2016 Hot Rod Power Tour in a 59 Lark VIII

[BILT4ME]

Update 6/9/16:
Here is a shot of us getting ready to leave Thurs. night.


First leg of the trip from Olathe, KS to West Plains, MO (272 miles). We left at 8:00 PM, and stopped at a Walmart in West Plains to sleep in the car about 1:00 AM. It was a good run. The car ran well, used no oil, leaked no oil, but gathered MILLIONS of mosquitoes and June Bugs on the way.


Stopped at Walmart to snooze in the car. The lay back seats are pretty great when you know you're only going to stop for a few hours. It wasn't worth getting a hotel, and the birds were nice enough to substitute for our alarm clock at 5:30 AM.

[r1lark]

Great! Keep the updates coming, we definitely appreciate them and are looking forward to them.

[BILT4ME]

Update 6/10/16:

Got up with the birds and left West Plains, MO for Dyess, AR, the boyhood home of Johnny Cash. Braden is a guitar player and plays great Johnny Cash (with vocals) and wanted to see where Johnny Cash grew up. (156 miles)


We spent more time there than we should have, but took off and had to push hard to make it to Gonzales, LA by 6:30 PM.

We rolled hard, it got to about 95*F and made it to within 60 miles of Gonzales and stopped for fuel. All we have been able to find for the last 2 fuel stops was Ethanol fuel. I do NOT like ethanol. We filled up with fuel, and just as the pump shut off, the car died.....VAPOR LOCK!

We sat there for 45 minutes for the car to cool. We opened the hood, cranked it every so often in hopes of starting, but also to circulate the coolant. The temp gauge pegged at 245*F for heat soak.

We also noticed when we stopped that grease had leaked out of the LF wheel cover. Maybe our constant 80-85 MPH with excursions to 100 MPH was a bit too much for the wheel bearings. Traffic was running crazy fast!

We made it to Gonzales and got registered, but were about an hour late. No worries though because there was still enough food!

Got to the hotel about 10:00 PM and showered and went to bed. We were exhausted.

Miles on 6/9/16: 447

[Mohr HP]

This is just great, you guys totally get it. So many car guys are so concerned about perfecting a car, then if they get it done, it becomes so nice, they are afraid to use it.
DRIVE!

How's about some overall shots of the car?

[BILT4ME]

Update 6/11/16:

Saturday morning was spent in the parking lot of O'Reilly's Auto Parts in Gonzales! We lost the outer wheel bearing on the LF hub because the dust cap on the hub leaked out the grease for that bearing. By the time we made it to Gonzales, it was howling. It ended up spinning the race in the hub (not on the spindle thank goodness!)

We pulled the hub, used a center punch to peen the interior of the hub, then placed some JB Weld in the hub and drove the new race in. We let it sit for about an hour to cure while we packed the new wheel bearing with grease. O'Reilly's did not have a new seal, so we did not remove the inner wheel bearing or replace the seal. The grease on the inner WB was still nice and red and did not look contaminated or burned in any way.

We packed the interior of the hub with as much grease as we could jam in there, filled the dust cap with grease, and tapped it back on. We had to reuse the cotter pin, even though part of it broke off because OI'Reilly's did not carry any cotter pins large enough. I was fully prepared to use baling wire if necessary.......

We also used "The Right Stuff (BLACK)" to seal around the outside of the dust cap to help it keep in the grease. Then we placed duct tape over that to help hold the cap on.

Sorry, I didn't take any pics during this time, as I was WAAAY to stressed out to think about that.

We spent the afternoon at the show in Gonzales and wandered through all the vendor booths to learn what we needed to do to be the Long haulers we signed up to be.

The rain started and shooed everyone away. It looked like we were the only ones left at the venue.....

We discovered on the way into the venue that our wipers did not work at all. Dealt with it for the day.


Enjoyed a nice sunset on the way to the hotel.


Miles on 6/10/16: 432

Oh yeah, we encountered one other Studebaker at that time, a Blue Champ pickup (with a Nova front frame clip) and Studebaker Power. He is one of the Long-haulers too.

We also made the Hot Rod Power Tour photo list in the Odd, Orphans, and Freaks on page two of the pics.......

http://www.hotrod.com/events/hot-rod-power-tour/2016/1606-the-odd-orphans-freaks-and-four-doors-of-2016-hot-rod-power-tour/

[BILT4ME]

Update 6/12/16:

First thing, checked the oil, filled with gas, cleaned the windows, and Rain-X'd the windshield! It was scheduled to rain a lot on our trip from Gonzales, LA to Baytown, TX. Turns out, we were using about (1) quart of oil per tank of gas. The good news is that it doesn't LEAK it anymore! Couldn't tell how it was burning it. If it was when decelerating or accelerating. I'm guessing that it was during accelerating, because I never had time to look behind me when I was doing that!

