New England Tour

In just under a week, I'm going to be taking the kids and heading on a tour of New England. I'll be going to PA, NY, then heading to Hartford, CT for a couple days. While in CT, I plan on getting a meal in both Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Maine. Then, after picking up my wife at the airport, we'll all heading to New Hampshire near Dartmouth for a couple days. While there, I'll cross the river and have lunch in Vermont.
With that, I should hit every New England state. We'll be visiting friends and family, as well as going camping about half the nights.
I'm pretty excited about the camping bit. I've been sewing blackout curtains for the car windows, complete with magnets in the edges. This is so that when we're camping, I can put the kids to bed in the car, and my wife and I will sleep in the tent. The curtains will keep the car darker in the morning, so the kids will (hopefully) sleep longer than sunrise.
I've also made a car hammock for the backseat, which is where the three-year old will sleep nights, and the two-year old will sleep in the very back.

Is there anyone who might be interested in meeting up while we're out there? If you're interested, here are the cities where we'll be spending the night.
Aug 13 - Indiana, PA
Aug 14 - Apalachin NY
Aug 15 - Apalachin NY
Aug 16 - Willington, CT
Aug 17 - Willington, CT
Aug 18 - Devil's Hopyard State park, CT
Aug 19 - Hanover, NH
Aug 20 - Hanover, NH
Aug 21 - Apalachin, NY
Aug 22 - Ohiopyle state park, PA

Just let me know if I'll be near you, and you want to say "Hi"

 

Right around the time you're heading this way, I'll hopefully be going the other direction in my '69 Bonneville wagon. Got a bit of work to do to get her in shape for another long trip. She got a little cranky when I drove her down to Philly in June.

One of my Pontiac friends lives in Willington- opposite side of CT from me though.

 

Good luck on all of your trips. Camping can be fun for all members of the family. We also love eating in small mom and pop diners when we can. A good way to sample the foods from other areas and meet the local people.

 

Sounds like you have a great family trip planned. If you have a chance post up a few pics of your black out curtains...althou you run the risk of ModelT sleeping in past sunrise...hope the kids do too. It's to bad I'm not along your route it would be fun to meet. Hope you have a fun trip, safe travels.

 

Many years ago my young bride and I had screens on the old 49 Dodge then the 54 Ford with curtains added so we could camp out and also to watch the drive in movies in the summmer evenings.
After retiring I had a large vinyl windshield cover and curtains on the Chevy van for camping.
I usually removed the curtains from the windshields for driving!

 

AAAAAAAAAAAnd... a day and a half before my big trip, it looks like my water pump seal went out....

Thankfully, it went out while the car was sitting in a restaurant parking lot that was 3 minutes from home.
No store in the area had a gasket in stock, but I figured I could at least start taking things apart, so that tomorrow when I actually have the gasket, it won't take me too long to have a working car again.
I did learn just how dog-gone difficult it is to get to the water pump on an Olds 307, though. By the time I ran out of light, I had almost gotten access the water pump...I think.
I got the AC bracket loosened enough to take it off the water pump bolts?, and I've almost gotten the other side loose enough as well.
Tomorrow we'll see just how close I got.

If anyone has any advise or hints, I'd love to have them. Also, I can use prayers and luck so I can get this done safely before the trip.
On the plus side, since I have everything off, I will be changing the belts and any hoses that need changed, and I did flush out the radiator. Surprisingly, it was extremely clean, which was nice. I figure since I have the pump off, I might as well put a new one on, just in case there was any damage done, or that it wasn't just the seal.

 

Glad it happened so close to home. Sometimes I think these old cars know what they're doing.

Sorry, no advice on the Olds motor. If it were a Pontiac I might be of some use.

My little pre-travel project on my Bonneville took a little more time than I had hoped. Most of those bolts haven't been touched since the car was built in 1969. Almost done- just have to bolt the A/C back on.

Oh, and I ended up replacing my water pump, too.

Before-


During-


Almost done-

 

Fannie, I'm also sad that our paths won't cross this trip. Someday I want to drive up and see your neck of the woods, but not this trip.

Here are some pictures. They really do a good job blocking the majority of the light. The tinted windows definitely help as well. It is really nice that when I'm not using them, the fold up into a pile of cloth that is smaller than a set of queen size sheets folded up.

