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Triumph TR3

When I was a little boy, before I could come anywhere close to seeing the big picture, my Dad had a Triumph TR-3. A little red one, much like the one pictured to the right except his had a roll bar and a lot more rust.

We all loved that car, but not nearly as much as my sister. When my Dad sold it to buy a very cool, but not working at all, Jaguar (pictured at left), she cried. I don't think it's going too far to say that that experience ruined cars for her forever. Somewhere there's a really great photography of her as the car is being taken away (I must admit that I could be making this part up).

I don't remember much, the rust holes, standing in the back holding onto the roll bar, and most of all, the smell. A mixture of gas and, well I guess, age. It was a beautiful thing.

I mention it because I'm seriously looking for a new car, though I haven't even begun to think about paying for it. A TR-3 is in the running along with a mid 60s Porsche 912, and another Bug. Surprisingly, they're all in the same cost range.

I'm sorta partial to this one. He's cute with the racing stripes. and so far not too badly priced. I could get it shipped from Texas right :-)

Yeah right, just like I'm going to have my Bug shipped from Chicago. Any day now, I promise.

The Bug to Huff

I have a new problem with the Bug. It seems like gas. I just filled the tank up a couple of days ago and now it is almost unbearable to drive.

Time to replace all the fuel lines. The work never stops.

[UPDATE]

Seems I have gas mixing with the oil. Bad news. I'm hoping it's from sitting too long and not something worse. Time to go change the oil.

I Can Turn

I redid the the turn signals on the Bug this morning. The switch in the steering column is bad and instead of ripping apart the whole steering column I just rigged up some toggle switches. It's temporary situation until I replace the steering wheel and when I do that I will fix the switch. Then I can use the toggles for some hydraulics :-)

After I had those running I took her out for a test run. I just wanted to make sure that the battery was charging. I stopped off at the bank on the way and it had a hard time starting up again. The starter was moving a little slow. I believe that the battery just didn't get enough time to charge up very well. The traffic is horrible (Cubs game) so I barely got it above idle.

I am confidant that the generator is working though. When I get the RPMs up there, the gen light gets brighter. Good sign. I wish I had a voltage meter though, just to make sure.

God I wish I knew someone in this city with a good set of tools.

It Worked

The polarization seems to have done the trick. I left the Beetle running for about 10 minutes and it did fine. A week ago it would not stay running for more than a minute.

I still can't be sure if it's at 100% though. I would need a volt meter for that. I think I'll take it out for a little spin tomorrow and see how it does.

Now that I put that to rest, I can get going on the window repairs.

Polarizing the Shit Out of It

Polarizing to the rescue? A little more research on my Bug's charging problems have turned up a much cheaper solution. Possibly.

Turns out that generators need some magnetism to get started, and if the car has been sitting for awhile (like two years) there will not be enough to get the it to start producing voltage.

The fix is to directly connect it to a battery for a few seconds. That's it. I'll be trying that out tomorrow first thing. Here's hoping that's it.

Beetle Sadness

So the Beetle is in desperate need of a generator or a regulator. I'm not sure which, but I'm leaning towards the generator. Not having any real clue has to how to test a generator I think it's best to replace both parts.

I'm about to go take it out of the car and disassemble it. Maybe I'll notice something obvious. Or maybe I'll just break it some more.

How to Turn 4.5 Hours into 13

Well here's the Beetle, looks great don't you think?

I drove it down to Chicago following my Mom just in case there were any problems. Of course there were. As it turns out, the alternator doesn't work and around Milwaukee the battery died. By this time we had already been on the road for 6 hours (for a trip that normally takes 4.5 for the whole thing). Frustrated we ran off to Walmart to pickup a new battery. Thinking that I would save some money I bought a small one.

I should have taken into account the traffic in Milwaukee, being Harley's 100th anniversary and all. 200,000 bikers lined the streets. By the time we got out of the city it was dark and I had to turn on the headlights. We made it to a north suburb before the battery died. We had to leave the car at an all night gas station (there were very nice). I picked it up the next day with the help of Serena and Dustin.

Time spent on the road....13 hours! I was so glad to get into bed. My poor Mom had to get up early and fly home to France. I owe her a lot for taking the time.

Here we are on the side of the road discussing a possible wrong turn (which is was).