Chris &Gordon woes on the way home from Carlisle

For the few that know of Gordon & Chris having truck troubles after leaving Carlisle, all has been resolved by mid morning today and they left my home in good spirits.
I won't go into the details because, it's a chain of events that only Gordon should post.
Stay tuned, what you are about to read something is an endurance test of raw speedster power, totally real with witnesses complete with pics to prove! ~Alan

I don't know Alan, it's not very interesting so far........

Oh Ye of little patience!

I think it's kinda ironic (sorry, Chris :-) that the only vehicle breakdown was a bigass truck that served as everybody's service vehicle. With the exception of a couple of light fuses, and a few quarts of oil, the speedsters were all solid as rocks.

Somebody better cough up the story here. Cory called me, told me the story and made me swear with my right hand on a steering rack that I wouldn't spill the beans.

But don't count on a woman being quiet for very long...
angela

angela ........"of historic proportions", if I wasn't a part of this I wouldn't believe it, stay tuned :)

I'm "subscribed". I've been told there is photographic evidence. That means I EXPECT all-ya-all to post pictures because one of these pics is going on my garage wall!

angela

I have shown the photos on my phone to EVERYONE here in MD/VA. Nobody believes it until I show 'em.
Angela, I'm dying to spill 'em ... Ain't doin' it ...

Alright now I'm gettin pissed! Cory, send me some evidence on my phone or something - what is taking so long????

I won't tell Gordon and Chris' story. Let me simply say that a picture is worth a thousand words. It's THE most incredible thing I've ever seen.

And nothing got broken.

(Repost from Speedstershop)

First, my sincere thanks to everyone who helped make the "Event within the Event" a success, for the fourth year in a row!!

Wow, let's see....Bill Drayer, who mapped out cruise routes through some of the most picturesque Pennsylvania countryside there is and set up the CaddyShack and Deer Lodge restaurants for us.

Bruce and Norma Stumpp for creating the awards for the Dinner - truly unique and done with their usual class.

Alan Merklin, for getting us back into the All Star Cafe, which has become somewhat of a tradition for us, for managing the hotel effort and getting us back into the Hotel Carlisle for next year's event (buffet and all!!) and for all of his and Kim's hospitality for us two broken-down Vagabonds.

Danny Piperato and Rocky Cimbrec for all their help when the "Might Power Stoke" broke down (more on that later)

Carey Hines, Harold Pace, Henry Reisner, John Steele and Jim Youngs for taking part in our "Ask the Experts" panel at dinner - truly a high point of the weekend.

The weather, while looking threatening at times (and was simply awful all around Carlisle) was cool, overcast but rain-free on Thursday and Friday, warm and Partly Sunny on Saturday, Warmer and even Sunnier on Sunday, and simply GORGEOUS for our ride back Northeast on Monday.

So........we saddled up and headed North once again and just as we got to where we broke down we hit a solid backup - made it to the next exit, got onto RT11 and bypassed the backup by taking a different route around Harrisburg (thanks to the truckers on the CB!!) We finally got our confidence back in the truck somewhere along the trip when it started every time (whew!) and we hurtled across the highway, arriving back home right on time, just a day late. I was amazed that the rush hour traffic coming out of Hartford (Insurance Capital of the World) on I84 Eastbound averages 85 mph

Life is a series of adventures, isn't it??

Danny P! If we still have your OBD code reader, email me with an address and I'll get it to you this week!!

Whoever has pictures of the Hoopty pulling the pickup et al, please email them to me and I'll post them so everyone can see and be in disbelief.

A sincere THANK YOU from Chris and me to everyone who found us and stayed around to help. It really meant a lot to have the help from friends, and we would still be sitting there without all Y'all.

