Last Friday morning I aimed Lazarus toward the West. The trip had two main
purposes, one was to do some genealogy work in Cleveland, the other was to show
the car to a guy named Bob Baldwin. Thanks to Lawrie Alexander for getting a
water pump seal to me or I'd have had to abort the trip. Here's a report:
Lazarus was back in the garage about 8:30 last night, 7/14. Went out at 5 am on
7/9. Drove from Plymouth MA to Cleveland OH by way of the GOF at Strasburg PA
with a stop at State College PA to reintroduce Lazarus to his owner from 1959,
Bob Baldwin. Covered 1,715 miles. Took two days to get to Cleveland, but
drove home yesterday in one shot, covering 705 miles. Used 68 gallons of 87
octane petrol for an average of 25.2 mpg. By far, most of the driving was on
Interstate highways (84, 81, 80) at speeds of about 60-65 mph (3500-4000 rpm).
The 4.3 gears are the best thing since sliced bread. Granted, Lazarus' engine
has a bit more pizzazz than most, but I had no problems with the hills of PA.
Almost had to cancel the trip due to last minute problems with my Phil
Marino-modified water pump. Bottom line is that it cost me two hours of
machinist's time to replace the bearings and seal after having to destroy the
impeller to get the pump apart. Had the pump/radiator and bonnet back in place
at 9:30 pm on 7/8. Had to start the car with the hand crank Friday morning but
decided to go anyway (the battery did charge eventually). Only problem on the
trip was a flat tire after a bunch of miles on very rough pavement in PA.
Drove the last 75 miles to Cleveland on my 25 year old spare. Tube was scuffed
up and leaking, second time for that tire. I bought a new tire and have gone
tubeless.
All of the outbound driving was with the top down and tonneau cover over
passenger side. Yesterday was a very wet one and I drove all the way back with
the top up. Now it's time to go to the garage, take a look at the plugs and
give Lazarus a bath. I'm starting to think about next year's trip to drive US1
from Canada to Key West.
Bud Krueger
52TD
Plymouth, Mass.
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