B
Bernie
Guest
Drove the hell out of mine too. Made a 450 mile round trip today. First from my place to the radio shop to pick up an antenna, then up to meet Dave (davbell22602) and his wife, then to Keyser, WV to take a class on storm spotting, then home again. Left here at 10:15 this morning and walked in the door about 15 minutes ago.
One small problem though... my alternator died. Driving home, just around midnight, in the middle of a raging thunderstorm (rain like buckets being emptied, and lighting everywhere) I noticed the idiot light flicker on. At the same time I watch my voltage meter start dropping and, for some strange reason, my tach started going nuts. I was 32 miles from home at that point, and it took 15 miles before I found a service station that had a canopy I could pull under, and by then the light was on steady. Popped the hood, checked cables, connections, grounds, and everything was tight and clean. Even unplugged the field wire connection and made sure it was seated properly. Started it back up and still no charging.
Now I had a choice to make. Call the g/f to come get me, and leave it where it was, or see if I could nurse it home. I decided to nurse it home, since tomorrow morning the g/f and I are due to drive to Baltimore for a weekend convention. If I'd left it there I would have had to drive over first thing in the morning to make arrangements to leave it parked there until Monday when I could get another alternator.
And I juuusttt made it. It was starting to sputter a little as I backed it into my driveway.
I am pissed about the alternator going though. That was a Duralast Gold (new, not a reman) that I put in on March 8th. Not even 3 months old.
Well, at least it has a lifetime warranty on it. It's a special order though, so that means I need to let Autozone know tomorrow, so they can order it and hopefully have it for me by Tuesday.
And why is it that alternators, at least mine, "go" in the worst possible weather? In 45+ years of driving I've never had one go tits up on a bright and sunny day with mild temps.
One small problem though... my alternator died. Driving home, just around midnight, in the middle of a raging thunderstorm (rain like buckets being emptied, and lighting everywhere) I noticed the idiot light flicker on. At the same time I watch my voltage meter start dropping and, for some strange reason, my tach started going nuts. I was 32 miles from home at that point, and it took 15 miles before I found a service station that had a canopy I could pull under, and by then the light was on steady. Popped the hood, checked cables, connections, grounds, and everything was tight and clean. Even unplugged the field wire connection and made sure it was seated properly. Started it back up and still no charging.
Now I had a choice to make. Call the g/f to come get me, and leave it where it was, or see if I could nurse it home. I decided to nurse it home, since tomorrow morning the g/f and I are due to drive to Baltimore for a weekend convention. If I'd left it there I would have had to drive over first thing in the morning to make arrangements to leave it parked there until Monday when I could get another alternator.
And I juuusttt made it. It was starting to sputter a little as I backed it into my driveway.
I am pissed about the alternator going though. That was a Duralast Gold (new, not a reman) that I put in on March 8th. Not even 3 months old.
Well, at least it has a lifetime warranty on it. It's a special order though, so that means I need to let Autozone know tomorrow, so they can order it and hopefully have it for me by Tuesday.
And why is it that alternators, at least mine, "go" in the worst possible weather? In 45+ years of driving I've never had one go tits up on a bright and sunny day with mild temps.
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