Duesenburg in Front of Portsmouth Country Club
Been a whirlwind week attending the 2014 Antique Automobile Club of America Sentimental Tour based in Portsmouth, NH. They kept us pretty busy each day with trips to attractions in southern Maine and eastern New Hampshire, along with some evening events. We also had very informative visits to the Seacoast Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, ME (really, they have a very impressive collection of street cars from the early 1900’s) and Canterbury Shaker Village, Canterbury, NH (it was very interesting to see how the members incorporated contemporary contrivances in their lives in order to provide them more
time to devote to religious activities). The group of 100 cars also visited two outstanding personal
antique auto collections and finished off the event with a banquette at the Portsmouth Country Club.
Streetcar Under Construction at Kennebunkport Trolley Museum
The next day, September 10th, while traveling to our next tour destination I noticed some rattling in the speedometer cable and wavering of the speedometer needle. This is an indication that the inner (rotating) speedometer cable requires cleaning and re-oiling. This is easily accomplished by disconnecting the cable assembly at the speedometer (requires some dexterity), withdrawing the inner cable from the outer (stationary) cable; wiping it down, oiling it and reinserting it in the outer cable and re-attaching the cable assembly to the speedometer. Well, the removal, wiping, and oiling part went well; but when I attempted to reinstall the inner cable into the outer cable, it appeared to hit an obstruction approximately 12 inches from full insertion. No manner of twisting, shaking, or ramming could get the inner cable to fully insert into the outer cable. This is not typical. When I crawled under the Jeep to investigate, I discovered that the outer cable had parted about a foot from its transmission connection. Very unusual, but given the 64 year age of the outer cable (I had replaced the inner cable when it failed in western Maryland a few years ago), I just accepted it a par for the course. Plugged the remaining length of outer cable protruding from the transmission so as to prevent possible loss of transmission fluid, ordered an new speedometer cable assembly and had it shipped to the home of Jean’s brother Rusty and his wife Gail in Rhode Island – an upcoming stop on our trek.
Lunch on the Maine Coast
Nubble Lighthouse, ME
Some extra car stuff: Jeep has been behaving itself quite well. I did spend a little time the evening of September 9th under the Jeep “re-adjusting” the exhaust system; hopefully for the last time. Developed a rattle the previous few days and it was not until that evening that I was able to detect a scuff point on the exhaust pipe leading me to the source of the rattle.
When I installed the new exhaust system just prior to this trip, I replaced some of the hard mounts with more compliant mounting straps. This noticeably reduced the level of vibration being transmitted to the body of the Jeep from the engine. However, the exhaust system threads its way through some pretty tight spots in the chassis, and the less secure mounting new system requires exact poisoning of the exhaust system if it is not to rub against the chassis at certain engine speeds. Think I finally got that right.
Japanese Garden Entrance at Fuller Gardens, North Hampton, ME
Portsmouth, ME Waterfront from Cruise Boat
Tomorrow, 9/13/14, we bid farewell our hosts in Portsmouth, NH and make the half-day trek down to spend a couple of days visiting with my nephew Jim, his wife Jen and their son Daniel in Worcester, Massachusetts.