East to West Road Trip

[seabeelt]

Well our son graduated from Grad School on Memorial Day weekend and has spent the last month helping around the house to get the older farm house ready for the summer rental season. We spent a good four weeks sanding and painting but did manage to get some time for prepping his car for the trip(79 spider). As a graduation present we bought him a new hard dash from AR. It is pretty sweet. Then we made a new dash, shift plate and center console set from one of the CNC dash kits he had for sale here on the forum. Needless to say we were supposed to leave last Friday afternoon at 3:30 when I finished work, but didn't leave for another 3 hours while the dash and accessories were finished up and installed. On the un-done list was new A-arms and ball joints, but we packed those in the trunk and began our trip, or I should say his trip as I was only the co-pilot until we reached our daughters' house in Columbus, Ohio. Drove until 2:30 in the morning and stopped at Lock Haven, Pa for the night. First issue we discovered was that the alternator though tight and not presenting any immediate symptoms was not charging the battery. Battery light stays off voltage reads fine, but car seems to be pulling more amps than the alt puts out or it is intermittent as if when it gets warm it doesn't charge(my truck alt did this). So we had to get a jump in the morning and needless to say didn't shut the car off at any of the gas stops. These symptoms actually started the night before in CT, but once on the road didn't want to have to stop and make repairs unless forced to do so. New alt on order to arrive today

So cruising along the next day and about 35 miles from Columbus, the sky just opens up dumping so much rain you could not see the front of the car. We barely made it to an overpass to put the top up in time, nearly getting run over by a semi truck as he couldn't see either. Fortunately our son has quick reflexes and steered us further off the road. Got to our daughters about an hour later after the rain had passed. That was a scary scary moment when the truck went by so close.

I stayed Saturday night and flew home on Sunday. His girlfriend arrives tomorrow afternoon/evening and they are to resume his journey to San Francisco and his new job this coming Sunday the 6th.

While visiting in Columbus he decides to tackle the passenger side control arm job and possibly the drivers side ( read need to make more room in the trunk for girl friend items)

All goes well - learning much along the way until taking it for a test drive. What's that squeaking noise. Pulls over, steam coming from the front hub. Car goes back to the garage and back on the jack stands. Right front wheel seems to turn all albeit slowly and not as nicely as it should. Off comes the tire, popped the bearing cap. Hmmmmm looks a bit dry, keyed washer is broken. Remove nut. Bearing won't come out and now needs a big gear puller to get the hub off. In the mean time he has purchased a complete wheel bearing set. Hoping the spindle is not scored or damaged. More progress tomorrow as a friend of a friend brings over the needed tools.

New 95 amp Alternator arrives and is installed, of course with modifications to associated brackets. Hope this cures the charging problem. Grounds all looked good and connection wires all tested out as well with no problems.

More to follow....... What a lucky thing we made it to Columbus before the wheel bearing gave up the ghost.....

[AriK]

Great story! Although stressfull at that point in time, it will be a great memory in the future. A trip to reminisce for the rest of your life

[seabeelt]

I just worry that the car will be back together and road worthy by Sunday.....job in SF starts the Monday the 14th with him flying back to Chicago to corp hq for training on the 13th. Not a lot of time to mess around with breakdowns. That said, it has been a very good car getting him back and forth to Ithaca, NY from RI this past year. The thing runs great and seemed to have no problems holding at 4k for hours on end in between gas stops

I don't know the details of the rest of the road itinerary, but hopefully there will be much top down driving and pleasure able stops along the way for the two of them. Just glad I got to be a part of the first leg of the journey. We have asked for daily updates ( read baby bird leaves the nest and parents have the worried face) and pictures along the way. Hoping the best.....

[RRoller123]

Sounds great! Good luck!

[cormac]

You are a good Dad...IMHO you can tell a lot by what someones prose.

Grad school, Cornell or?? My son will be a sophomore in the fall at Colgate, and my daughter is a rising senior and looking at some schools points east (we are in Oregon), NYU, Bryn Mawr, U of Penn, U of Chicago, Johns Hopkins

We are resto modding a 76 Spider for my son, hope to get it done next summer.

Tough thing letting the kids fly far from home...mine are all 2 yrs apart so I am sure it will go bang, bang, bang

I told my youngest girl, for the 2 years that her sister and her are in college together, I will move to her college town for half the year and her sisters the other half of school year

FYI...have various parts, a lot of parts...shipping might be reasonable from here to SF...I lived in San Mateo for a few years...SF is a great city

[seabeelt]

Thanks for the kind words. He got his Masters of Architecture from Cornell and his undergrad at Rhode Island School of Design. He footed the bill for grad school so he is really excited about has having a job right away. ( and our concern about him getting there OK). Sound like you have your hands full with kids two years apart.
R/

[dmwhiteoak]

Sounds like you have a great kid. To have raised one that has the ability and common sense to even work on cars these days says a lot far his father. I pumped and poured every bit of mechanical ability into mine that was possible and it paid off as he toured the United States and Canada many times when he was with his band. It's nice to hear of other young people who are willing. The only thing about your story that's hard to believe is the fact that your son was able to load all his girlfriends stuff in the car. He deserves extra credit for that. I pray it turns out well for him. Keep us posted.

[seabeelt]

Thanks Dennis. He sure is getting his knuckles dirty. He calls me the mechanic on duty and I refer to him as the technician in training. Here is what his spindle looks like. .

I havent heard from him yet today. Its a good thing the Midwest-Bayless is only 5 min away from our daughter's house so that he has a ready supply of parts or he would be in the deep S@#!^

[SoFlaFiat]

I can only hope my kids follow a path like that! Great story! I have my fingers crossed for them!!