Hello Triumph Folks,
This is my adventure report originally posted to the Land Cruiser list. No
Triumphs were
injured in this adventure. Many thanks to Scott at Team Triumph for his
assistance,
patience and understanding.
Main Entry: ad·ven·ture
Pronunciation: ad-'ven-cher
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English aventure, from Old French, from (assumed) Vulgar Latin
adventura, from Latin adventus, past participle of advenire to arrive, from ad-
+ venire
to come
Date: 14th century
1a: an undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risks b: the
encountering of risks
<the spirit of adventure>
2: a series of unforeseen and arduous events you read about in the comfort of
your home
involving persons other than yourself that take place thousands of miles from
your
location
3: an exciting or remarkable experience <an adventure in exotic dining>
4: an enterprise involving financial risk
Well, we're back.
As usual, our straightforward road trip turned into a series of unwanted
circumstances.
It was going to be so simple. We borrow William "Ten Page Technical Rant" Byars
Dodge
diesel 3/4 ton, hook up the trailer, drive to Warren Ohio, pick up the Goddess'
new toy
(1975 Triumph TR6) and trailer it home. Easy, right? Yeah, sure (dripping
sarcasm).
Well, Thursday night, Will calls. Dodge won't start.
I vowed I'd never tow again with the FJ60, but, the trip was on. Hey, how bad
could it be?
A TR6 weighs half the weight of a 40 series.
Off we go, early Friday afternoon. 400 and some odd miles, 9 hours or so.
About 75 miles out of Warren (9:00 pm local) I hear the speedo cable start to
chatter. You
know, that "I really want to start a new groove in cable housing" kind of
sound. Drat.
Another little expensive part in the 140k Cruiser. After 30 or 40 miles, the
sound
abruptly stops. Ahh. It's made it's new groove and it didn't pooch the cable.
Very cool.
About 10 miles out of Warren, the sound comes back, with a vengeance. Uh oh.
Fortuitously,
we were approaching our off ramp. Downshifting confirms that the rattle is
engine RPM
related, not cable RPM related. Oh man, are we in deep doodoo!
We limped to the first intersection, died rolling and coasted into a gas
station. I
suppose all that coolant in the oil pan would explain why we didn't lose oil
pressure :-)
Towing was a bit of an issue. AAA doesn't cover towing a truck with a trailer
attached. We
located a local service willing to do it and off we went. I rode in the tow
truck and Beth
and our sidekick Rick scrunched down in the 60. We dropped the 60 and the
trailer at the
Team Triumph garage and snagged a very cramped ride for the block and a half to
the local
Best Western.
I commenced to making phone calls to find the required gaskets for the repair.
Karr gave
me a few numbers of locals and posted a note on my behalf. About midnight
local, we
finally got to sleep.
Bright and early, I start making calls. And abruptly stop, until 9:00 AM. This
is Warren
Ohio. The parts stores and dealerships aren't open yet. In fact, the dealership
service
and parts departments aren't even open on Saturday. Not that it would have
mattered. Even
the Cleveland dealers don't stock parts for a 60.
So, although I offer thanks to all of you who called with offers of some of the
parts, my
biggest hurrah goes to Paul Elbisser, who reminded me of the old "stuff it in a
rental
truck" trick.
Solution! Errr, not so quick, Bubba. It's the first weekend of the month.
Everyone is
moving. There isn't a rental truck to be found in all of Ohio.
Except one. At 11:15 I find that I must present myself before noon in 20 miles
south. A
ride. My kingdom for a ride. A very nice auto painter who was delivering some
parts to the
garage offers to drive me down. Yeehah! Faster, faster!
I just make it. Only to discover that the only available rental truck in all of
Ohio
has....only two seats. For three of us. Arrrghh.
Oh well, you take what you get. Off I went, back to garage. Except for the two
entirely
wrong sets of directions I get from locals. Hmmmmm.
So, there we are. A 15' truck, no ramps, a TR6, a dead Cruiser and a car
hauler. But wait,
its Fork Lift Man to the rescue. Up into the air, slip forward and zowie. One
TR6 in a 15'
rental truck. Hook up the trailer, load the 60 and the rest was history.
Well, except for poor Beth, who got to alternate between the floor between the
buckets and
the edge of Rick's seat (Rick is too tall to fit between the buckets). Let's
just say she
isn't sitting too much today.
I'll report in later, once we've pulled the head. I sure hope it's just a
gasket. Keep
your fingers crossed.
Many thanks to the list and assorted TLCA members.
Andy Litkowiak
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