Daytona To New Hampshire in a '69 911
Thanks to my buddy Bill, I'm having an adventure driving his '69 911E
from Daytona to NH.
Wednesday Aug 18th: Arrive in Daytona
Per (the previous owner) picked me up at the airport and took me to
the car. I'm not sure who the chubby
guy in the green shirt is.
I get lost easy so I had Per draw me a map. I left his driveway and
drove for about a minute. I'm thinking,
"I don't remember it being this far from the street when we drove
into this development." I stopped at a
stop sign to try and figure out what was going on and while I was sitting
there Per appeared next to me.
"Have you been chasing me all this time or did I loop around?" I asked.
Turns out I'd missed a turn and was
looping around and around his development. Doh!
Daytona was just recovering from a hurricane. The beach looked nice.
Once I got back to the hotel the car's battery gave up the ghost. Per
came right over and we got a new
battery. We concluded that Optimas suck. (More on this later.) He also
gave me a fire extinguisher and
a cooler for the trip. Now that is service!
Thursday Aug 19th: Leaving Daytona
The plan was to leave Daytona drive to my brother's in Sumter
SC. When I stop the car want's to idle at
4000rpm. I try calling my MFI knowledgeable friends without success.
At some point I go to pull up the emergency brake or the hand throttle
and accidentally pull up the heater lever.
I push it back down but it's too late. It doesn't close all the way.
My day becomes even hotter.
When I filled up somewhere in northern Georgia or SC the car wouldn't
start. Dead battery. I push it away from
the pump down a gentle incline and jump start it. After this I notice
that I was lucky - this country is really flat
and that was the only gas station with an incline for probably 100 miles.
I make it to about 100 miles from my brothers and manage to coast part
way up an off ramp.
My brother arrives in a couple of hours with a fresh Optima. He has
a cool rescue vehicle.
Friday and Saturday: Chillin' with my brother
Friday we (OK, my brother <g>) figured out that one of the
female spade connectors to the regulator
had pushed back out of the connector so the field wasn't energizing.
(No Power Captain!). The nice color wiring
diagram the previous owner included with the car was key to solving this.
I take the opportunity to push the
heater valve all the way closed and check out the throttle linkage for
binding. I notice the engine is remarkably
dry.
Saturday the brothers Bennet worked on figuring out the high idle.
I found that the microswitch wasn't working
and my brother was able to repair it. That helped some with the popping
but the idle was still on the high side.
My brother noticed that the linkage between the throttle linkage and the
MFI pump was such that the pump
wouldn't fully turn off. We adjusted that and the idle seem OK now. We'll
see if it works once it gets really
warmed up.
Sunday Aug 23: Back on the road again
Here I am leaving my brother's. He ran down the driveway and gave me my
camera back before I really left.
The car is running great. It still wants to idle at 2000 and snaps and
pops a little but that's better than idling
at 4000 rpm like before. It's a cool day and the temp gauge doesn't reach
100 centigrade until afternoon
It looks like it is going to be a boring day - and a boring trip update.
I'm actually hoping to get pulled over
by the cops so I can take a picture of it. That would spice things up.
I consider stopping someplace "interesting" for lunch. The earlier billboards
for this place said "Great Food".
I stop at a Cracker Barrel store to get another book on CD and when I come
out the car won't start. I check
the battery and it is fine. I push the car backwards up the slight
incline of the diagonal parking space, let some
cars drive around my nose and then push the car back into the parking space
to start it. I'm thinking "If I don't hit the
brakes in time I'm going to cream the front spoiler on the curb at the
end of the parking space." The car starts.
I drive down the street to a Burger King and park the car. I try to start
it and it won't. I push start it again and
park it out back where there is more room to push start it next time. I
check battery voltage and charging.
Ironically, now that I want it to idle at 2000 rpm to test the charging
system, it wants to idle at 1100. I get it
close with the hand throttle. I call my brother and pick his brains.
I eat my lunch and study the wiring diagram. I push the car and start it.
I'm getting pretty good at it now.
I drive over to the gas station, park on an incline, grab a drink and come
out. It starts fine. I drive to the pumps,
gas up and it starts fine again. I'm thinking it is an ignition key switch
problem or one of the starter relays. I don't
have enough hands to start the car and check the relay voltages at the
same time.
With an idle of 2000 rpm there has been no way to check the oil. I've been
watching the oil level gauge all
week and I've detected a change in it's bouncing level so I think it is
safe to add some now.
Remind me to put oil in the car in the morning. :-)
Aug 24: The final push (start) home
The friend I'm staying with in Virginia (right next to DC) has a truck that's
not working so well so we spend some
time working on it in the morning before I leave. We go to the store for
oil and a mirror and I put in a quart.
I don't leave until almost noon.
I stop at a rest stop and when I come out the car won't start. I take the
opportunity to tap the starter relays and
retry. No dice. I push start it and resume my journey.
I hit traffic at the George Washington bridge and inch along for an hour
while the temp gauge climbs. This was
the hottest it ever got during the trip. I think the plugs are loading up
so whenever I get the chance, I try to let it
clear it's throat with a burst of throttle before I hit traffic again like
some demented ricer.
I make a few more stops and one more push start on the way home. Fortified
by Mt Dew and food that should
have a Surgeon General's warning on the label I push on.
Once my book on CD ends I drop some acid and the Little Red Porsche and
I speed on through the night
towards home.
The End
Optima Batteries - They Don't Suck
My brother is responsible for the maintenance for all of the Air Force's
trucks and heavy equipment for the
Middle East. Before that he was responsible for a fleet in England. He switched
his whole fleet there (343 vehicles)
to Optimas as their batteries died. He didn't have any failures with the
Optimas.
Here is the key though. When an Optima "dies" and you connect it to a charger
it will look like an open circuit.
A "normal" battery would peg the meter (like a short) under the same conditions.
He found that by leaving the
"dead" Optima on the charger for several hours it would slowly revive and
then take a charge. He estimates
that he has revived around 50 batteries this way.