<VV> The Route 66 adventure - Part 5 of ??

[J R Read_HML]

Did I mention the rain?  Roughly 45% of the trip was in rain.  The pics from 
Winslow show a large puddle in the lot by the building with the sign painted 
on the side and one shot through the windshield shows the drops standing on 
the trunk deck.  The good thing was - no leaks!  Also, night driving was 
very chilly as the car has no heat.  Headers are installed and heater ports 
from the engine (all of them) are blocked off.  I'll be going back to a 
stock system in Illinois.

So, I left Winslow in the rear view mirror having only traveled 660 miles so 
far.  According to plan, this should have been Shamrock Texas that I was 
leaving on Sunday morning!  Daytime travel is warmer than nighttime travel, 
I found out.  Except that it was still pretty cool because of all the rain. 
In fact, I manage to find two five minute stretches of hail going across New 
Mexico.  It is virtually impossible to find a bridge or anything else to 
hide the car from the hail in the middle of NM, so I just slowed down so as 
to not be meeting those nearly dime sized stones at 80mph.  Took it down to 
around 35 or 40 in the hail.

When I was about an hour outside of Albuquerque NM, I placed a call to Geoff 
Johnson.  I was on my way, just about 24 hours late.  Of course their "show 
and shine" was long since over, but he said that he would come out to 40 
just to say hello.  He did that, and brought his sister, Sally, along as 
well.  We started talking in the parking lot of a gas station - you know - 
checking out one another's cars - but the cold and the rain chased us 
inside.  They were wearing shorts.  I had on long pants, having changed from 
shorts in a gas station back down the road.  Geoff pointed out an old 
section of 66 to me - just a few feet off of 40.  It was a two lane bridge 
which is still standing and I got a couple of pictures there.  We parted - 
they for home - me for (eventually) home as well.  I later found out Geoff 
was in an accident on his way home, so now I feel bad about getting him out 
there that day.

Bridge Pics at:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/hmlinc@sbcglobal.net/album?.dir=/3371&.src=ph


The rest of New Mexico was uneventful.  Pretty country when the rain clouds 
would back away for a while.  Lots of cactus and some interesting hillside 
formations.  Not a lot of green (but some).

So, I made some pretty good time on across NM and most of Texas.  Added a 
quart of oil at Conway TX.  This was 1,260 mile into the trip.  A bit 
excessive (I thought) for a car advertised as "uses no oil" and "engine 
needs nothing".  On the other hand, I was now pushing it pretty hard - 80 to 
85 most of the time and occasionally bumping 90 (indicated).  We all know 
these Vair speedometers overstate the actual speed, right?  Anyway, a quart 
in 1300 miles with better than half of those miles at high speeds is not all 
that bad.

So, I'm cruising through Texas and it is getting dark and it is getting 
cool, but not as cold as the prior night and I decide that I could make 
Shamrock easily and, once there, decide if I want to go further.  Another 
100 plus miles go by and now the car starts running funky (a technical 
term).  I'm losing power - feels like one cylinder is not doing its fair 
share - and an occasional backfire is starting to happen.  I'm essentially 
in the middle of nowhere, but there is an exit for some small town that I 
don't recall the name.  I get off there and limp into a sort of grocery 
store, restaurant, gas station combination.  The only thing in town that 
even remotely looked to have any life going on inside.

I open the engine compartment and see white foamy oil around the chrome vent 
cap.  This has (had then) a non-stock setup with a cap on the breather tube 
which (in stock formation) would normally exit into the air cleaner.  I ALSO 
see that the dip stick had not been replaced at my last stop as it was 
laying over on the right side where the spare would normally be.  There was 
no room for the spare with these non-stock air cleaners in place.  I think 
the chilly air and the dip stick tube being open combined to create that 
whiteish looking oil out the breather.

So, OK, where is the paper towel that I had used to clean the dip stick? 
Not in sight.  Did it get sucked into the fan?  Did I throw it away after 
checking the oil?  I can't remember.  At this point, I reluctantly open the 
"emergency" box.  I hoped to get home without needing to do that.  Bummer. 
I wanted to get the cover off of the oil cooler because I was half way 
expecting to find a blue paper towel there.  There is no head temp gauge 
even though it is a 140 and I've dropped enough valve seats to know what 
excessive heat can do to them.  Well, wouldn't you know it - I needed a 
regular 5/16 end wrench (not in the box) to get that cover off because I 
could not get the 1/4 inch drive socket up under the alternator.