Lastly, Thanks, Chris, for coming along, even with all the troubles. God, we do have a lot of fun together, don't we??
_________________
Gordon
1993 CMC, 2110cc, mild "Outlaw"
The "Speedstah Guy" back in Grafton, Massachusetts

For those who weren't aware, just as Chris and I were getting onto I81 the "Mighty Power Stroke" diesel died and we coasted onto the off-ramp and back down onto RT11. It would not start, period. Tried everything, called everyone diesel-literate that we know and they pointed to the "Cam Positioning Sensor" used by the engine computer to control the injectors. Turns out they were right, but we had to find out that, even with two MAJOR truck stops within spitting distance, there were no diesel mechanics around to help us. Dan Piperato had an OBD II code reader, but it wasn't Power Stroke literate and didn't see a failure code, so there we sat.

VERY SPECIAL THANKS to Danny P, who drove me over to a HUGE truck stop, only to find that they had no one to help us (but they did have the most obnoxious cashier lady I've come across in months... ) and to Rocky Cimbrec who stayed with us and made a parts run with me to get a new fuel filter.
While we were gone, Chris managed to get it running, attempted to make a run for the Ramada parking lot to get off of RT11, but died again just short of the light out front and ended up now in the travel lane, blocking traffic. The Service crew (Chris, Dan, Kelly and Cory) decided to try pushing the truck and trailer (with Pearl) the 200 yards left to go, but they quickly pooped out, so they then decided on pulling the truck off of the highway (with Pearl still on her trailer behind) and Cory stepped up to the plate and volunteered the Hoopty as a tow vehicle!! Rocky and I arrived back just in time to see the Hoopty, with a tow strap wrapped around the roll bars, pulling the whole array around the corner and into the Ramada parking lot. What a sight to see.....tiny, little car, towing a BIG pickup, towing a trailer with a Speedster on it. We'll never see THAT again!! Just as they made the corner, a Carlisle Police car came up and asked "What are you Doing? When we all explained, he laughed a bit, and then called a friend of his who knows diesels to come on over and try to help out (He, too, confirmed the same Cam sensor, but no one had one in the local parts stores on Sunday).

To make a very long story short, Alan went home, got his car-hauler trailer and came back for the truck, which we took to Keystone Ford near Chambersburg, PA (where Alan lives) while Rocky picked up the trailer and Pearl and dropped it off at Alan's house (about 1 hour in the wrong direction for Rocky's trip home). The dealer service guys squeezed us in at 8am on Monday, immediately found the problem (yup, that same Cam Positioning Sensor everyone told us about) and had it fixed by 9:30am. Absolutely wonderful dealer service group to deal with - I can't say enough good about them. Alan and Kim also put us up for the night (they both kept saying that it was nice that it wasn't Alan having problems for a change!!) and we'll be forever grateful for that, too.....

Gordon, at least there was a little amusement to go with the delay getting home, huh?

Awesome.

Glad everyone had a good weekend and made it home (eventually) safe.

Amazing! It's hard to find that kind of comraderie nowadays. Solid testimony as to the great group of folks involved with this club! Glad you finally made it home safely Gordon/Chris!

So Cory, are you now thinking about putting a 'tow package' on Hoopty?!!

Will post pictures I took this evening, w/ apologies for the delay. The Hoopty is STRONG!! and you don't need 20 mins from some old guy named Chuck to tell you that.

Chris and Gordon: The story sort of conjures up the line about how it takes a village . . . Its' ot what you know, but who you know that pays off, they say. Reminds me of a trip in my then-new 1984 F-150 pick-up that simply died as if shot right in the middle of an intersection on Georgia Ave. at the height of rush hour. I had no villagers to bail me out of that one, so finally got a tow to a local dealer. He said 'twas a thing called a "module" hooked to the coil -- all part of the nascent 1984 electronic system. Just went out, as electronics will do. Was still in warranty, thank goodness.

Will post up pics of the Little Engine That Could, aka The Hoopty plus some shots taken at the Meet. Do you guys have broadband e-mail? Could be a bunch of megabytes.

Kelley:

Post away.....most of us have Broadband, and the dial-uppers have probably figured out how to put a turbo on their phone modem by now...

