Return From Route 66

19 Jun 08
At 7.45pm tonight, after 3 days and 2485 miles of driving we completed our return trip from California. It was a high speed run for the most part with some interesting driving along the way through California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois. I will try and provide a wrap up to the whole adventure this weekend but for now I'll leave you with the update I sent this afternoon from my Blackberry to the few folks whose emails I had handy. John is also planning to provide his own perspective on the trip out and back. Stay tuned!
Cheers
Mike

Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2008 12:16 PM
Subject: Illinois or Bust!

We had a great time in Southern California and now are on our way home. We left Yorba Linda early Tuesday morning and are presently heading east in Nebraska approaching Omaha. John is driving so I'll use the chance to give you all an update via my blackberry.

I am now getting a sense of what the Okies meant by the term California or Bust. We are nursing a few ailments as we make our way home. Aside from the infamous leaks during the rains in OK City the outbound trip was pretty uneventful, mechanically speaking. The one mechanical issue was a noise I heard as the clutch was depressed which I attributed to the throw out bearing. The mechanic that I had change the oil in Yorba Linda found that the clutch arm was rubbing against a heat shield. Some judicious bending fixed that and the noise was gone, for the moment.

The list of ailments has mounted since depating YL. They are:

Shift Boot - relatively minor but it started to fall apart, allowing hot air to stream into the passenger compartment. Fortunately I fixed the exhaust leaks beforehand. A simple fix of wrapping a towel around the shifter has taken care of this.

Speedo Cable - Somewhere in Central CA on Tuesday the Speedo cable went pop and suddenly the speedo and odometer stopped working. Fortunately I had repaired the tachometer beforehand and we can use it as a very accurate indicator. 3000 rpm is 70 mph. We can estimate everything off of that.

Drivers Seat Mounting Bolt - also on Tuesday I noticed the driver seat back started moving weird. One of the two pivot bolts had backed out. The only way to reinstall it is by removing the driver seat from the car. So that night at 11pm I am in the hotel parking lot doing the repair. It worked!

Throw-out Bearing - yup - this time I'm sure. Yesterday we started hearing the unmistakeable sound of an unhappy bearing as the clutch was depressed while the transmission was still in gear. It is intermittent but very distinctive. Its only a problem when the clutch is depressed and the transmission is in gear. So we are nursing it as best we can by minimizing stops and shifts. This should not get in the way of getting home today.

Rear Wheel Bearings - Yesterday we started hearing an occassional feint high pitched squeak from the rear at low speeds. A weak spot on old Corvettes is rear wheel bearings that cannot be lubed without disassembly. The squeak is a sign that the grease is worn out. I had had the bearings done 12 years and 30,000 miles ago. I guess it's time to do them again. In an extreme case the bearing could fail and the wheel fall off... Ouch! We are keeping our ears peeled and checking the wheels for free play at each stop for any signs of impending doom!

Other than that it's been an uneventful return trip. On Tuesday we drove over 800 miles through Central California and across Nevada. Yesterday we drove 890 miles across Utah, through the Rockies in Colorado and deep into Nebraska where we called it a night. With any luck we should make it home tonight with an "easy" 750 mile day. Wish us luck.

Cheers

Mike and John