It was about 9:00PM and I was tired.  The place would be open until 10PM.  I 
went in for coffee and to use the facilities.  There were 3 or 4 guys in a 
booth talking about some car they had worked on earlier that day.  They were 
all mechanics but not a one of them offered to help this poor Corvair owner 
out of a jam.  I went back out and was working out a way to get that second 
sheet metal screw out when a nice guy pulls up and says he has the right 
tools back at his place.  So, I limp the car - backfires and all - about 6 
blocks down gravel streets (slowly) to his place.  It was a little bit 
scary, to tell you the truth.  But, he does indeed have a garage full of 
tools.  He repairs small engines for a living.  His name is Ty (like tie 
your shoe, he says) and lives in a small town about 15 or so miles West of 
Shamrock, TX.  So if anyone knows him, please tell me his address so I can 
mail him back the wrench he made me keep.

Turns out there is no paper towel on the oil cooler.  Good!  But it is still 
missing and back firing badly.  An inspection of the distributor cap shows 
that it looks like new, but the rotor seems to be a bit corroded.  No 
problem, rotor handy in the ER box!  Still has a miss.  Pull the coil wire 
to see what the story is there and find a LOT of rust in the top of the 
coil.  I'm guessing that the PO had cleaned the engine compartment at the 
quarter car wash a few times and water got down in there to start the rust 
going. His drive home did not get things warm enough to evaporate that 
water.  Well, that is my working theory, anyway.   Some sand paper on the 
coil wire tip and in the top of the coil itself and the car is running much 
better.  Not quite right, but good enough to get me on down the road.  Did I 
mention that it was a bit scary in the middle of nowhere on a gravel road?

I stopped at Shamrock Texas for the night.  Went immediately to the bar for 
about four beers, then went to bed.  Distance traveled so far was 1,310 
miles.  It was Sunday night - the night I had thought I would arrive home.

Attachments (if any) are scanned with anti-virus software.

Later, JR

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "J R Read_HML" <hmlinc at sbcglobal.net>
To: "J R Read_HML" <hmlinc at sbcglobal.net>; "VirtualVairs AA" 
<VirtualVairs at corvair.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 28, 2005 2:41 AM
Subject: Re: <VV> The Route 66 adventure - Part 4 of ??