BTW....GREAT Chili!!

gn

Thanks to Rocky Cimbrec, I have a couple of really good shots. These were taken after the truck was moved out of traffic and into the Ramada parking lot (we were a little busy getting it the hell out of the way, after all, and didn't have a lot of time to stand around taking pictures, especially once the cop showed up).

This one is from the side and shows the tow strap set-up. I guess pulling from the roll bars would also be good for high-speed skate boarding, too...everybody always told me that the first gear in a VW was a stump-puller. Now I really believe it!!

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f254/speedster356/IMG_0355Copy.jpg

And this one shows me and Chris, trying to 'splain to one of Carlisle's finest, just what the hell we were doing out there.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f254/speedster356/IMG_0357A.jpg

Cory? He's just happy to be alive, and Hoopty's happy the heavy pulling is over!

The Police officer totally understood, told us we did the right thing to get our little parade out of Sunday afternoon traffic on busy RT 11, and then even called a diesel mechanic friend of his who drove over and tried to help! Both were really nice guys, and I thanked them a lot....too bad none of the auto parts stores had a cam positioning sensor for a "Mighty Power Stroke" diesel in stock on Sunday...

Found out that the Carlisle Police really like the Kit Car show - they had zero infractions or arrests our weekend, whereas two weeks ago Carlisle Productions hosted a "Tuner" weekend with lots of high powered Japanese cars and where the police made 138 arrests, impounding 17 cars., all outside of the show on Carlisle's streets.

Just goes to show......KIT CARS RULE!!

This whole post is a thing of beauty!

Cory has post-event post to make of his own, involving what happens when you have no idea how much oil is in the engine, but think it must need just a bit more. It's another (messy) roadside Hoopty teardown. PS: he did get home on Sunday, so Happy Ending.

Man, I was hoping to avoid that. Thanks for throwing me under the bus, Kelly. :)
Yeah, it was a mess. Here's the rest of the story. First, I almost always carry extras; fuses to gasoline and oil -- got it in the car. Some of that stuff was handy for other folks, and I burned through a few fuses just at the show.
The things I had thought to be rock solid, meaning the engine, tranny and wiring, were reliable for the most part. The car never conked out, and the only problems I had were relatively minor and easily corrected.
I've put 5,000 miles or so on this thing since November. It's been overhauled once in that period, and I guess the shakedown honeymoon (warranty period?) is up.
There I was, thinking I would head out at roughly the same time as Kelly. We were going to head south on two different routes and ultimately wind up within eight or so miles of each other in the Baltimore/Annapolis area. Cool. Gordon and Chris are in the capable hands of Rocky and Alan; the truck's handled and they're going to cook some animal meat and drink delicious and refreshing beverages on Alan's deck. Very long day.
And then, as I was clipping the old GPS to the steering wheel, I realized I didn't have my phone. I was on the PA Turnpike, headed toward Philly. I had the belt clip in my hand, and I was looking at it and wondering where the heck the phone was as I approached the toll booth to enter the Pike.
I had handed it to Chris, with Danny (Spyderman) on the other end, talking about spark plugs. That was before the euphoric tow-job. Chris must have put the phone down in the truck once it haltingly started; he tried to move it under its own power since it was seemingly willing to move itself.
Except that I never got the phone back. I had heard Alan and Gordon discussing which Ford dealer to take it to, so I at least knew they were headed out on 81 toward (approximately) Exit 7 in Chambersburg. No problem; that's what the GPS was for. Besides, Hoss, Lane and I had come that way on Thursday. Easy.

(more)

... But no. I am an idiot, as I've alluded many times before. You see, what it is that had happened was is that my ground wire on the engine oil light is faulty now. I have no idea why, except that I've been beating this car like it owes me money for several months, and maybe a little wire on the bottom of the chassis might need checking once in a blue moon. Three blue moons later ...
So there it is, flickering intermittently like they do when you're on the borderline of too little oil. But it's supposed to indicate that there isn't a whole lot of oil in the crank case, right? So whaddya do? Add a little here, add a little there, usually while the engine's hot, then you let it cool and check the level? That's what I do, anyway.
Remember waaaaay back when, when I said this thing has a non-standard oil dipstick tube? Like as if it was made somewhere along the line and added to the engine? And my search for a new dipstick to put in that hole because I didn't have one to put in it at all?
Mike Morris sent me one and I machined it to a ribbon. I figured hey, 914 engine; 914 dipstick. Mystery solved. Except that I never marked where a primed filter and the remaining 3.5 quarts were on the dipstick, and it wasn't the same level as the factory 914 marks, for some reason.
The three-quarts and four-quarts lines were off for my application, and I never took the three seconds to make new marks.
See? I'm an idiot. But wait -- there's more!

