scannon Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 I hope the trip home was uneventful. Stay well, Dave It was, if you don't count a suicidal Dodge Charger driver, crazy bikers and no room at the hotel when I tried to check in that evening in spite of having a confirmation number. :banghead: Skip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al N. Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 (edited) Misc. pix from the trip.... Some ex-post-facto captions: A) View from lobby of Lodge at Grand Teton B) Skip's Caterham SV C) Gert's "Slomove" (I can assure you that it moves quite quickly) D) Bill G's almost new Super Stalker E) View of hill near Cody Rodeo at dusk. F) Beartooth or Chief Joseph, I forget... G) Cars at the crest of the Beartooth H) Exhaust hanger bracket "fix" I) View of Jackson Hole main street J) Lower Falls of the Yellowstone Edited July 17, 2009 by Al Navarro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slomove Posted July 17, 2009 Author Share Posted July 17, 2009 Hi guys, good to see y'all made it home safely and it was a real pleasure meeting you up there! This was a fantastic trip and I will post more pics and some video soon (including Mr. Bullwinkle Moose crossing in front of my Seven). Motivated by Bill and Chris, we did the haul back from SLC in one piece. Went quite well except that the trailer tires crapped out. Fortunately we caught that before they blew (honestly it was rather the owner of the local tire shop who was scanning the tires of all the cars at the gas station.....). Should not have happened because they were only loaded to 80% of their rating. But they were very rare low profile 14" bias ply trailer tires with only some 2000 miles and maybe just crap. The tire shop replaced them with regular 13" radial trailer tires (unfortunately 120% of rated load) and they held up just fine. Not sure yet if to keep them or increase the wheel well and go to regular 14" wheels. Otherwise no major problems with the Seven. I will take the moody alternator to a rebuild shop and check out the battery switch solenoid, tighten all bolts again and maybe replace the rattling panhard ball joints. Otherwise just spend some quality time with the pressure washer to clean out the insect cemetery in the engine compartment and other road inflicted dirt. Once again thanks to everybody who met with us!!! Gert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitcat Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 Very strange tire wear pattern, especially after just 2K mikes. Time for a trailer suspension alignment? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slomove Posted July 17, 2009 Author Share Posted July 17, 2009 Isn't it? Looking up the tire wear pattern guides it would indicate bad under-inflation and/or too much camber (i.e. axle overload). I had them inflated to 47 psi (nominal load pressure is 50 psi). But the new smaller radials after 600 miles don't show a beginning of that pattern. I have a torsion axle (loaded to some 80% of rated capacity) and AFAIK there is nothing to align with that thing. Gert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitcat Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 The sagging suspension theory seems valid-certainly consistent with the distinct wear pattern. Maybe you shouldn't have used R-compound rubber on the trailer:)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scannon Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Here's a few of my photos from the Wyoming tour. 1. Gert & Rosie, all packed up and ready to leave my place. Rosie is driving this segment. 2. Big Bear motel parking lot. Al Navarro and Bill Gemini perusing the Se7ens. 3. Scenic overlook on the top of the Chief Joseph Highway 4.. Altitude is 10,847'. 5. Chris leading the Se7ens in a song. 6. One of many mountain views 7. Nice rack, eh? Big elk having a snack. 8. Lower falls on the Yellowstone river. 9. Inside the Old Faithful Lodge. I remember climbing to the top of that when about 10 years old. 10. We were joking about Old Faithful geyser producing a 7 for us and if you look close, you can see it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solder_guy Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 A) View from lobby of Lodge at Grand Teton Nice Tetons! Looks like you had a great time! (Wish I could have crashed the party) Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scannon Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 (edited) Yesterday I removed the turbo and manifold from my engine to see if I could remove the sheared stud. I found some collateral damage. Note that the broken hanger bolt did not cause the damage described below, it only caused the one turbo mounting stud to break. The POS, outsourced to India, exhaust manifold had shrunk and twisted since the last time I had it off. I had to use two 3' prybars to get it off the 10mm studs on the head. I was worrying about damaging the ali head casting. In the process, right at the end I heard a pop, thought that didn't sound good and sure enough, one of the ears that provides the boss for a mounting nut had broken off the manifold. You can see it in the lower right of the first picture. This manifold has been a PITA since day one. The head survived with no visible damage. A quick survey with a straight edge revealed serious twisting of one of the end runners as well as a warped surface. I have a new, made in the USA, manifold on the way. The only good news here is I don't have to deal with removing the broken stud from the manifold nor do I have to have the old manifold machined and then spend hours making it fit on the head again. The mating surfaces between turbo and manifold were getting intimate as there was serious pitting on the manifold side and matching deposition on the turbo side. You can see that in the second picture. The turbo housing and downpipe are at a machine shop to get cleanup cuts with a surface grinder. The third picture shows the downpipe interface to the turbo outlet. Obvious leaking going on here but I noticed some leakage early this year. Getting it into a jig for surface grinding is a difficult job, I hope the machinist saved the jig from the last time. Edited July 21, 2009 by scannon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slomove Posted July 21, 2009 Author Share Posted July 21, 2009 ......... Note that the broken hanger bolt did not cause the damage described below, it only caused the one turbo mounting stud to break........ Hello Skip, sorry about the mess but on the positive side, without the broken hanger you may have noticed the other damage later and with more serious consequences. Well, at least an attempt to rationalize it..... Gert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scannon Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 Quick update. I got the car running this afternoon. It had to idle for 30 minutes to cure the ceramic coating on the new exhaust manifold. I will test drive it later this evening as it has to cool back to ambient before I drive it again. As usual, what seemed to be a simple job got complicated. The exhaust was an SOB to get back on the car. :smash: It now sits about 1/4" further to the rear than before, something is different in the manifold or the down pipe got twisted a bit. Skip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slomove Posted July 25, 2009 Author Share Posted July 25, 2009 Some more pictures of the second half of the trip now included here . Really too bad that it is over now.. Gert P.S.: Skip, good to hear you are getting you Seven back together! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scannon Posted July 26, 2009 Share Posted July 26, 2009 Great pictures Gert. Thanks for sharing. My Seven is back on the road.:hurray: All seems well and the new exhaust manifold went on nicely. Put about 60 miles on it today driving to an all Mazda meet at a Mazda dealer in Denver. No problems at all. Skip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeanG Posted July 26, 2009 Share Posted July 26, 2009 Your pictures make me long for the open road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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