Itinerant Air-Cooled New Mexico
Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 9:03 am
New Mexico! Gorgeous and a bit run-down in a way I like atop some gorgeous countryside. Pulled off the interstate at a Nowhereland exit and came across a sign that said "Canoncito Navajo Reservation" and meandered up the dirt path, hey I've been here before, to the water tank/windmill and decided to try the countrycarwash:
The windmill kept up a creaky little stream of water with way too much local mineral content.
The carwash dude looked a little cranky:
Arrived in Sante Fe at dusk and headed up to the volcanic caldera of Los Alamos as the light was failing. As always, it is a dramatic approach through beautiful landscapes. By the time I was snaking up NM502, the city lights of Los Alamos were up there above me in the darkness of night. The engine was feeling very punky at this elevation (7,000ft +) and I was barely able to maintain 3rd gear. Now that I know the area, I headed right through town and out the other side up up up in the night to my favorite campsite overlooking the city. Then the BobD released a poisonous cloud of vapors and expired right at my parking spot. Dead. Opened the engine hatch and was assaulted with burning PCB toxicity and I knew right away that it was the Pertronix, no real Volkswagen part would let go in a such a plasticky stench. Pulled out the original condensor with the correct short green wire, rummaged a set of points for just such an occasion, and turned in for the night with a cross breeze through the car and the sound of wind in the pines and a moon a moon a moon in the trees with silhouettes of grand geolic formations and twinkling lights down below. Woke up to an early morning moon:
Walked up the hill to loosen up a bit and noticed that a wrong turn last night would have been a long trip to the bottom:
Pulled the offensive Pertronix unit:
Carefully and laboriously set the them here known as Breaker Point thingamajiggers to a loose-ish .016" and checked the dwell at 43* and set the timing to 30*BTDC @ fast rpm. These points shall be ignored until the car fails to start or something, we're at 81,095 miles.
Went to the jtauxe homestead to help jtauxe install an engine from the "other bus" into Bluebird, the right hand drive dual cab pick-up. But first, as usual, we had to just marvel at the physics found in this here Universe, today's was The Atmosphere. As we sat and digested this unbelievable array of business cards with notes on the back (? later...), I spotted his deluxe big Earth globe cradled in its stand and thought to ask "from here, what would the atmosphere look like on it?" Well, of course his answers came back in kilometers and millimeters while I am thinking in fathoms and shaftments. We decided that the atmosphere would be about as thick as two business cards on that globe.
Yeah, so the business cards, right? What? Every possible operation written all over the backs of business cards. I picked through them. "Consider which distributor to use" "Select oil pressure sender" "Install intakes" "Install exhaust". But you know, in the final analysis, it only gets done here:
Notice how nicely VW set the engine in the chassis for a lower center of gravity:
And here, it is running:
Piece of cake wasn't it, jtauxe?
Colin
The windmill kept up a creaky little stream of water with way too much local mineral content.
The carwash dude looked a little cranky:
Arrived in Sante Fe at dusk and headed up to the volcanic caldera of Los Alamos as the light was failing. As always, it is a dramatic approach through beautiful landscapes. By the time I was snaking up NM502, the city lights of Los Alamos were up there above me in the darkness of night. The engine was feeling very punky at this elevation (7,000ft +) and I was barely able to maintain 3rd gear. Now that I know the area, I headed right through town and out the other side up up up in the night to my favorite campsite overlooking the city. Then the BobD released a poisonous cloud of vapors and expired right at my parking spot. Dead. Opened the engine hatch and was assaulted with burning PCB toxicity and I knew right away that it was the Pertronix, no real Volkswagen part would let go in a such a plasticky stench. Pulled out the original condensor with the correct short green wire, rummaged a set of points for just such an occasion, and turned in for the night with a cross breeze through the car and the sound of wind in the pines and a moon a moon a moon in the trees with silhouettes of grand geolic formations and twinkling lights down below. Woke up to an early morning moon:
Walked up the hill to loosen up a bit and noticed that a wrong turn last night would have been a long trip to the bottom:
Pulled the offensive Pertronix unit:
Carefully and laboriously set the them here known as Breaker Point thingamajiggers to a loose-ish .016" and checked the dwell at 43* and set the timing to 30*BTDC @ fast rpm. These points shall be ignored until the car fails to start or something, we're at 81,095 miles.
Went to the jtauxe homestead to help jtauxe install an engine from the "other bus" into Bluebird, the right hand drive dual cab pick-up. But first, as usual, we had to just marvel at the physics found in this here Universe, today's was The Atmosphere. As we sat and digested this unbelievable array of business cards with notes on the back (? later...), I spotted his deluxe big Earth globe cradled in its stand and thought to ask "from here, what would the atmosphere look like on it?" Well, of course his answers came back in kilometers and millimeters while I am thinking in fathoms and shaftments. We decided that the atmosphere would be about as thick as two business cards on that globe.
Yeah, so the business cards, right? What? Every possible operation written all over the backs of business cards. I picked through them. "Consider which distributor to use" "Select oil pressure sender" "Install intakes" "Install exhaust". But you know, in the final analysis, it only gets done here:
Notice how nicely VW set the engine in the chassis for a lower center of gravity:
And here, it is running:
Piece of cake wasn't it, jtauxe?
Colin