In a message dated 99-10-28 21:35:32 EDT, you write:
<< L-FORWARDLOOK@LISTS.PSU.EDU >>
I thought I'd throw my $.02 in since I've actually driven my '57 Dodge d500
cross country. In fact I'm doing it a second time right now!
I would bring a good supply of tools,water and a case of oil (my car uses a
quart at every fill-up (250-300 miles)). Maybe some extra wire and duct
tape. That's about it. You cannot predict what will break, nor can you
bring a spare for EvERYTHING!
Most of the time, if something goes wrong, you can limp to the nearest K-Mart
and buy something to rig up a fix. That's what I did a few times.
Here's what happened (is happening) on my trip. I drove from Georgia (where
I bought the car after it had sat for at least a decade!) to Grand Teton
National Park, WY.
About 350 miles from GA the transmission gave out. THere was nothing I could
do about it but to have it rebuilt. This cost an arm and a leg and a week.
After that, things got a little better. The whole trip, my car ran extremely
hot. Especially if I drove over 60 MPH or up any hills. Nothing I could do
about that either (tried a new thermostat and flushing the radiator, etc.) I
just soldiered on.
THe next thing to happen (around Memphis TN) was my generator stopped
working. I polorized it a few times and it finally started working again and
hasn't quit again since! (knock on wood)
I made it from there to about the NM border when I did something stupid and
hit the nuetral button by accident instead of Drive. Although I only hit the
button for an instance the statrter would not disengage after that and it
fried the starter gear. The next time I stopped for gas, the car wouldn't
start again. I called AAA and got a push start and drove to Albuquerque
without shutting off the motor. Luckily my sister lived in Alb. and she
drove me to a starter/generator shop in town where they had a starter gear in
stock.
On my way north, at about the border between NM and Colorado, My radiator
blew out. I had enough water to limp to a K-Mart and bought some epoxy for
the radiator. I let it set up over night, but it really didn't hold very
well. I drove pretty slow and stopped for water alot, when after Colorado
Springs, I spotted a hardware store off the highway. I bought a propane
torch (about 15$) and some solder and soldered the radiator myself. It
wasn't pretty, but it got me to Wyoming.
Now I am on my way back and am in Alb. again at my sisters' place. The only
problem I've had is that a wire broke off of the starter switch (behind the
nuetral button). I just went to K-mart last night to buy a soldering iron so
I can solder the wire back on. Can you beleive the entire wire harness is
soldered together WITHOUT any (many) connectors! What a pain in the butt to
fix things this way! I can't pull the push button assembly out to fix the
switch without cutting all the wires and then soldering them back together!
No parts that I could have reasonably thought to bring would have helped me.
You just have to deal with problems as the pop up.
Anyway, I don't mean to be discouraging, but it was an adventure!
Have fun,
Tom
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