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Monday, 06/09/03; Rapid City, South Dakota, Day Two
“Eureka! I have found it!”
No rush to get up this morning. Our schedule included getting the car to the transmission shop, but that wouldn’t be open until 0800, or so. As the Smiths were finishing breakfast, Dennis announced that he had called Good Sam for a tow truck. (Both the Olsons and Smiths had joined Good Sam and taken out their towing insurance to be sure they had coverage in Canada and elsewhere to supplement AAA, if needed.) Soon, the truck arrived and after loading the Olson’s car, we were off to the transmission shop on the far northern edge of town. With the car unloaded at the shop, Dennis found out to his dismay that one of the workers had reported in sick and they might not get on the work as soon as promised. On the way back to the motel, we stopped at an auto parts store where Keith bought new battery grounding cables and other hardware he needed.
Back at the motel, Keith removed the Victoria’s floorboard for about the fourth time to do the best job possible in grounding the battery. A new grounding strap was modified to fit the A and a secondary strap was fitted from the chassis to the transmission to assure that the engine and the frame were both at the same ground potential. Now for the test! The engine was started and showed no improvement in the grounding situation – darn! A voltage check showed that the positive terminal of the battery was at a lower voltage than the generator output – by about two volts! (This test had not been run earlier because the fault is usually in the ground.) The culprit was the fuse block on the starter! Dennis had suggested several days ago that the fuse block be checked. Keith misunderstood what he said and examined the terminal box on the firewall, instead, thus missing the opportunity for a quick fix. We corrected the problem, which was caused by poor design of the fuse block by adding some JB Weld to the terminal connecting to the starter. This prevented the terminal from rotating and making a poor contact with the fuse. However, the failure of the left brake light has yet to be resolved and that will probably take place at home. Now the refrigerator should operate normally. A check of the CB revealed no abnormalities. Keith feels a bit foolish making these comments about his minor problem (compared to Dennis’ serious problem with his driveline); however, these words may help other Model A’ers who might have similar symptoms.
We set up lunch in the yard of the motel same as yesterday; however, before we finished, we were sent scurrying into our rooms by the winds of an approaching thunderstorm. Dennis and Joan went off to the transmission shop to see if any progress was being made. Keith stayed “home’ to work on his journals and Joann watched the rain for a while and then caught a few “Z’s.”
Later in the afternoon, the transmission shop called Dennis to report that they had removed the driveline and said that Dennis should come down and make some decisions. When he and Keith arrived at the shop, they saw that the coupling collar had not only stripped the splines, but it had also broken the weld made in North Carolina! We have been unable to locate a driveline here in Rapid City and the shop recommended that a repair not be attempted. We agreed with that advice. Dennis called Mitchell Manufacturing in California to see if they could ship a new overdrive by airfreight. They didn’t have an overdrive in stock and wouldn’t have for at least a week. They advised Dennis to check with Snyder’s in Ohio. Snyder’s has one and will ship it out tomorrow morning, by air. It will arrive on Wednesday morning.
Tomorrow, we plan to shift to a motel near the transmission shop. This one has phones, so Keith will be able to get online and send in the accumulation of reports and pictures to Pat for posting on the web.
As we sign off tonight, the sun is shinning brightly and we are happy that the decision has been made and we know, at last, that we should be on our way before the week is out.
Regards to all the family and friends who are following our adventures. We hope that this story has kept you in as much suspense as it has us.
The Dauntless Four
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