<VV> Not Getting Stranded

[DTerry8123 at aol.com]

I have been stranded twice and had a cam gear fail once, but was not  
stranded.
 
In 1962 I was in my father's 1960. I was headed home from the Atlanta  
International Raceway after watching the Atlanta 500. It was rain delayed and  
called off short of 500 miles due to the rain. My cousin left the track in a  
pouring down rain storm and headed home about 40 miles away. We took back 
roads  to miss the traffic. About 10 miles up the road, the Gen/Fan light 
came on. I  had a cylinder head temperature gauge installed so I watched the 
temperature and  realized the fan belt was still on. In the dark and heavy 
rain, I turned off the  headlights and followed the lights of the cars in front 
of me, hoping that I  could reach home on the battery---Not. The car died 
about 10 miles from home. I  called my cousin's father who owned a Texaco 
station. He came out with a used  truck battery. We put in the engine 
compartment and used a wooden Coke case  to keep the rear deck from shorting the 
battery. We made it the rest of the  way home and replaced the generator. 
 
The second time happened in my 1965 Corsa  in 2010.when I lost my  spider 
gears in the diff after a trip from the "Tail of the Dragon Highwat"  in 
North Carolina/Tennessee. I was about three miles from home when the first  
symptoms were apparent. I had the car towed home and then to a local Corvair  
shop in town.
 
I lost my cam gear in 2009, with about 150 K miles. It was the original  
gear, although the engine had been rebuilt in 1979. I was on the way home from 
a  Corvair Atlanta meeting and was about 12 miles from home when the engine 
started  knocking loudly. I made it home by taking it easy. Then I had it 
towed to a  local Corvair shop. We found three adjacent teeth missing on the 
gear. It's a  wonder it still ran. A new Crown gear was installed. The 
engine has 190 K  now and runs like a top. The only clue I had to possible 
trouble is that  the engine always had a slight bearing knock almost from the day 
I bought it in  1966. The sound was hardly noticeable. After the rebuild in 
1979, the knock was  still there. When we replaced the cam gear, My mechanic 
checked main bearing  clearances and replaced the #1 bearing with a NOS 
unit which he shimmed for the  correct clearance. The knock is gone. He thinks 
that there was too much movement  of the crank at the front of the engine 
and may have caused the gear to  fail.
 
Dan Terry
1965 Corsa 140 Coupe
Corvair Atlanta