<VV> Getting un-stranded
Smitty
vairologist at cox.net
Mon Nov 3 16:26:06 EST 2014
Ron Sez; I refuse to believe that anyone broke a crankshaft a hundred
miles from the
nearest habitation, parked on a dirt road, dropped the engine, split the
block, installed a spare shaft which they just happened to have, reinstalled
the engine without jacks, etc. and drove merrily off before breakfast. No,
there's too many bottles of Jack Daniels in that scenario.
-----------------------------------------------
Smitty Says; I suppose there has to be somebody out there that couldn't
recognize a little "tongue in cheek" when I mentioned making minor
adjustments to come home on a broken crankshaft. Actually it wasn't quite
as easy as Ron made it sound either. We were skipping down the road and the
fan belt came off. Nobody ever does that flying straight and level so I was
a little perplexed. I put the belt back on and got about a hundred yards
and it came off again. This time I had the Boss start the car while I
watched it. The belt came off and I noticed the damper wobbling. Soon as I
grabbed ahold of it I knew the crank was broken. I leaned against the
fender and gazed across 50 miles of wind. That's all there was to see out
there, and considered my options. My insurance covered 30 miles towing or
to the nearest point of repair. As I said before. No cell phone so the
towing was useless. Boss came out of the camper and handed me a cold drink
and said, have you figured out anything yet. I said, not this time. I
don't see any daylight at all. I said get back in the car, we are going
down the road a ways. She said, to where. I said, thataway. The camper
wasn't helping the engine heat any but I drove it till the oil and CHT got
high and then shut it down. Actually those long prarie hills helped because
I could climb one and then shut it off for the downhill. Without the
manifold covers the temps dropped pretty quickly. After 13 miles we came to
a crossroad. There was a tourist attraction named 1880 Town there. I paid
the owner for some phone time and found that there was a U Haul at the next
town about 40 miles away. I got them to promise that they would hold a 24
ft van for me. We toured the town and enjoyed it very much. Next day I
hitched a ride to the next town and rented the truck. Realized the tin
wheel well covers inside would not support the Corvair, so I found a
building supply. I bought a saw, a hammer, nails, and a half ton of 2X12s.
Drove back to the 1880 Town and proceeded to build a sturdy pair of rails to
bridge the wheel wells in the truck. The owner says, how you going to get
the car in there? I said, I am going to back the truck up to that berm over
there and build a truss bridge into it from the berm. He said you are a
determined cuss aren't you. Then he hollers, RJ, get the tilt bed and put
Mr Smiths car on it so he can drive into the truck.. I always carry a nylon
strap that is about 60 ft long made of nylon about an inch wide. I used
that to lace the car into the center of the truck utilizing the built in
cleats around the floor. From there it was a piece of cake. Put the camper
on the truck, Got to KC where my sister lives and dumped the car in her
driveway. Called some of my HACOA friends and gathered parts and rebuilt
the engine using my Corvair jack to raise and lower the engine. The crank
was broken between #2 and #3.
Sorry for wasting so much space, but on This forum if you don't cover every
little detail somebody will leap on it like a hen on a june bug and say you
are full of crap. The point I initially made was, when I leave home in a
Corvair, I come home in the same Corvair.
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