CoggedBelt75
Full Access Member
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2010
- Posts
- 35,951
- Reaction score
- 148,204
- Location
- Altus, Oklahoma
- First Name
- Joe
- Truck Year
- 1975
- Truck Model
- C10
- Engine Size
- 383
Well guys, the curse of cruise night has once again struck. Forth year in a row to happen with me. This is more or less a rant I guess and kind'a long, but here goes.
First time I forgot to thread the nuts on the valve stems of the tubes inside the slicks. Got on it pretty hard leaving work and spun the tires on the rims which turned the tubes also and pulled the stems smooth out. There I sit with 2 flat tires. Back to the shop to dismount and remount without the tubes. Fix...Screwed the slicks to the rims in case I ever do this again. And try to keep head out of butt.
Second time sitting in the line waiting for them to start the cruise. The water temp started to rise fairly quickly until it finely started puking water everywhere. The switch that controls the fans failed. After an hour of cooling down, got her to the house. Fix... Rewired the fans to toggle switches so I could at least get back in the cruise for the night. Now there is the sensor switch and a manual over ride should this problem happen again.
Third time spent most of Friday night in the emergency room. Needed to add some air to the slicks so they wouldn't grab too bad. My old compressor needs a little assistance on startup so I grabbed a hold of the big pulley to help it get started. Only thing is, I didn't get one of my fingers out of the way fast enough. Just kind ‘a followed the belt thru the pulley grove and took the end off. Fix... Put a new starter on the electric motor.
And finally, I drive her every day without a hiccup. Drove around Friday night, noticed she was trying to get hot on me. Always runs about 180 but now climbing toward 200. Got home that night and started checking things and noticed a small hole in the thermostat housing so put a new one on. Rode around some Saturday morning and still the same thing but was also starting to run pretty rough. Was 104 outside at the time so went home to wait on the cruise line up to begin. On the way there everything seemed fine. Got started and half way down the first leg of the route she started acting up again. Like cylinders were starting to shut down. Thought I could make it to the house, but since this was a closed cruise, all the side streets but one were blocked off. As soon as I turned off the drag, she finally gave up. Coasted to a stop with the key still on and it finally dawned on me that neither the fans nor the fuel pump was running. I was so busy watching the temp gauge that I never even noticed the volt gauge was showing 10 volts. DOH!!!!!!!!!!! IDIOT!!!!!!!!!! Was on battery power only. Need 12 volts just to run the big pump and computer. An hour later, finally built back enough power to get home. Took the alternator off and took it to auto zone for a test. Rectifier failure. Told the kid on duty I needed a 1 wire alternator with the most amps he had. Back to the house I go again. By the time that and all the belts were put on it was already almost 9 pm. Maybe at least get in an hours’ worth of street time. Wrong. Started up and revved to 2000 and the needle just sit there. At this moment, words can’t describe how I was feeling. Needless to say, I was done for the night. Electrical anything is not my thing.
Got up, went to church, did the mom thing. As soon as that was done, it’s off to the zone again. But this time I knew there would be someone there who doesn’t just look at numbers on their computer. Sure enough, what the kid said was a 1 wire was not. But this guy is a real parts man that used to work at a real parts house when they used to exist and has heard just about every “fix it” story there probably is out there. Sold me a $3.00 pigtail that is generally on the truck, which mine isn’t, said to hook up the red wire to the lug that the battery wire is hooked to. So before I mounted this AGAIN, I took the guts out of the new one and put them in my chrome case. By now it was getting late so called it a night, without even trying it out. Couldn't handle another failure at this time. Wife wanted to know if she has to take me to work or not. Will know when I start up in the a.m.
The time has come. Turned the key, blipped the throttle, and the needle jumps to 15 volts. By the time I got to work the voltage settled down to just a tad over 14 volts. Finally, all is good again.
I understand things go out, but why of all times did it pick this time? And between the kid’s and my own ignorance, I sure missed out on what I could hear from my garage, a very exciting cruise. At least I wasn’t the only one that went down that night. Oh well, hope there will be a next year. Sure was planning on having videos like last years. Fix… again try to keep head out of butt more often and use gauges for more than decorations. Looking for a charm to ward off “the curse” also.
