| Here's Larry and I on the end row of
cars which ended up being a decent spot. If you look really close, you
can see Larry peaking over the back of his car.
One of the things they do at this show while handing out
the awards is for the winners to drive there cars up
to the front like your in a parade. Right before they hand you an award, they
say a little something about your car and where you're from. This way
everyone can see what car has won which seems like a good idea.
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| I was lucky enough to win something
that day which was a Top 15 award. It's a wall plaque style award which I
happen to like just as much as the trophy styles. Nobody won anything on
the raffle or the 50/50 drawing but the weather was great, lots of nice
cars and I met a few nice people that day too..
On the way home, I heard a weird noise coming from
the engine and about five minutes into our trip, it was starting to get
louder. I wondered what it could be and after 15 minutes, I thought I
had a bearing going out. Now if there's going to be a bearing that is
gonna go bad, the one in the engine isn't the one that you want, and luckily
that wasn't it. The type of bearing noise that I heard was a roller type
of bearing and it sounded like it was coming from the alternator. As I
got closer to home, the noise was getting much worse (to the point that
it was getting embarrassing).
The next day, I started it back up to listen a
little more closely and it did seem like the alternator was the problem.
A few minutes later, I removed the alternator and tore it apart. Once I
had all the guts out of it, the bearing was the problem. And the end of
the bearing shaft looked like it had 30 small flats cut all the way
around it. Well the shaft was wasted and so was the bearing but bearings
are easy and cheap to replace but I also noticed another thing wrong.
The candy purple paint that Bart shot on it was coming off. It looked
like it was separating because there were some random lines that ranged
from 1/8" to 3/16" thick running around it in all directions.
Now I've noticed these lines awhile back but after removing the
alternator and then looking at it up close, I decided to not use it
again. Now the oil pan and transmission pan also have these random lines
running through them which I've noticed awhile back as well. I have no
idea what caused this to happen. The first thing that comes to mind is
"heat" but if that were the case, wouldn't the engine block
have them too? If anyone has a thought to as why, please let me know.
I happened to have a brand new 75 amp chrome
alternator made by Powermaster lying around so I put that on there
along with a new fan belt. One other thing I noticed while taking off
the bad alternator was that one of the four long screws that hold it
together had backed out and was rubbing on my valve cover. Now there is
a nice little divot on the corner of it and it would have only been a
matter of time before the screw head would have rubbed a hole all the
way through it. But the good news is that it didn't. What I really need is
a smaller size alternator because my new one is only an 1/8" away
from touching the valve cover, just like the other one was. If this one
doesn't work out, I may be springing for an expensive smaller one. At
least I got the car home without having it towed, but it was at the expense
of it sounding like I had a blower drive on it.
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