York oil change
Shenandoah Plaza
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| Tim helping with York oil change |
Trailered Triksie at Shenandoah Plaza |
PA Turnpike toward OH |
...the 6 day tour of the East turned into 3 weeks so don't even bother to ask me when I'll make it back to CA!
Finally got checked out around noon on Sunday and decided it'd be a good idea to see if I could find another oil change before getting back on the road and so called my new friend Tim and asked if he knew where I could get some 60 weight oil and a filter and he called back 10 minutes later and said he found it and be over in 20 minutes! Not only did he bring the oil, he brought everything he needed to change it and did! While waiting I messed around trying to find out why the tail lights were sending morse code last night and no clues.
Tim said he was worried some of my bad luck might have rubbed off as his radiator water temp valve crapped out on the way over and I told him the story from last night when I was trying to find my way to Trenton and was back-tracking trying to find the road I wanted and there was an accident at an intersection I had gone through not 5 minutes before. Bad juju following me from NY?
Didn't get on the road till after 2p and rode the rest of the tank out on the PA Turnpike. Not quite ready for a gas station sandwich yet so ate some jerky and took off again and after about another 60 mi my body decided it needed fuel and was falling asleep and so another stop and got something to eat. Back on the road again and after another 60 mi or so it was getting kinda chilly so time to suit up and got some coffee and gas. Bad news this time: motor had been making plenty of noise but kept running OK so far but this time when she got up to the gas pump there was only one cylinder firing. Uh-oh. Called my parents and told them the story and said to wish me luck and my dad said better than that, he'd say a prayer for me! I think it worked for when I started her back up she coughed and then started firing on both cylinders again and so I said yeee-hawwww and took off!
Crossed the Ohio River at 930p and felt like I had enough reserve energy in me to make it back to Columbus after one more gas stop. Tried to make it to Cambridge but about 5 miles out I saw a sign for gas/food/sleep and decided that was my stop and pulled up to the front of the motel and only running on one cylinder again and motor make a LOT of noise now. Decided to cash it in and called my mom and said better to get a trailer and bring me the rest of the way in than take a chance on more engine damage now that I was this close.
Dad showed up around 11a with a trailer just as I was finishing up getting ready and we got her loaded and something to eat and took a pic and cruised on in. I was beat from the adventure and had finally reached my goal and it was all I could do to get my carcass to bed for a nap. Engine top end disassembly starts tomorrow, probably be here the rest of the week...
Tuesday, September 18, 2001
unbelievable
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| ruined front cylinder | REALLY ruined rear cylinder |
...took the heads off the motor today and was checking the cylinders to see how they were breaking in and couldn't believe my eyes: the clips had come out of both wrist pins and the front cylinder looked almost so bad it might not be salvageable but then the rear cylinder had such a deep groove worn in it from the wristpin it was a wonder the thing even started! I'm getting a real education on how screwed up one of these motors can be and still run!
Funny note is that Hawkeye was getting frustrated trying to get the clips on and Mark told him he'd do it for $1 and so Hawkeye paid him and he had them on in no time. Gonna take him a LONG time to get over this one!
Unbelievable. I was figuring on just having to take the heads off and get them redone and finally be rid of the weird noise but now I'm back to where I started when the spark plug blew out on Staten Island, less the money I spent while I was there. Gonna call Walt in the morning and see what he'll do, but it'll be tough since I'm here and he's there. I'm sure if he could he would do the job over for nothing. Bad juju in NY.
Should be an interesting day tomorrow...
Thursday, September 20, 2001
party's over
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| Triksie prepared for heart surgery |
worn crank pin. | cored flywheel spacer |
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| mystery crumpled steel in crankcase |
mystery un-crumpled steel in crankcase |
crumpled steel mystery solved |
...remember when I was saying how I didn't like NY? Geeze.
Yesterday I took the torn up cylinders and heads over to a local shop that I had gone to while I was hanging out here at my parents a few weeks ago (!) and determined the cylinders were indeed trashed beyond fixing and they tried to talk me into a new motor for $5000. Not quite what I had in mind now that my severance is pretty well burned up. They said the lower end was probably trashed too so came home and went about taking that off as well, first time it's been apart since Triksie came to life. Guess 60K mi ain't bad for an antique engine pulling the load I've put on it! Took the cam cover off and found a HUGE piece of steel caught in the screen that goes from the crankcase to the cam gear case and no clue where it came from. Maybe tomorrow will tell?
Back over this morning to have them pull it apart and an even bigger pice of steel caught on the crankcase side of the screen inlet that was too big to fit through! Crank was wasted, probably wasn't in such good shape before the pistons took a hike and definitely gone now. They sent me home with a book to figure out what the parts needed to rebuild the engine would cost so I could compare it to their recommendation of a $5000 new engine and I came up with around $1000 worth of parts and $1000 worth of labor. $3000 is a lot after ya already blew your wad! I'd been questioning the value of trying to put the engine back together as it just didn't seem so fun anymore and the leaves are turning and it's gonna be cold trying to cross the Rockies even now, let alone in two more weeks which is the minimum I figure it'd take to get the engine done. Called around and found a truck from Ryder for $700 / 3K mi / 7 days / one way that Triksie'll fit in the back of and we're headed home. She took me from CA to NYC and that was as far as she was gonna go. Gotta be some kinda symbolism with her blowing up at the same time the Towers fell. Or maybe it's just NY.
Rebuilding the engine will be a fine winter project, maybe I can finance it now that the stock market has started to move again!
And the mystery pieces of steel in the crankcase? Took us awhile but we finally figured it out after I straightened them out as best I could. Check the picture of the bottom side of the pistons if you're following my motorhead narrative for the clue. So maybe the piston guys owe me an engine rebuild? Still working it with Walt over on Staten Island.
Hopefully I'll have my hand controls shipped from home by Saturday and be packed up and on the road. But ya just never know...