First time I forgot to thread the nuts on the valve stems of the tubes inside the slicks. Got on it pretty hard leaving work and spun the tires on the rims which turned the tubes also and pulled the stems smooth out. There I sit with 2 flat tires. Back to the shop to dismount and remount without the tubes. Fix...Screwed the slicks to the rims in case I ever do this again. And try to keep head out of butt.
Second time sitting in the line waiting for them to start the cruise. The water temp started to rise fairly quickly until it finely started puking water everywhere. The switch that controls the fans failed. After an hour of cooling down, got her to the house. Fix... Rewired the fans to toggle switches so I could at least get back in the cruise for the night. Now there is the sensor switch and a manual over ride should this problem happen again.
Third time spent most of Friday night in the emergency room. Needed to add some air to the slicks so they wouldn't grab too bad. My old compressor needs a little assistance on startup so I grabbed a hold of the big pulley to help it get started. Only thing is, I didn't get one of my fingers out of the way fast enough. Just kind ‘a followed the belt thru the pulley grove and took the end off. Fix... Put a new starter on the electric motor.
And finally, I drive her every day without a hiccup. Drove around Friday night, noticed she was trying to get hot on me. Always runs about 180 but now climbing toward 200. Got home that night and started checking things and noticed a small hole in the thermostat housing so put a new one on. Rode around some Saturday morning and still the same thing but was also starting to run pretty rough. Was 104 outside at the time so went home to wait on the cruise line up to begin. On the way there everything seemed fine. Got started and half way down the first leg of the route she started acting up again. Like cylinders were starting to shut down. Thought I could make it to the house, but since this was a closed cruise, all the side streets but one were blocked off. As soon as I turned off the drag, she finally gave up. Coasted to a stop with the key still on and it finally dawned on me that neither the fans nor the fuel pump was running. I was so busy watching the temp gauge that I never even noticed the volt gauge was showing 10 volts. DOH!!!!!!!!!!! IDIOT!!!!!!!!!! Was on battery power only. Need 12 volts just to run the big pump and computer. An hour later, finally built back enough power to get home. Took the alternator off and took it to auto zone for a test. Rectifier failure. Told the kid on duty I needed a 1 wire alternator with the most amps he had. Back to the house I go again. By the time that and all the belts were put on it was already almost 9 pm. Maybe at least get in an hours’ worth of street time. Wrong. Started up and revved to 2000 and the needle just sit there. At this moment, words can’t describe how I was feeling. Needless to say, I was done for the night. Electrical anything is not my thing.
Got up, went to church, did the mom thing. As soon as that was done, it’s off to the zone again. But this time I knew there would be someone there who doesn’t just look at numbers on their computer. Sure enough, what the kid said was a 1 wire was not. But this guy is a real parts man that used to work at a real parts house when they used to exist and has heard just about every “fix it” story there probably is out there. Sold me a $3.00 pigtail that is generally on the truck, which mine isn’t, said to hook up the red wire to the lug that the battery wire is hooked to. So before I mounted this AGAIN, I took the guts out of the new one and put them in my chrome case. By now it was getting late so called it a night, without even trying it out. Couldn't handle another failure at this time. Wife wanted to know if she has to take me to work or not. Will know when I start up in the a.m.
The time has come. Turned the key, blipped the throttle, and the needle jumps to 15 volts. By the time I got to work the voltage settled down to just a tad over 14 volts. Finally, all is good again.
I understand things go out, but why of all times did it pick this time? And between the kid’s and my own ignorance, I sure missed out on what I could hear from my garage, a very exciting cruise. At least I wasn’t the only one that went down that night. Oh well, hope there will be a next year. Sure was planning on having videos like last years. Fix… again try to keep head out of butt more often and use gauges for more than decorations. Looking for a charm to ward off “the curse” also.
You've definitely been through the wringer this time.