Also, My son, Asher, loves his hammock bed, and is looking forward to being able to sleep in it!

 

As said before, very lucky the water pump started leaking close to home.
If you still are having issues changing out the pump, PM me and I'll pull out my FSM and we can see if you missed anything. It has been about 5 years since I changed mine, so my memory is a bit fuzzy there.

If you haven't refilled the cooling system yet, try pulling the block drain plugs. They are forward of the motor mounts when viewed from the front, easily reached from below. When I pulled them on both of my 307's, nothing happened. I broke through the crust with a screwdriver and all kinds of sediment came pouring out. Also, if you have the motivation to change the thermostat, I would highly discourage you from doing it. The stud closest to the passenger side has snapped on me when trying it, leaving me in a world of hurt.

If you are driving up I-93 to I-89 to get to Hanover, you'll be driving right through my City, Manchester. It's quite a drive from Hanover, though.

 

If it wasn't for all those danged belts, hoses and smog cr@p, it would have been an hour job - right?

 

Well, I had it all back together, and as I was filling the radiator, I realized I must have cracked the joint where the top hose outlet meets the radiator, and that was leaking. I was thankfully able to find a shop that had a radiator in stock, and after another hour of work, I now have a new radiator. That's in addition to water pump, coolant, belts, and a couple hoses. I'm just praying that all these problems the day before I leave means that the car will run like a top for the trip!

We will probably be going right through Manchester on Wednesday, shortly after noon. Let me know if you'd like to meet up for a little bit!

And Marshall, yes, those brackets were a pain to try to work around. Why would anyone design them that way!?!?!?!

 

Glad you have the car back together and most likely running cooler. I'd replaced the thermostat no matter what. It's gonna need it someday soon. What's a broken off stud or two? Better in your drive way than along some deserted highway with no replacement parts for miles.
I'd like to sleep in that back seat hammock.

Happy vacation!

 

Need help!

Hello all,

I need some help. We're just over halfway through the trip, and yesterday I had my first issue with the car.
My alternator belt broke.

Thankfully, it happened when we were 3 miles from AutoZone, so I was able to pull in there and replace it.

Remember now, this is a brand new belt, not even a full week old. We've driven about 1600 miles and had no issues up to yesterday.
After I replaced the water pump and all the belts, I did have some intermittent squealing when I first started the car, but it went away within a few minutes of driving, so I didn't bother checking anything. I felt like all the belts were slightly on the loose side, but nothing too far out of normal range

At first I thought the alternator had failed, but when I parked and popped the hood, I saw the belt was off. When I looked at the belt, it was definitely broken, not melted. The alternator spun freely. After throwing on a new belt, I had them test the alternator, and the only thing that came up was a bad voltage regulator.
I now do have much worse squealing, but I'm pretty sure it is from the alternator belt. Since the old one broke, I was concerned I had it too tight, so the new one is loose.

So, I have four questions.
1. What would have caused that intermittent squeal on startup? Belts too loose? Belts too tight? (I don't think any gears are failing)
2. What could have caused that belt to break?
3. How bad is a bad voltage regulator?
4. Do I need to replace that before continuing on the trip? I'm at a spot now that I could replace it, if any shop has the alternator and wouldn't need to order it.

I know the regulator didn't cause the belt to break. Would driving the car with the alternator not spinning cause the regulator to fail? If not, then I don't know how long it might have been since it failed, and I haven't had problems.

 

I would replace the alternator as a failed voltage regulator is bad news.
Check the alignment of the pulleys if/when you do so to prevent additonal squeal. It is possible a failing alternator could be causing the squeal as well. A broken belt does sound like it is too tight.
Make sure they get you the correct belt as there are two, one for non a/c cars and one with A/C. Even though that isn't the belt that broke, there is that discrepancy.
When replacing the alternator, use caution with the rear strut to alternator case bolt, it can strip out the case, I found this out the hard way. Lubricate the screw tensioner first and tension it lightly at first, I believe you should have approximately 1/2 inch belt deflection in the center of the belt.
Be sure no oil/coolant etc is not present to eliminate these as a source of squeal. Hope this helps- let me know if I can be of any more help. Did you make it into NH yet?

 

The intermittent squeal on startup sounds like either belt or alternator.
You should be able to find a 307 alternator on any shelf. If not, let me know I can do a search for you.