(more)

My phone and its entourage were headed merrily off to Chambersburg. I have never been to Alan's digs, so I figured I might need to haul my happy butt off in that direction wikki wikki.
Let me back up a minute. Over the course of the weekend, every single SOCer, minus Hoss, has had a turn at the Hoopty. I know some of those guys were flogging her as hard as they could (with my blessing -- the car's indestructible), and others weren't leaving second gear in fear for their lives. I didn't know who was who on the Hoopty-abuse meter, so I just checked the oil pressure gauge and lights occasionally, and added oil as the car seemed to indicate that she needed fluids.
No problem; it's a big T-IV with a non-grommeted dipstick, so there's some fluid loss out the top of the dipstick tube (my logic) and the dipstick must be reading erroneously full. The oil on the dipstick was clear and bright for the first half of the weekend, so I figured the darker color on Sunday was a little indicative of it having run its wheels off over the three days leading up to Saturday night.
Add to that that the filler cap was cracked and replaced (Thanks again, Stacey, for the cool billet cap), and I knew it was lower on oil than the stick led me to believe. The result of this madness was a full 7.5 quarts of oil (5W-30 and some two-stroke motorcycle oil Wild Bill recommended) being added piecemeal over the time at the fairgrounds and at the hotel. It didn't look like a huge deal, given the holes the oil was coming out of and the amount it was puking.

(more)

So, completely ignorant of the 7.5 quarts of oil I was churning in my engine, breather lines, breather box and dipstick tube, I was off to Chambersburg at 5,700 rpm in fourth. I was FLYING.
As I got close enough to see the exit, I slowed down, cavatating the air in my rear section. It came out the scoops, looking like a very easily-identifiable oil smoke.
Awwwww crap. This is how it ends, I thought. I'm done.
I made the exit, and drove into the first parking lot where it looked like there was a phone. I went into the Sheraton and asked if I could use the local-only phone service and a telephone, since Chris still had mine. As I was looking up Alan's number, I noticed oil seeping in big glops off the back of my car at about where the torsion tube is.
Hmmmmm. There's nothing there that holds oil. WTF?
I put down the phone book, walked briskly out to the Hoopty, and undid the back third. As I opened it up, I saw oil EVERYWHERE inside, mostly looking like it had come from the breather box. It's mounted right in the center of the back of my firewall, over top of where the shift-coupler is located, at shoulder height. It was messy; oil covered every single surface from there to the engine compartment, but the engine was clean. The smoke had come from oil splattered onto the exhaust at the top of the header pipes.
I broke out my four handy cans of Brak-Kleen and sprayed EVERYTHING down well. I wiped it up as best I could with a towel.
No apparent damage. I went back inside to call for reinforcements. I must have sounded a bit upset, 'cuz Alan, Rocky, Chris and Gordon came running. Fifteen minutes later, when the Guardian Angel Force arrived, I was midway through a hot-swap oil change. (Fortunately, there was an open auto parts joint a block away, and it wasn't 6:00 p.m. yet.)
They waited patiently for gravity to do its job and while I added the new oil in keeping with routine maintenance procedures, and then we shook hands and everybody rolled out. They were somewhere behind me as I passed Exit 5, but I think they jammed as soon as I went on to the Maryland line at Hagerstown.
I kept the Sloppy Jalopy at or near 3,000 rpms for the rest of the trip, and made it home with only one minor electrical event and an average oil temperature of 210 degrees. The electrical problem, my turn signals and brakes dying when both were applied at the same time, is also remedied -- and the car now performs as advertised again with a new circuit added for the turn signals.
Hopefully, the hits will not keep on coming.
Oh, and Chris did bring my phone to the oil-changing festival. It was cool ... the GF had only called three times wondering where the heck I was.

