Nevadaho Road Trip

[blucar]

The travelog, SLC through Nevada and into Idaho on #93, the Boise area and back to Arco, the Creaters, etc., brings back very fond memories to me.
I was raised in Idaho Falls, bought my '36 there in '52. My Ford ("Henry") and I have traveled the road between I.F. and SLC many times. Moved to Vegas in '54 for two years, lots of cruising the Nevada deserts in Henry, through Death Valley, etc..
The last big trip that I took in Henry was in 1962. I had moved to California in 56.. In the fall of '62 my uncle in IF asked me to come up to Idaho and go hunting with him..
We had a fairly new Pontiac, my wife was not going with me so I left the Pontiac for her and our two kids.
I serviced Henry up, loaded my gear into the trunk and headed out on a solo trip north via #395, Bishop, #6 Tonopah and Ely, where I hooked up with #93. Ely to Wells, Twin Arco on #93, Arco to the Craters and into I.F.. The trip was done none stop except for fuel and eats, a distance of 1,040 miles from my home in Ventura. I did the trip in just shy of 18 hr, averaging 57 MPH.
It was late October when I did this trip, I encountered snow going over some of the high passes between Ely, Wells and Twin. I also encountered snow through the Craters, however, the roads were dry.
After a week in Idaho, hunting and fooling around I headed south to SLC to see some friends and relatives.. Heading from SLC out to Kerns I got stopped by a Utah State Policeman... He had me for 70 mph.. Utah at the time was 60 mph day, 55 night. Fortunately for me, he was more impressed with my car, not to concerned about the speed.
After a couple of days in SLC I headed south for Vegas. About Provo I heard a big noise under my car, which went away by the time I got Henry stopped.. I checked everything out could not find anything wrong, resumed my trip.. On the old highway between SLC and Vegas it was over 600 miles. Several more miles down the road I again heard a noise under the car.. This time it was a scraping noise, that almost went away before I could get Henry stopped. Nothing could be found.. The first town I encountered, about Nephi, I had the car but on a hoist at a service station.. Nothing amiss could be found.
Through out the entire trip to Vegas the noise would come and go, sometimes very loud, other times very faintly.
A day in Vegas visiting with some friends and then on the road again for home.
Within a few days of getting home I put Henry up on some axle stands to find the noise.. It was coming from the pinion/drive line area. When I disassembled the rear end I found that the anchor pin through the collar attaching the drive line to the pinion had come loose, working it way out to scrape on the torque tube.. Minor but troublesome.
A footnote about my "Henry", that being the cars name since I first bought him.
The entire under carriage is '42-48 Ford, the engine is a highly modified 59 AB engine. The rear end is a '48 Columbia with 3.78 gearing.
During the 60 years that I have owned Henry I have driven him over 94k.. He has never let me down, in Idaho blizzards, Nevada desert heat and pounding the freeways/streets of Southern CA during my daily commutes to work until I retired him, upon receipt of a company car..