Hey Spit lovers, I'm back!
You may not have missed me, but I sure missed you. It's good to be
back.
After a brief 3-month sabatical, we've successfully moved from Ohio to
Las Vegas, found a house, got the kids in school, and more or less have
settled into our old routine. Time to get back into the old-car routine as
well. First, a little catch up on all things sptifire that have occured
since I uncerimoniously unsubscribed.
My spit gets a name.
Although my spit runs pretty good, she always seems to need some little
tweaking or small adjustment to keep her in line. During the last few
years, I had the opportunity to work with a piece of system modeling
software called "Stella" that also seemed to need the same amount of
attention. Hmmmm. Sounded like a good name to me. Ladies and gentlemen,
my LBC formerly known as "The Triumph", "The Spitfire", or any combination
of names that included an assortment of four-letter words concatenated with
"Triumph" or "Spitfire" is now affectionately known as "Stella". Funny
thing, though, we named my '85 Jeep Grand Wagoneer "Bruce" and my wife's '99
Chevy van "Shiela" at the same time (My appologies to any Ausies or Monty
Python fans out there....)
Tale of the cross country trip
The plan: Load the family in "Shiela", replace Stella's front bumper
with a tow bar and pull her across country behind Bruce. We're prepared.
The vehicles have been prepped, we've got radios to communicate with, and
the kids have enough videos, snacks, and coloring books to keep them busy.
The trip started out well enough, but went down hill quickly there
after. On day two of the trip, I got on the highway after a stop for lunch
in St Charles, Mo, came over a small hill and rear-ended a small pickup. We
survived but the collision did cause some problems. The battery sitting in
Stella's boot punctured the fuel tank, which had about 8 gallons of gas in
it at the time. Also, Bruce's transmission selector lever popped out and I
couldn't drive it anymore. Both vehicles were towed off the highway to the
tune of $160. I spent the next day fixing Bruce and getting back on the
road. I checked Stella for any other problems but didn't see any.
However, the wreck did cause Stella's bumper mounts to bend, weakening
them. Fast forward to driving through downtown Kansas City. My wife comes
on the radio shouting that Stella's loose. We're in the middle lane of a
5-lane road, traffic is everywhere. We stop in the middle of the road, she
pulls up behind and turns on the flashers. You guessed it, the bumper
mounts had been flexing with every start and stop since the collision, had
fatigued, and broken. Thankfully, I had used the chains and she didn't go
sailing down the road al by herself. While I'm looking at it and trying to
figure how I'll get us off the interstate, a guy in a roll-on tow truck
pulls up and offers his services which we promptly accept. He took us to a
quiet side street, dropps us off, gives us directions to the nearest U-Haul,
and relieves us of $40. U-haul doesn't have a flat trailer available so we
take a tow dolley, strap everything down, and we're off again.
But like a late night Ronco commercial, it's now time to say "But wait,
their's more!" As where heading down I-70, I notice just outside of Hays
Kansas that Bruce no longer has any oil pressure. Pull into town, find a
vacant lot, and start crawling around looking for problems. Could be a bad
oil pressure sending unit, so a quick trip to the local parts store for a
replacement. Nope, not the problem. Check the oil pump drive shaft and
gears but they're OK. Check the oil pressure by-pass valve, but it's OK,
too. That leaves only bad news -- a failed bearing, thrown tappet, or a
blown gasket betweent the timing cover and block (which isn't very likely)
I get the local mechanic to take a look. He say's theirs about 10 psi of
oil pressure so I probably didn't ruin anything. However, it will be
2-weeks before he can get to it to fix it.
"Not a problem," sez I. Take Stella off of the dolley, put Bruce on
the dolley, get a trailer hitch installed on the van and Voila, we're back
on the road, right? Not quite.... Stella has decided that now's a good
time to make terrible rumbling sounds and tremendous vibrations at any speed
over 40mph. I'm not driving her across half of Kansas, through the
mountains of Colorado, and across the bad lands of Utah at 35mph. So,
Stella goes into storage at the local RV center.
The rest of the trip was relatively uneventfull. However, I'd like to
pass along my observation that dragging a 5,500 lb jeep up 10,000+ ft
mountains w/ a fully loaded van isn't the best idea. But we made it safely
to Las Vegas, found a house, and successfully retrieved Stella.
So, that's where we're at now. Bruce's low oil pressure was from a
broken push rod which allowed the engine to kick out the tappet, allowing
the oil pressure to bleed off to ~10 psi. Easy fix and didn't destroy the
bearings. Stella's running strong again, will soon have the bumpers back
on. The vibration was caused by the bolts connecting the diff to the
half-shafts loosening. In that regard, putting Stella on the dolley was
good idea because losing the half shaft while being pulled at 70mph would
have been devestating. Plus, the weather here has cooled down enough that
it's pleasant to drive with the top off.
Later-
Chris
Stella ('64 Spit), Bruce ('85 Jeep), & Sheila ('99 Chevy)
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