the fan sat tight against the housing if I tried to
tighten the bolt. Not to worry I had a handy dandy little spacer ready
and willing to play its part. The lock washer from the old alt. Worked
like a charm. The belt even lined up!! Well that evening after the rain
quit and we had dried out our sleeping bags we sat back with a big fire
and enjoyed a few of the local version of Natural Light. About 10 PM
somebody pulled up in the next camp site and slept in the back of his
pick up truck. About 8:30 the next AM we found out that the only person
in the campsite with in 100 yards (nearly a meter for those that care)
had bitched that we were up too late and making too much noise. We were
out. That's OK we were headed out in an hour or so anyway. Packed
everthing wet and headed for the Blue Ridge Parkway. We traveled south on
the BRP The road was great there was very little traffic. It was a little
cool and it did rain on us a few times (remember Danny?) I wish I could
tell you all about the scenery on that part of the BRP but to be honest
we could see very little of it. The BRP runs from about 1800 ft to around
3200 ft and the cluods ran from about 1800 ft to 3200 ft. Once in a while
we would get above the clouds into blue sky but the clouds below
prevented seeing anything. Once in a while we would get below the clouds
and the view was pretty neat below - right to about eye level. We drove
about 45 when above and below the clouds and about 5 -10 in the clouds.
Took a long time to get to Roanoke. But it was a very interesting drive.
The area was supposed to get about 5 inches of rain that night so
discretion was the better part of valor and we checked into a motel and
did laundry.
That is pretty much the end of the bad. I'll follow up later with
the good.
By the way I remember that I put a DGV 32/36 on prior to leaving I had
been getting about 28 mpg on the interstate and about 32-35 mpg in the
mountains. Loaded with a tent 3 sleeping bags etc. I was impressed.
Larry Macy
78 Midget
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