> Sorry about the formatting of the last portion of that message.  I'm going 
> to try to clean it up so that it is more readable and send it back.
>
> Attachments (if any) are scanned with anti-virus software.
>
> Later, JR
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "J R Read_HML" <hmlinc at sbcglobal.net>
> To: "VirtualVairs AA" <VirtualVairs at corvair.org>
> Cc: "J R Read" <hmlinc at sbcglobal.net>
> Sent: Saturday, May 28, 2005 2:26 AM
> Subject: <VV> The Route 66 adventure - Part 4 of ??
>
>
> The original plan called for me to meet with my nephew in Flagstaff in the
> mid morning on Saturday.  He lives in Tempe (near Phoenix).  Since I was 
> on
> 10 and NOT on 40 (old 66), I gave him a call and told him to stay put - 
> not
> to go up to Flagstaff.  I got into the Phoenix area around 10:30 - 11:00 
> am.
> It was finally getting warm enough to put the top down and I did that. 
> But,
> FIRST I needed to adjust the clutch.
>
> Most of my time was on the highway, but I was running into a problem at
> stops.  The pedal would not go down far enough (had to get the floor mat 
> out
> of there as it blocked pedal travel and then I was putting a serious dent 
> in
> the carpet) to be able to shift smoothly.  Along the way I was trying to
> practice shifting without clutch (as I could foresee a problem), but I 
> could
> just not get the hand of it.  I know that I've done it before - but it was 
> a
> long time ago - and I was not 2,000 miles form home at the time.
>
> Anyway, we adjusted the clutch pedal to the top - where it belongs - but 
> the
> swivel piece at the bottom end of the
> cable now bangs on the body every time the clutch is depressed.  So,
> readjusted to the point just before it would touch the body.  This gave me
> clutch engagement at about 1/2 pedal and that seemed like it would be fine
> for the balance of the trip.
>
> Top goes down, a few pictures taken - find them at:
>
> http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/hmlinc@sbcglobal.net/detail?.dir=/4873&.dnm=5309.jpg&.src=phWe 
> then went to lunch (on me - I AM his father's brother).  By the 
> timeeverything was done and I was on the road again, at least 
> threehours(probably more) had passed.  I had allotted about 45 minutes - 
> maximum.So much for plans.  Anyway, the next "scheduled" stop was to be 
> AlbuquerqueNM.  The New Mexico club was having a "shine and show" type 
> even that dayand I had previously been in contact with Geoff Johnson about 
> the remotepossibility of me showing up there.  I had told him that it was 
> doubtfulthat I could make it in time for the show.  He said "not to worry" 
> as someofthe folks would likely hang around after and it would be just 
> fine ifIshowed up late.  Well, I did - about a day late!  But, I'm getting 
> ahead ofmyself with that comment.  When I left Phoenix, there was some 
> strange ideain my head that I would get to (what I figured would be lucky) 
> Shamrock, TXthat night!Going back to !
> the "original" concept, the idea was to follow old 66 - whichessentially 
> meant Route 40 - and to make appropriate stops at "icons" of 66.With that 
> still in mind, I set off from Phoenix (no time to look for 
> PhoenixCharley - I heard he moved anyway) for Flagstaff in order to link 
> up withRoute 40.  Mission accomplished (at least that part) and I'm headed 
> Eastagain on 40.  Things are looking OK if you ignore the fact that I'm 
> about ahalf day behind the original time schedule.  That's OK, if I get 
> home atnoon on Monday everything will work out JF!On down the road..... 
> something sort of weird was going on.  Car was runningfine on the road, 
> but not so fine when I had to slow for an exit.  In fact,I was getting 
> backfires in (what sounded to me like) the right primary.  Oh,isn't that 
> the one (he told me) with the sticky float?  I know how to fixthis!  Rap 
> on it with a screw driver handle, right?  OK, don't even have toopen the 
> "emergency" box.  There is a screwdriver in the glove box!
> - whichis there to open the trunk because the lock is not in place.On the 
> ROAD AGAIN... part of a song?  Anyway, several miles down the road(top now 
> up because of threatening looking weather, including occasionalrain) and 
> things still don't seem just right.  It is most noticeable onuphill grades 
> (well, of course).  At this point (don't recall exactly), butI'm somewhere 
> between 4000 and 6000 feet above sea level.  The best gas youcan buy is 90 
> octane.  I was not getting ping (never did during the entiretrip) but I 
> also was not getting much (if any) performance.  Finally, on anuphill, 
> right hand curve - it all but died (and a fair amount of backfiresgoing 
> on) and I pulled over to see what the H the story was.I'm in the hills and 
> it is windy and sort of moist - cool and getting cooler(by the moment) 
> air.  There is a storm moving toward me and I can see thatit will be here 
> soon.  It is just off my left shoulder and I can see theengine deck waving 
> in the breeze while I try to so!
> rt things out.  Now thestorm is on top of me, so I close the deck and dive 
> back into the car.Thewind has picked up A LOT and I'm about 600 yards (I 
> think - because thereis a curve there) from the crest.  I sat there for 
> about ten minutes and theweather was getting worse as time wnet by. 
> Finally, I try the key and itstarts.  Runs like C at idle, but sounds good 
> when you step into thethrottle.  No one seems to be coming toward me at 
> the moment, so I mash onthe throttle and get decent response.Off I go! 
> Seems like, so long as I stay in the secondaries, the car runsOK.  So, 
> GOOD, that will at least get me off this mountain side.  Thatworked and I 
> stopped for gas at Winslow AZ.  Found that the left primarylinkage had 
> lost that "Jesus" clip - so I was only getting secondary on theleft side. 
> Oh!  THAT explains what was going on in the rainstorm on thehillside. 
> Anyway, Winslow WAS on my itinerary - just expected to be there24 hours 
> earlier.  Went to bed after a couple of beers, !
> and took some picsthe next AM.   One is now my desktop background.  They 
> are 
> at:http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/hmlinc@sbcglobal.net/detail?.dir=/f0d3&.dnm=f3ec.jpg&.src=phEnd 
> of Part 4Later, JR
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