MAKING PROGRESS… of sorts (Part 172jj)
If you want to be a
popular dad, show up with pizza! I was able to ‘escape’ work soon after 5pm
and in spite of driving home in traffic I arrived, with the pizza, just a
few minutes after 6pm. Elle seemed to be in good spirits and while
eating, told me of her day. Her ‘highlight’ was in meeting Geemaw when at lunch next door. Elle had a bit of a smile on her face as she told me about
her experience with her indicating that she felt pretty much the same as
I did about Geemaw… eccentric but harmless. The one real thing she left
Elle with was in her not wanting to be out in the sun. The lunch went well
and Martha volunteered to come over and watch the kids so Elle could take
a nap. That explained why Elle was “bright eyed and bushy tailed” when I
got home. There was one more bit of news. Beth, Cliffy’s wife and Ra,
Dick’s wife stopped by late in the afternoon. They were close friends
and with Ra living just a quarter mile down the road they walked on over. I
got the impression that Elle was impressed by that. But it didn’t end
there. As I was picking up the remnants of supper she ever so casually
asked what time I was leaving for the garage. I remember stopping what I
was doing and looking at Elle not believing what I’d just heard. She
said it in such a calm voice I almost didn’t believe it was Elle that
was speaking. Usually, there was a bit of sneer when she’d ask or… if
I’d just announce I was leaving I’d get the ‘silent treatment’ along
with ‘the look’. It took me with such surprise that I don’t think I
answered until she prodded me again. I don’t know what I did say when I
answered but it was probably to say 7:30pm, the usual time we’d meet. But, then
it came to me… I hadn’t said anything about the race car or going to
the garage… so I asked. Somehow, Beth and Ra had mentioned that there
was a problem with the new motor and that they were hoping the problem
could be remedied. Elle said that after hearing that she just expected
that I’d be going to work on it. Believe me, I didn’t question it and
changed into work clothes to confirm I’d be going. I didn’t run off
right away, taking time to make sure the kids would do what Elle said…
and when she said it… as far as getting ready and then into bed. With
their promise and Elle’s assurance that she was up to it I headed for
the garage.
I expected to see the big main door open but it was
still down. The building itself had three parts. Two faced the road and
the one to the left as you approached the building was called the “bus
stop”. It was about 1/3 the size of the main area and was used to work on
school buses that the garage maintained for the school district. With
school out for the Summer the area was all but vacated… that is except
for the Pontiac motor Cliffy had blow up on him back in early May. The
door to that area was open and I recognized Cliffy’s father, on his
knees, in front of it with Alan and Dick crouched over him. Believe me,
it was a strange sight.
Backing up a bit… When the crew drained
the oil from the race car motor through a fine mesh screen they saw “shiny stuff”
and knew something wasn’t right. So, they, without removing the motor
from the car, dropped the oil pan to find a lot more “shiny stuff”. They were sure it was from the connecting rod bearings and proceeded to drop a
couple of the caps from the connecting rods to inspect them. What they
discovered wasn’t good… but not a disaster. For some reason the bearings
weren’t wearing evenly. Cliffy’s father lived right next door to the
shop so they went and got him. His diagnosis was that the crankshaft
“was out of true”. At that point they all decided to go home. During the
day Cliffy made some calls to other racers to see if they’d experienced
the same thing. What he gleaned from the calls was that anytime you buy
a stock crankshaft off the shelf you should take it to a machine shop
and have them “true it up”. No one had mentioned this to Cliffy or any
of us for that matter which was a bit disturbing. Cliffy called the guy
who built CJ’s motor and asked what he should do. He, of course, wanted
to see what he bearings looked like so Cliffy, with his father’s
permission, headed West to meet he guy. That was the reason Cliffy
wasn’t here when I arrived. He’d called his father and told him it
wasn’t all that bad and that we had two choices. One, the most logical,
was to take the motor apart and get the crankshaft fixed. That would
entail days of work but also more money. The other was that we could
“spin” the bearings out and replace them after each night of racing. And that was what I was witnessing with Cliffy’s father showing Alan and Dick how to do it on the old and somewhat destroyed motor.
With
the motor on its side each of us took a turn in doing the procedure. It
wasn’t hard. The key was in taking the time to do it right. Cliffy was
bringing back some special rod bearings that were supposed to outlast
the stock Chevy bearings we were using and the plan was to “spin” out
the old bearings and replace them with the new, special ones. I know I
wasn’t comfortable with the idea but then again, I was probably the most
conservative one of the bunch. There was nothing we could do to our
motor until Cliffy got back. His father was cleaning himself up when I
walked up and asked if I could try spinning a couple more on the old
Pontiac motor. He was surprised that it was me who asked and he readily agreed
to watch me. However, when I did it he handed me a couple of the
bearings that I’d spun out and told me to spin them back in as replacements. I
was a bit nervous wanting to impress the man. Even though it took
some time I managed to get them in successfully.
It was starting
to get dark when Cliffy showed up with Davo and his girlfriend right
behind him. He’d stopped to get a couple of slices of Pizza at
Traveler’s Rest and had found Davo and Leigh there. Davo was a big Ford man
and was disappointed when we decided to go Chevy. He hadn’t been to the
garage the whole time we were assembling the parts for the new motor.
But, curiosity had gotten to him and he wanted to see what we were
doing. As I’ve written on a number of occasions, Leigh was basically a
’two beer drunk’ and, watching her follow both Cliffy and Davo, the
signs were she was well past that. In my opinion, Davo didn’t treat her
all that well but seemed to encourage her drinking and sometimes drunkeness. So, I
was surprised that he was carrying a folding chair for her to sit in.
He put it down on the apron of the main entryway and told her to stay
there as he walked in to survey our ‘project’.
Cliffy’s father
had retreated to his house by then so it was Cliffy who was going to
tackle replacing the bearings. I know it sounds funny but, secretly, I
wished that it was me who was going to do it. Cliffy lay on his back on
the ‘creeper’ making sure he kept the caps he was taking off facing in
the right direction to be put back on. It took less and less time as he
got into a bit of a rhythm and by the time 10pm arrived the “bottom” of
the motor was “buttoned up” and the oil pan back in place. I won’t say
we were happy about the situation but were trying to look on the
positive side. We all wanted to see the engine running and to check the
oil pressure but we knew that wasn’t going to happen. We also knew that
Cliffy would start it up as soon as he got there in the morning. Since
there wasn’t much left to do to make the car ready for Saturday night we
decided to head for home. Walking out the door I saw Leigh asleep in the
chair… and a puddle underneath her. I didn’t wait to see how Davo
reacted to the situation but I knew it wouldn’t be pretty.
To be continued…
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