Oregon to Georgia in a 1930 Standard Tudor

[darrylkmc]

Slotblog,

May I be the first of many I am sure to congratulate you getting home safe and sound.

Did you travel on battery or did you do the conversion you mentioned?

Darryl in Fairbanks +28 degrees

[Slotblog]

Yes, I installed a 6v positive ground alternator that Bert's overnighted to me. Worked like a charm and I felt comfortable driving three hours in the dark to reach home tonight. I did travel one day on battery alone, for about 85 miles.

I realize I was stress-testing the old girl, and today she was pretty creaky and took a lot of attention. Got some issues to attend to now.

[montanafordman]

Congrats on a safe trip! I also enjoyed reading about your trip.

[Hoogah]

X2! Thanks for the stories from the road. Inspiring!

[armchair67]

Excellent and sounds like a good time despite the issues. Impressive reliability and you are a brave man, driving a car you didn't know at the start of the trip. I was very tempted to drive my 31 home the 285 miles from where I bought it but ended up trailering it...and glad I did in this case as I made it about ten miles before troubles began. I've been driving it daily and plan to drive it on a long distance next spring

[Slotblog]

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Just posted my trip report detailing the difficulties of the last day, and the end of our 2,700 mile journey.

Home at last but it was a struggle

I was determined to have the car reach its new home on its own wheels. It's been a trip on multiple levels.

And we were lucky. As my best man, Don Peterson, always says, "I'd rather be lucky than good."

[sethkestenbaum]

Well done! Now treat yourselves to some single malts.... scotch for you and straight weight 30 for the old gal.

[Slotblog]

Seth,

Since we visited the George Dickel distillery in my home town on the trip, after many years of passing it by, we've been tippling a little of their fine elixir in their honor and as thanks for the free tour.

It's not single malt, but it ain't bad!

[P.S.]

Thank you very much for your trip blog. I checked it every morning and eagerly devoured every word. You also happen to be a good writer.

Sounds like a rebuilt distributor might solve your troubles. Either that, or a dreaded timing gear. Let's hope the distributor is all.

The Model A looks better after removing the modern lettering from the rear windows.

[1930artdeco]

I did the same thing to my Dizzy. I 'over' advanced it by just enough for it to run like garbage if I pulled the spark lever down. But, if I 'retarded' it the car ran fine. Try just replacing the points and retiming the dist. before you buy a rebuilt dist. If the car jumped timing in the gear it barely run as the valve timing will be off.

Mike

[Slotblog]

Mike,

This dist is so loosey-goosey in the block, I'm going to pull it and go through it. Betcha the bushings are shot as well.

Will probably convert to the Pertronix unit, too.

There's a good chance I changed the timing via clumsiness while setting the point gap.

[Fred K-OR]

Greg happy you made it home from dear old Oregon. Things here weather wise now are as lot different than when you left a few days ago. High wind, snow predicted, freezing rain, etc. on the way. You never know what to expect in Oregon (weather wise that is).

Keep up your posts. Very exciting so far and it looks like you have a real keeper with your Model A.

[Slotblog]

Thanks, Fred.

Yeah, I knew we had to go after the car and head south fast if I expected to be able to drive it all the way back.

If I heard the weather report correctly, the Atlanta area will see overnight lows of 24-26 F tonight. Gotta go drain the A's radiator!

[CarlG]

Mother Nature has got things all screwed up and backwards. Here it's in the 40's, creeping up to the 50's right now. And this is winter in Alaska?

[whirnot]

Originally Posted by CarlG

Mother Nature has got things all screwed up and backwards. Here it's in the 40's, creeping up to the 50's right now. And this is winter in Alaska?

Yeah and we had 0 this morning.

[Ted Duke]

Congrats on your trip. I'd love to do something similar someday.

Ted

[31Tudor]

I have been following your journey with interest each day and it certainly sounds like a fun adventure. I just wanted to give my opinion about the Petronix ignition and it always stirs a nice flurry of opinion on here. Since you just finished a 2,700 mile journey and points don't sound like they were ever a big issue, I would certainly stay with a stock distributor. Even with a points change on the road, you can get going again, the only time I have come home on a rollback was when my electronic ignition failed. I would stay with a stock distributor, you just proved it was reliable.

[Slotblog]

Thanks for the input, 31Tudor. Yes, it was a fun adventure, one I have wanted to do for a long time.

I do need to pull the distributor and go through it.

[montanafordman]

Another vote for the stock ignition. In my mind I see many more times people on here have problems with the modern upper plate and especially the wireless lower plate. I have put a couple thousand miles on my coupe with a distributor that I rebuilt and had zero issues with it.

[Slotblog]

Thanks for your post, Aaron.