College bound
For my Sophomore year of college at UH I was all set to make the trip a week early back to school to make it back in time for the Honors college's retreat just before school started, this time as a councilor. The plan was to drive down the trusty Opel Kadett wagon from SD, and my GF from Houston had flown up to do the drive back down with me. We had already done the long road trip up to SD together earlier in the summer, and despite that trip being in a non-AC '63 Dodge pickup pulling a trailer with the heat on the whole way, she had been a trooper the whole trip.
We had everything loaded-up, we were ready to go, and then we were off. Now I had converted this particular Opel from an automatic to a 4-speed over the summer, and was a bit concerned as I have not had great luck with Opel 4-speeds in the past. Since I had a spare, and I was going to be in Houston for the semester, I had loaded-up the extra in the Opel's "way-back compartment" which is something you only know about if you drove a station wagon in from the 60's, to take along just-in-case. Turned out to be a good plan, as we ended-up having to replace it in a rest stop half-way across Nebraska. Proudly, that took under 25 minutes, drive in to drive out.
Somewhere mid-KS though was when we started really having issues. The car was running like a champ, perhaps the best it ever had, but unfortunately the brakes were fading fast due to an internal leak between the master cylinder and the brake booster. With a full master cylinder I would get one, maybe two stops before the cylinder was empty. Took a while to fully diagnose, but by the time I reached my own personal Bermuda Triangle of Perry/ Ponca City Oklahoma I knew what was going on and needed to do something to fix it. We stopped everywhere in Ponca City looking for a replacement master cylinder, and of course no one had anything for an Opel. If I had known then that a BMW one would interchange in a pinch I would have been fine, but I didn't learn that tidbit until 2001 or so.
So, what do do? Were were in a manual transmission car, on the Interstate, with a fully functional parking brake to bring us down the last little bit from what down-shifting would get us to. Do you keep going, or stop and get the problem fixed?
Of course we kept going.
All the stops, though, had really lengthened the trip, and now instead of getting all the way to Houston, as planned, we only got as far as just south of Oklahoma City before I was too dog tired to keep going. Spent the night in a Red Roof inn, in Norman, I think, and it was the best hotel I ever remember sleeping in. The bath had the little pressure jets in ti, and after that day it was pure heaven. We slept in enough to only catch the tail end of rush-hour traffic then headed on through Dallas to Houston.
If you know you're highways, though, you know OK City to Dallas is just under 4 hours, as is Dallas to Houston. By leaving just south of OK City just after rush hour we got into Houston right smack in the middle of it. My right arm was twitching and burning, and the rear brakes had all but failed by the time I finally got my girl home. Spent the next day with the GF's car trolling BAP-Geon and various other places looking for a master cylinder before finally finding one, used, at a little junk-yard. Swapped it in, bled the works, and the following day we were off to the Honor's retreat.
We had everything loaded-up, we were ready to go, and then we were off. Now I had converted this particular Opel from an automatic to a 4-speed over the summer, and was a bit concerned as I have not had great luck with Opel 4-speeds in the past. Since I had a spare, and I was going to be in Houston for the semester, I had loaded-up the extra in the Opel's "way-back compartment" which is something you only know about if you drove a station wagon in from the 60's, to take along just-in-case. Turned out to be a good plan, as we ended-up having to replace it in a rest stop half-way across Nebraska. Proudly, that took under 25 minutes, drive in to drive out.
Somewhere mid-KS though was when we started really having issues. The car was running like a champ, perhaps the best it ever had, but unfortunately the brakes were fading fast due to an internal leak between the master cylinder and the brake booster. With a full master cylinder I would get one, maybe two stops before the cylinder was empty. Took a while to fully diagnose, but by the time I reached my own personal Bermuda Triangle of Perry/ Ponca City Oklahoma I knew what was going on and needed to do something to fix it. We stopped everywhere in Ponca City looking for a replacement master cylinder, and of course no one had anything for an Opel. If I had known then that a BMW one would interchange in a pinch I would have been fine, but I didn't learn that tidbit until 2001 or so.
So, what do do? Were were in a manual transmission car, on the Interstate, with a fully functional parking brake to bring us down the last little bit from what down-shifting would get us to. Do you keep going, or stop and get the problem fixed?
Of course we kept going.
All the stops, though, had really lengthened the trip, and now instead of getting all the way to Houston, as planned, we only got as far as just south of Oklahoma City before I was too dog tired to keep going. Spent the night in a Red Roof inn, in Norman, I think, and it was the best hotel I ever remember sleeping in. The bath had the little pressure jets in ti, and after that day it was pure heaven. We slept in enough to only catch the tail end of rush-hour traffic then headed on through Dallas to Houston.
If you know you're highways, though, you know OK City to Dallas is just under 4 hours, as is Dallas to Houston. By leaving just south of OK City just after rush hour we got into Houston right smack in the middle of it. My right arm was twitching and burning, and the rear brakes had all but failed by the time I finally got my girl home. Spent the next day with the GF's car trolling BAP-Geon and various other places looking for a master cylinder before finally finding one, used, at a little junk-yard. Swapped it in, bled the works, and the following day we were off to the Honor's retreat.
posted by Stephen at 9:39 AM