1st tank of gas was 13.73 MPG
2nd tank was 19.72 MPG
3rd tank was 15.31 MPG
4th tank was 15.32 MPG

Miles on 6/11/16: 140

I left the nut a bit loose in the LF hub so it didn't get too hot. We had along an Infra Red gun to check temps, so I monitored the front hub temps. LF was running 112°F, while the RF hub was running 117°F. I wish I would have checked that temp when it was leaking grease. I checked the front hub of a late model Challenger that pulled in next to us, and his hub was 98°F. I figured his would be higher due to the disc brakes.

We dove through a BUNCH more rain. We had a bright yellow 57 Chevy pass us on the Interstate, only to have him cross across us and immediately pull to the shoulder. Thinking he had a problem, we pulled over and backed up to help. Turns out he was going to wait out the rain because with 750+ HP and and 18" wide slicks, he would have a problem in the oncoming rain....... (We had no problems at ALL!!!)

We got to the venue about 3:45, only to sit in a 1-1/2 mile line of cars waiting to get in. Cars were starting to overheat and patience was being tested on some of the drivers.


We got into the venue just in time to hear them cancel the burn-out contest and for it to open up an POUR rain on us. All the vendors shut down early and everyone left for their hotels before 5:00 PM. We sat in the rain and snoozed in the car, then wandered the parking lot while 6000+ cars tried to figure out how to get out of the parking lot.


We had about a half hour drive to the hotel, and we got even more rain on the way there. Rain-X is FANTASTIC!



At the end of the day, we got to the hotel in LaPorte, TX and found that lots of others were at that hotel with us. We had installed our complimentary window sticker, identifying us as on the Power tour, so we were good to go. For those of you who pay attention to it, in the background in this pic is the RoadKill pickup.

[StudeRich]

Very sorry to hear of all the trouble with that same LF Wheel.

I have been racking my brain trying to think what could the real cause of TWO Hubs being destroyed on the SAME spindle. Grease should never be coming out of the grease Cap and it should never have to be sealed to stop it. Also should not need to have the Hub filled with grease.

It may very well be all about the Nut adjustment, if the spindle has extreme wear at the back, where the Inner Bearing and seal ride, that would change the distance to the Cotter Pin hole making it hard to get the correct adjustment unless you have one of those infinite adjustment Thinner Axle nuts with the Tin outer Nut that has many Cotter Pin holes for more accurate adjustment.

Those are in the "Help" section of bubble wrapped parts hanging on a rack at most O'Reilly's and other Part Stores.

Wrong Bearings, or poorly machined with inaccurate dimensions? makes you wonder about offshore Parts Like that.

[BILT4ME]

Nope, not TWO problems. I'm posting as HISTORY, not as new information. Only the one hub failed, and I know why. The old hub had been beat with an hammer by someone prior to me, so the hub end was no longer round so no matter what dust cap I placed on it, it would leak. Before we left on the trip, I had a "spare" hub in the trunk of the car, but decided to dump it due to size and weight. Also, the drum that was on that hub was SHOT. In the end, we ended up carrying a hub and drum with us, but not in the way we hoped.

The replacement hub from Mark Frank is working great, other than brake adjustment, and I think the lip seal installed is leaking grease into the hub because that brake GRABS when you touch them. The plan tonight is to take it apart, clean it up, install with new Lucas RedNTacky#2 grease, a new seal, and maybe even turn the drum to clean up the brake area a bit.

I really need new hubs and drums for the front to clean up the brakes as well as have nice bearing surfaces to run on.

Thanks for your thoughts and concerns.!!!

Very sorry to hear of all the trouble with that same LF Wheel.

I have been racking my brain trying to think what could the real cause of TWO Hubs being destroyed on the SAME spindle. Grease should never be coming out of the grease Cap and it should never have to be sealed to stop it. Also should not need to have the Hub filled with grease.

It may very well be all about the Nut adjustment, if the spindle has extreme wear at the back, where the Inner Bearing and seal ride, that would change the distance to the Cotter Pin hole making it hard to get the correct adjustment unless you have one of those infinite adjustment Thinner Axle nuts with the Tin outer Nut that has many Cotter Pin holes for more accurate adjustment.

Those are in the "Help" section of bubble wrapped parts hanging on a rack at most O'Reilly's and other Part Stores.

Wrong Bearings, or poorly machined with inaccurate dimensions? makes you wonder about offshore Parts Like that.

[JRoberts]

My hat goes off to you guys! Thanks for sharing your adventure with the rest of us. I hope you don't have to weather any more storms (meteorlogical or mechanical).

[63avanti.]

Congrats on making the trip and great pictures! I hope to do the power tour one year...