Back from Chicago, good trip!

We left about 9:45 AM on Tuesday, on our way to the windy city. Our pilot/tour guide (Randy) for the trip decided we would stay in a small city near Gary called Merrillville, Indiana. Roughly an hour from Chicago, this turned out to be a very good plan as we checked into an inexpensive hotel and then made our way on up to the city.

Having just been there recently, Randy knew the way to the sites and we all just sat back and enjoyed the view of the lake and the tall buildings including Trump's new place, which is the second tallest building in the city. The ride around Chicago was very nice and was dual purpose in nature. One to see the sites, but second, to kill some time before we were able to enter the ball park to see the game.

The White Sox Vs. Yankees game at U.S. Cellular field was the primary reason for the trip as Billy wanted to see the Yankees play and I had not been to a major league ball park since I was a child myself. I forget who the Reds were playing, but I do know where it was at, Crosley field in Cincinnati. Of course it is no longer there, but thankfully I have my memories.

Of course that was not the only ball park we saw while in Chicago, we also went by the home of the Cubs, Wrigley field. The park opened in 1914 and it was the last major league park to get lights, which finally happened in 1988. The reason they finally installed lights was that MLB threatened not to hold any post season activities there until the park was lit.

Once we saw all the sites, we headed for our primary destination as we thought we could get into the park by 5 PM. Turns out it was actually 5:35 PM, but it wasn't too bad of a wait.

Once inside, we found our seats on the top level and at least there were escalators all the way up. We had a pretty good view of the field and I truly enjoyed watching the game. Billy was a bit disappointed b/c the Yankees lost, but all in all it was a very enjoyable time for all of us.

The drive back to the hotel was not too long and we got into bed around 12:30 AM. Got up the next day around 7:00 and started back home about 7:30. Around 3 1/2 hours later we were back in Seymour. While I enjoyed the trip, it's always good to be home again!

A good week for the Buick

I got a lot done this past week as I keep getting closer to a time when I can actually drive it around as a regular car. The first thing I tackled was the fuel gauge. I figured it had a wire off from when they put the exhaust on, but turns out the fuel sending unit in the tank is bad. Still might have been caused by the exhaust installation as I'm sure one good blow to the gas tank would be enough to crack the fragile old rheostat, and the muffler is adjacent to the tank.

Believe it or not, I found a place online that sells rebuilt sending units, so now all I need is the money to buy one, ($79 + shipping). Being as I don't have the money at this time, I decided to move on to another troublesome area. Both front door windows have problems going up and down, so I figured they were off the track or something simple like that.

Turns out the window setting channel was very bad on the drivers side and the right side has a broken roller which caused it to come off the track. Of course that window setting channel is not in great shape either, so I'm hoping to find some replacements for those. A guy on the V8 Buick forum says he thinks he has a good pair from a '62 full sized Chevy that will work.

Also got my first good look at the right side front floor pan as I totally removed all of the carpet and padding. It's worse than I originally thought, so right now I'm kind of up in the air about what to do to fix it. A new floor pan can be had ($90 + shipping), but there is a lot of time and effort involved in replacing the complete pan.

I have a POR 15 starter kit ordered which should be enough to do the job if I add metal or fiberglass patches. This product effectively turns the rusty metal into good metal and may do the job if I decide to go that way. Too much to ponder at the moment, so I'll move on.

Next I decided to find out why the COLD light on my dash doesn't light up. When I replaced the fuel pump recently I noticed that both terminals on the temperature sending unit were not hooked up, partially due to the plastic housing for the wires being melted. I broke the wires out of the plastic and hooked them up as they should have been, but the COLD light still would not come on.

I decided to check the bulb in the dash to make sure it was good, but when I started to twist the socket from the circuit board, the socket fell out. Looking at it I found one of the plastic ears which holds it in the circuit board was broke off. So I borrowed the socket and bulb from the HOT light next to it just to test whether or not the COLD light would come on or not. It didn't.

Reading the wiring diagram, I determined that cold side terminal on the sending unit should be a dead ground when the engine is cold, but when I checked with the meter, I found that was not the case. So a new sending unit was required ($11.02 + shipping). I went ahead and ordered that from Rock Auto, along with a couple of sockets for the dash to replace the one bad one and in case another one breaks.

