Hi I thought I would write about the Studerbaker adventure that my family had last weekend. We were invited by my cousin Andre to come with him on a classic car drive as his wife was poorly and didn't want to got on his own as it is more fun with other people in the car. On friday night after work we drove down to his farm as we needed to make an early start on saturday morning. At 7:30am we (My wife Sue, Zoe my 12y dauther, Alex my 10y son and Cousin Andre) loaded into the 1947 Champion deluxe 3sp OD
and set off for Hamilton to join the start of the rally. There were about twenty cars. Mostly British cars from the 40,50,60 and 70s. And a couple of modern cars incase assistance was needed. We were the only studebaker. Having met with everybody we set out on the 150 mile run. Most of the run was to be down the rugged west coast starting at Raglan. This is a narrow winding dirt road that follows the coast, with steep clifs to the sea below. It is very spectacular scenery.
Later on as we turned in from the coast there were some waterfalls.
About a third of the way into the trip we started to hear an intermitant whine from somewhere in the back of the stude. Stopped a number of times but could see anything. As the noise sounded a bit like whales calling we said the stude was calling out to the whales in the sea we were passing. After a long day we were about 20 miles from home when the whine which had gone away, for a long time suddenly came back, but now was a metallic rubbing sound and we could smell something hot. We pulled over to the side of the road and looking under the car, could see smoke coming from the drive shaft hanger bearing. At least the mystery was solved. We sprayed some water from a drink bottle on the bearing to help cool it down. We were in the middle of no where, no cell coverage. My cousin knows everone in the area and said the next farm was only a couple of miles up the road. So we slowly crawled up the road with a modern car with it's haszard lights flashing behind us. By the time we got to the farm the noise was pretty bad. We stopped by the barn and Andre's friend said to put it inside. When he tried to move the stude it wouldn't move back or forward the bearing was siezed.
So Andre rang his wife to come and pick us up in the 1961 Lark V8 3sp OD
She wasn't up to the trip so she sent the son in law instead. He hadn't drive the 61 before and didn't know how the OD worked. So he was supprised whent he car started to free wheel below a certain speed. He made it safely to where we were.
We were on the second to last hill before home when the 61 coughed but picked up enough to get to the top. You guess it we were out of gas. Coasted down that hill and the engine picked up again ( fuel pickup must at the front of the tank). Got half way up the last hill and stopped, luckly right outside Andre's mothers farm so we had only a short walk to borrow some gas. We finally got home at 7:30pm.
Andre was really annoyed about breaking down as it has never happened before on these rallys. He has always had to tow the british cars, so they were all giving him heaps about this.
Any way it was a fun day.
Wayne
and set off for Hamilton to join the start of the rally. There were about twenty cars. Mostly British cars from the 40,50,60 and 70s. And a couple of modern cars incase assistance was needed. We were the only studebaker. Having met with everybody we set out on the 150 mile run. Most of the run was to be down the rugged west coast starting at Raglan. This is a narrow winding dirt road that follows the coast, with steep clifs to the sea below. It is very spectacular scenery.
Later on as we turned in from the coast there were some waterfalls.
About a third of the way into the trip we started to hear an intermitant whine from somewhere in the back of the stude. Stopped a number of times but could see anything. As the noise sounded a bit like whales calling we said the stude was calling out to the whales in the sea we were passing. After a long day we were about 20 miles from home when the whine which had gone away, for a long time suddenly came back, but now was a metallic rubbing sound and we could smell something hot. We pulled over to the side of the road and looking under the car, could see smoke coming from the drive shaft hanger bearing. At least the mystery was solved. We sprayed some water from a drink bottle on the bearing to help cool it down. We were in the middle of no where, no cell coverage. My cousin knows everone in the area and said the next farm was only a couple of miles up the road. So we slowly crawled up the road with a modern car with it's haszard lights flashing behind us. By the time we got to the farm the noise was pretty bad. We stopped by the barn and Andre's friend said to put it inside. When he tried to move the stude it wouldn't move back or forward the bearing was siezed.
So Andre rang his wife to come and pick us up in the 1961 Lark V8 3sp OD
She wasn't up to the trip so she sent the son in law instead. He hadn't drive the 61 before and didn't know how the OD worked. So he was supprised whent he car started to free wheel below a certain speed. He made it safely to where we were.
We were on the second to last hill before home when the 61 coughed but picked up enough to get to the top. You guess it we were out of gas. Coasted down that hill and the engine picked up again ( fuel pickup must at the front of the tank). Got half way up the last hill and stopped, luckly right outside Andre's mothers farm so we had only a short walk to borrow some gas. We finally got home at 7:30pm.
Andre was really annoyed about breaking down as it has never happened before on these rallys. He has always had to tow the british cars, so they were all giving him heaps about this.
Any way it was a fun day.
Wayne
101st Airborne Div. 326 Engineers Ft Campbell Ky.
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