<VV> ring job - looking ...

[Dave Smith]

Hi Bill,

I was passed a lot.  I brought a bag of tools with me on the train ride down.

I'm taking a break from riding a 1965 Ducati 250cc round the world and
I just got back from Nepal and India on a Royal Enfield.  I raced a VW
Bug at the 24 Hours of LeMons (that's lemons, not LeMans).  I expected
some problems and thought I was going slow enough.  It was a foolish
roll of the dice I know, but I've done worse and survived. That's the
first time I've had to be towed home in years of driving/riding old
stuff.

It was a cold week.  The grapevine had been closed due to snow.  I
stopped fairly often, every 80-100 miles, to let the car cool down.
That's when I was thinking maybe the coil was going because it would
get harder to start. I don't know what the proper tension is on a
belt, but the guy I bought it from said he just had the belt replaced
with the best money could buy and it was perfect.  The shop I went to
said "wow, what a crappy belt" and I adjusted it to about the same
tension and the mech said it was loose.

I'm looking for a 1960s car for around town use and trips to San
Francisco (80 miles each way).  I've owned a lot of 1960s Darts,
Valiants, and a '67 Barracuda, but I love how Corvairs look.
Something I can leave on the street since my NSU takes up my tiny
garage.

I don't think I'd blow up a replacement engine. Breaking small things
is fine.  A nice intro to the world of Corvairs.

-Dave


On Sat, Jan 3, 2009 at 2:21 PM, Chris & Bill Strickland
<lechevrier at earthlink.net> wrote:
> gornzilla at gmail.com wrote:
>
>>... drove up to Sacramento the next.  About 350 miles on I-5 doing 70.
>>
>
> Only 70, and you didn't get run over?
>
> It'd be my opinion that yes, you are probably looking at a replacement
> engine, or rebuilding yours, or having it rebuilt.
>
> Methinks that taking an unproven 40 year old car on a 300+ mile trip up
> an 85 mph freeway through the desert without expecting a breakdown is
> rather, should I say, foolhardy?  Yes, the San Joaquin Valley is a
> desert, and as almost all irrigated deserts, when you irrigate it, it
> grows stuff.  If you were keeping up with traffic, you probably were
> doing more than 70 -- have you checked your speedometer calibration?  Or
> perhaps CHP has finally clamped down really hard on enforcement out there?
>
> Certainly, a well maintained Corvair would be expected to complete such
> a trip, but e-Bay cars (as well as nearly any used vehicle previously
> unknown to you) are suspect, regardless of the stories and documentation
> that they come with (aka, "buyer beware"), and must be tested and proven
> by the current owner, and forty or fifty miles around town (less than an
> hours worth of driving), isn't much "proof".  I'd say you successfully
> tested the engine to the point of destruction, regardless of the intent,
> and another "used engine" will likely meet the same fate, sorry to say.
>
> Next trip to Sacramento in an old car, stick to 55 mph on 99
>
> mo, subject to change based on more accurate description of the issues,
>
> Bill Strickland