Everybody has problems like this from time to time, right? It's not just me? (lol -- hahaha ha ha haha hahaha ...)

Yup, everybody has problems like this from time to time.....

Then, later on, you remember things like the tattoo'd guy who walked up and was looking at the Hoopty, and grinning at it with his two teeth.

I remember a time when I was stranded with my dune buggy in the Dunes of the Cape Cod National Sea Shore and got towed out by a bunch of semi-naked Hippies in their VW Bus. Thought they were going to turn their clutch to a charred cinder, but they were enthusiastic, to say the least.

When we got the call at Alan's, there wasn't even a discussion. "Cory's got troubles and needs his phone. He's here in Chambersburg. Let's go!" and off we went. At least we had dropped Pearl's trailer by then, so we just showed up with the car hauler ("we might have to pull him on, too") and Rocky's truck. Must have looked like the Third Army showing up, but we were ready for anything.

Anyway, very glad we could help out.

WHAT A SUNDAY!!!!

Well, I have nominations for next year's calendar photos...

Geeze, and I thought I made long posts. wrt Cory's troubles and "Is it me?" I am prompted to recall a rejoinder offered some time back to the casual question often asked: "How's the world been treating you?" Whereas most folks are prompted to either sluff this off, or go through a quick list of all the BS they are suffering at the hands of others, the proper response should go something like this: "The world is treating me fine; all of my real problems are self-inflicted."

Hoo-ray for the Mod Squad, or whatever they would call themselves: the hapless die-hards who hung around to help Gordon/Chris and who were all collected up at the other end of the phone for Cory. He and the Hoopty are a rather self-contained Unit, as we have seen/heard, and I am supposing this little oversight about oil will end up in those annals as a minor triffle; an almost pleasant way to spend a late Sunday afternoon. Note to Cory: get a proper dip stick, you dip stick, and use it!

Note: a few of my better photos from Carlisle are now listed up in my Gallery, where all can see, if they so desire.

Cory, it was 20/50 Mobil 1 V-Twin oil I gave ya. Although I love the smell of two-stroke smoke in the morning.

Oops. Sorry, Bill.
Although, when you handed it to me ... I think I held the bottle in my hands for about long enough to up-end it and dump the contents into the case, eh? You know me -- Mister Cautious.

That WAS a great weekend. Whaddya all say we go crash the Carlisle "Mustang" or "Camaro" events?

Kelly -- you DID chuck me under the bus. The least I could do was provide some entertainment for the reading masses ... :)

No problemo kemosabe, I just didn't want anybody dumping 2/stroke oil down the sump. That would be the start of another thread all together.

Carlisle is not so far away, and I'd be up for good crash of that party. Sounds interesting; when is it? We should tell Allen, so he can have his carrier ready - LOL - And I did not realize that our phone conversation the other day contained classified information. So under the bus you went. Sorry, dude. It wasn't me that poured all that oil in your engine.

HA HA HA! BWAAA-HA-HAAAAA!
(Translation: No worries.)

This is unreal!! While you guys were going through so much I was on my ass here at home on Sunday....Unbelievable! Glad everything worked out for all of you.

Gotta love Fords, right Gord?

What a ... "Funday Sunday" ... that was!

Let's see, last year was the Lane/Speedster build, this year is was Hoopty Rides and Rescue and Recovery...how we going to come up with something for next year ?

Next year........Carey wants to build a 550 8>)

You Game?

Maybe we can do a Mini-powered......

One of the best parts of the weekend was (finally) returning home with a real "Shoo-Fly Pie" from the Pennsylvania Dutch food booth...

Only if I can take it home! ;>)

I'll be the first to say: I'm In!

I can turn a wrench - and eat some pie!