And lastly, yesterday I tore into the wipers as they have not worked since I bought the car. A little troubleshooting to make sure the motor was getting the proper voltage and that the other wire was indeed grounded when the switch was turned on, I found that the trouble had to be in the motor. After some fussing and cussing b/c one screw would not come out, I used my dremel tool to cut a groove so I could remove it with a straight screwdriver, which worked.

Once the motor was out and apart, I found that it was very rusty inside, but that the rust was on the inside of the motor housing and not really a factor in it not running. What was a factor was that corrosion on the armature was not allowing it to turn, so I used my dremel tool with the wire brush to remove all of the corrosion. Once that was done I put some lube in the end cap bearing and reassembled the motor. It ran!

I put new lithium grease in where the worm and plastic ring gear are and buttoned it back up. It is back in, but I still need to find one screw to replace the one I had to bugger up to get out. I'll try to do that sometime today, but I don't plan to do much to the car this week.

For one thing, tomorrow I will be going to Chicago with my son-in-law Randy, grandson Billy and his friend to take in a Yankees Vs. White Sox game. Billy is a huge Yankees fan and since I have not been to a major league ballgame since I was a kid myself, I decided it was time. So look out Chicago, tomorrow I'm gonna have me a beer and a hot dog at the big game!

The Buick is back home

Guess I forgot to mention it, but Autumn wanted to use my place over a month ago for a garage sale. So I had to move my Buick out to their place until the stuff was cleaned out so I could put my car back in. The day finally came last week, but when I went to start the car, it wouldn't start!

After running the battery down, I checked the glass fuel bowl on the fiter and saw that it was barely half-full. I'd suspected the fuel pump was weak since the first time I started it after getting it back home originally as we had to use a siphon pump to get the fuel up to the pump from the tank.

A new pump was located and ordered from Auto Parts Warehouse. Doubt that I will ever order anything again from them as it took so long for them to ship the part. I think the website is only a front for other parts sources, why else would it take several days to ship out a part that is supposedly in stock?

In any case, it arrived yesterday about noon, UPS pulled up out front as I was getting tools together to go out and do the job. So in no time at all I found myself headed out to the country to work on the car. As soon as I looked it over, I saw that the new pump output fitting did not match the original setup, so I had to make another trip back to town.

Stopped at the closest place, Autozone, and the guy there didn't have what I needed, so I went to NAPA. Took awhile there to explain what I needed to the young kid behind the counter, but eventually he got the idea and I was on my way back out to the country.

Before I left for town, I did put the battery charger on so I would at least have a good strong battery in case it took some grinding on the starter to pump up the fuel. With the help of my grandson, Billy, we had it back on and ready to start in no time.

About 5 short grinds on the starter and she fired right up! Wow, what a difference. In the past it would take a good while to get the fuel pumped up, but even with the line from the pump to the carb completely dry, it hardly took anytime at all.

Once the mess was cleaned up and the tools put away, Billy followed me home as I now had 2 vehicles out there. The car ran great, got up to 70 in no time flat, gotta love an old car. Left the car in the drive and rode back out with Billy. Drove my other car back home and finished making room in the garage for the Buick. Feels good to have the ol' girl back home again!

Watching the live coverage

Oops! In my excitement I forgot to hit Publish last night. No time like the present.

Seems the big day is at hand, the Mars rover Curiosity landing. Actually it will be tomorrow here, but still today in California. The actual live coverage starts in about 15 minutes, so I thought I would take this time to write a few lines here.

I know, it's been awhile, but I was wore out from all the stuff I wrote about from the trip. It was a good trip and I do miss the bonding experience I had my sisters and brother-in-law. Hope we can all go on another one soon.

Went to Louisville this morning with the family. Shopped awhile and had lunch at Pizza Hut. Been awhile since I ate there. Pizza was good, so was the company. Nice to get out of this apartment where I've been for way too many days.

All my own doing mind you, I have a car and gas money, but I've just felt like staying home and working on computer projects. Oh well, I pretty much do what I want so I can't complain!  All for now...