Hobo Jungle

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Well, Murph, if we ever get coordinated on our schedules, getting up the lane into my place in PA won't challenge your vehicle all that much....had 2 10-wheeler loads of slate put down on the lane and you should have no problem getting up and in...

[sarge]

Damn I miss those lead sleds.

Ah, the days of the Great American Land Yacht...

[MurphOnMillerAve]

You are right, Bikermike, I miss those lead-sleds, too. I drove a '54 mercury, had a '58 Cadillac convertible, a '67 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, bought the first day right after graduation from college; then, a '72 Pontiac Gran Prix; '81 & '83 Buick Rivieras, an '86 Pontiac Trans Am Firebird; next, an '89 Cadillac Sedan de Ville, followed by two Sevilles, in the '90's. I loved them all, esp. the way you could put your foot down and mean business and get results from those boats. If you really put the-peddle-to-the-metal, those cars would, literally, rear-up, and take off, noses held high, lookin' for trouble and takin' no prisoners whatsoever.

TonyH sent me this photo of the '57 prototype of the '58 caddy convertible I drove. What a car - put me on the map in high school. My mom said some of the riders w/me in that car were not real freinds but just wanted to ride in it. I couldn't blame them and didn't care if their intentions were shallow. We all - a mimimum of 12 per yachting excursion - were lookin' for girls, drinking quarts of Iron City and Fort Pitt beers, and howling our joie de vivre at the world around us. Man, I loved that car and those times, friends and freeloaders alike!

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Well, Murph, if we ever get coordinated on our schedules, getting up the lane into my place in PA won't challenge your vehicle all that much....had 2 10-wheeler loads of slate put down on the lane and you should have no problem getting up and in...

Perfect! And level, too; dry and everythang! I'm ready!

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I'll be up on the 25th; got to collect a new ladder along the way.......and about 20 8' 1x4's......and a gallon of paint.....and then we're going to cut wood.......

[webenda]

Murph, that is too funny for words.


I have been in the same situation several times and had to back out for miles. I remember one time I could not back up.

I had been sent to fill up generators at a RADAR installation on top of a hill. As I arrived at the bottom of the hill with my 6x6 Army tank truck, I saw a bunch of jeeps parked at the bottom of the hill. I stopped and asked, "What's up?" One of them replied, "Nobody. It rained last night and the mud road is so slippery we can't get up the hill." They were waiting for the road to dry out.

I went around to the east side of the mountain thinking the sun would have dried it out. Yes... until halfway up when the outside of the road gave way as I went around a corner. (The road was made by scrapping the side of the mountain with the over burden being shoved over the side to form about 25% of the road width.) All ten wheels slowly turned, digging deeper into the over burden. I tried backing up, but only got in deeper. There was nothing to connect the wench to so--
I called for a CAT. They sent a Caterpillar Wheel Loader that could not get up as far as I had gotten.

Cat Wheel Loader.jpg (22.77 KiB) Viewed 2181 times

Next day the CAT came over the top and down to my truck. A second lieutenant came along to supervise. We connected the two vehicles together with a chain that must have come from a battleship. I put my truck into low gear, slack came out of the chain, I released the clutch and... fourteen wheels turning, nobody going anywhere, the lieutenant jumping up and down like a cartoon character. CAT stops, I stop and the lieutenant comes over to tell me my wheels are turning backwards. (Good thing he was sent to supervise.) I had selected #2 reverse instead of #1 low.

OK, #2 low selected (because it was not near the two reverse positions) and up we headed, with the lieutenant jumping up and down like a cartoon character. CAT stops, I stop and the lieutenant comes over to ask, "Why are you going up this road? I thought you wanted to go up the West Road." I told him I was going up this road because the CAT was going up this road and I was tied to him with the biggest chain I had ever seen. The chain was disconnected while I explained, "I can't back this truck down the road because it is too wide to get past the road cave-in. The CAT and I are going to the top. I will fill the generators while the CAT comes back down to fix the road.

The lieutenant wanted to know why the CAT didn't just stay here and fix the road? After I explained that the road was not wide enough for anything except jeeps to pass each other. The lieutenant decided to go back to headquarters and let us handle the problem.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

....CAT stops, I stop and the lieutenant comes over to ask, "Why are you going up this road? I thought you wanted to go up the West Road." I told him I was going up this road because the CAT was going up this road and I was tied to him with the biggest chain I had ever seen. ..The lieutenant decided to go back to headquarters and let us handle the problem.

Clearly, by your own words, here, you were a character even back then. Bless your heart. You were a joy to all those guys, I am certain . I'll bet they tell stories, too, but ones that include a snapshot of your "feats," to be sure.
Your wry wit must have always been a welcome treat.
Murph

[kerr]

Another reason why I miss those lead sleds is that you had room to work on them! Open the hood and climb in, nowadays all you see is plastic covers, loads of wires and tubes and nothing that is remotely recognizable.

All of my old GM's blew either the water pump or the alternator, every one I had it was all that failed. Usually the alternator failure was a diode but the water pumps it was the bearings every time. Came to the conclusion that water pumps was a GM Achilles heel.

Most brands and types of vehicles seem to have one, in my experience. Chryslers favor electrical problems, the old Fords.."they put the heater core, WHERE?!" (in the bloody firewall) actually my Fords gave me carb problems, though that was only twice out of four, my Thunderbird went through two sets of ball joints but that could be New Yorks excuse for roads.

In the bad old days, motorbikes had definite weak spots. BSA's ate valves and clutch pushrods, Royal Enfields had weak gearboxes okay as long as they weren't thrashed, Velocettes had a horrible scissor action clutch operating mechanism which could both drag and slip at the same time, Triumphs watch your oil level and change often or goodbye big ends and mains.

Even today it holds true, the weakness a make has, Yamahas have weak starter motors (the eat their brushes) and a lousy finish that goes bad quickly, Kawasakis don't like the rain, they'll run fine but are hard to start when wet and prone to misfire or cut out at low revs if its really soaking, Hondas are different in this respect, many of them are bulletproof but theres one or two that have known weaknesses specific to the model, though in general they probably are the most reliable. Suzukis used to be points and plugs eaters but I havent had one since those far off times.

Ah well those days are gone thank Heavens, I used to enjoy a good fixing session, had a couple of Chevettes that gave me plenty to do but those little cars were damn good and I always though were wrongly panned because many of their problems were they werent driven right! It was the low budget vehicle of choice on the Eastern Shore where I used to live and most people shifted up too early and lugged the motors but if you revved the little beasts they went pretty good and thrived on it. Had a horrible ignition system though and ate modules which werent cheap. I replaced a clutch on one of mine and thats not a job I'd wish on anybody, there's zero room to get at the bell housing bolts and the blasted gearbox weighs a ton.

But those big old lead sleds? I'd rather have a mint one of those than anything thats out now except the Bentley Continental. THAT was when America still made a good automobile which was also something the average guy could both afford and keep maintained without a degree in whatever arcane art you need to figure them things out today.

[webenda]

Murph,

Not really. I had a metrology instructor tell me, "Mr. Benda, the other instructors have warned me about you. When I ask the class questions, I do not want to see your hand go up. If you have anything to say, write me a letter."

That system worked great. It gave the instructor time to research the answer prior to the next class. For example, I once wrote that the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) number on your Certificate of Test was not proof of traceablilty (as he had said.) It is only an accounting number. Next day the instructor read the letter to the class explaining that he had contacted NBS that morning and had been told the same thing. Traceablility is in the historical data on the artifact.

[webenda]

Kawasakis don't like the rain, they'll run fine but are hard to start when wet and prone to misfire or cut out at low revs if it's really soaking.

My H1 had that problem. One foggy night I noticed sparks leaping out of all three spark plug wires. I replaced the wires and--still the same. I purchased super duper high tension sillycone wire at the hot rod shop and made my own wires--still same problem. I took off the wire covers and--problem solved. The wire covers were conductive rubber and capacitive or inductive coupling to the plug wires. It ran fine in the rain after that.

The KZ800 never had any problem anywhere. When we went to Pikes Peak it rained from Phoenix to Flagstaff. Bike ran fine. The only non-problem was in the Arizona Painted Desert. Places to stop and look were too close together and the battery went dead after ten starts. Lucky it had a kick starter.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Murph,

Not really. I had a metrology instructor tell me, "Mr. Benda, the other instructors have warned me about you. When I ask the class questions, I do not want to see your hand go up. If you have anything to say, write me a letter."..

Oh, laaawdee, if a teacher had said that to a student in our school, his career would have been short lived. And I would have shunned him (!) esp. since I placed a premium on asking questions. I told my classes they could ask me questions about anything on Earth, and that if I did not know the answer then and there, to give me 24 hrs. to have the answer for them. That system worked out well for us, Wayne.
Murph

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Another reason why I miss those lead sleds is that you had room to work on them! ...

Yeah, and we had room to work in them, too.

[healey36]

Never had a problem with a GM waterpump, but the Germans are killing me. My first car was a '70 Opel GT...blew the pump at ~ 76K. Later had an '87 VW Jetta...replaced that pump three times in ~ 135K...the last time I replaced it I bought a second and carried it around in the trunk. This month I had the pump replaced in an '01 BMW Z3 at 81K... What the heck? I've got a '67 Healey Sprite still running the original pump at 93K (okay, I've replaced everything else on the car, but the pump is still good). Seems to be the weak link for the Jerries...

[webenda]

I did. When I purchased my used 1970 Olds Cutlass Supreme with 455 cu-in engine the water pump bearing was already loose and leaking. Someone had tensioned all the belts just as tight as they could. I noticed the 1/2 inch rule failed on this vehicle, the belts did not give at all under thumb pressure. After replacing the water pump I tensioned the belts to a very loose 1/2 inch deflection. Pump never failed again.

Belt tension might be the problem for some of the cars you mention.

Serpentine belts (first used on the1979 Ford Mustang) use an automatic belt tensioner, so belt too tight does not explain your 2001 BMW Z3 water pump failure.

[healey36]

I guess technically my comment was incorrect, as Opel is/was a GM brand. I bought that car second hand from a "recycler". It was in decent cosmetic condition, but the gearbox was shot. Brought it home and the old man asked "What the hell are you going to do with that?". Fortunately for me, he developed as much of an interest in it as I had. We went to the library one day to look for a book on transmission repair, and we struck gold. We found a how-to book that used the transmission out of a Chevy Vega as the example, step-by-step. Looking at the pictures, we could see it was the same Getrag gearbox that Opel had used. Hot damn, we were in business! Pulled the gearbox that night, took it down the basement and threw it up on the work bench and started disassembling it. Found the problem was the needle bearings between the half-shafts had failed. Went to the local Buick dealership Monday AM and ordered a new set of needle bearings, which I seem to remember cost about eighty cents. I had them by that Friday. Replaced the bearings, reassembled the unit and put it back in the car. Ran like a dream for another four or five years before I sold it and bought a new '79 Mercury Capri.