Da' further adventures of da' trusty billy-goat wagon!

[GS66]

Keep up the good work! I still wish you could take Biquette on a Power Tour some time!

[elagache]

Dear mid-60s caregivers who like to stroll down memory lane,

Since we are supposed to be mostly at home, I decided to pull out some old photo albums to see if I could find some additional photos of our trusty wagon.  The first album I found included this photo taken according to the caption between December 1977 and January 1978:



On the right is Mom, Dad, and my sister are standing next to what I believe to be a Hobbie 18 catamaran.  You can see the back of Biquette on the left.  The dark patch on the right side of the bumper is a bumper sticker that read "I'd rather be sailing."  Eventually Biquette would get catamaran towing duties.  We bought an second-hand Hobbie 16 that we were bold enough to sail in San Francisco bay!

A bit of nostalgic distraction to make our present circumstances a bit more tolerable!

Cheers, Edouard 

[elagache]

Dear mid-60s Buick caregivers,

Quite a while back, I took my trusty wagon to pick up some groceries only to have a woman jump on me admiring Biquette.  Oddly, she suggested that Biquette would look great pulling a vintage Airstream trailer.  That started a conversation in which she excitedly mentioned that she had just bought a 1965 Airstream Globetrotter.  The trailer was in Arizona and was going to be transported to our location.

Fast forward to last week and I noticed at the end of the very same parking lot the unmistakable outline of a vintage Airstream.  When I look a closer look, the trailer was indeed a Globetrotter with an Arizona plate - it had to be that trailer.  Sadly, it seems to have been left at the end of a utility road and for the moment abandoned there.  Yesterday, we needed more groceries so that was an excuse for Biquette to finally get out.  I had to wait in line 45 minutes to pay for items I had accumulated in only 15 minutes.  As a result, I was late.  Still, I couldn't resist a quick photo shoot:



Here is a link to the Airstream document archives that corresponds to this trailer:

https://www.airstream.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/1965-travel-trailer-20-globe-trotter-200.pdf

Since I was late I was a bit sloppy in aligning Biquette as you can see in this photo:



Since we are supposed to "shelter in place" until at least May 3rd, perhaps I'll get another chance to take some better photos, preferably with the sun illuminating at a more favorable angle.  Still, it isn't often that you can park next to anything that was also manufactured in 1965.  So I hope this is something of a pick-me-up during some rather difficult times.

Cheers, Edouard 

[seanrobison65]

Biquette and that Airstream go perfectly together, Edouard! Great photos!

[GS66]

Yeah, you need to go get that trailer!

[Dr Frankenbuick]

It?s almost as if they brought it for you!

[option B9]

Edouard,   Sheltering in place in an Airstream would be going first class. They really look good together. A marriage made in "American Made Heaven"

                Tony

[elagache]

Dear Sean, Jim, Good Dr., Tony, and mid-60s Buick owners with a certain taste for making road trips in style!

Yeah, you need to go get that trailer!

Well, I can hardly do that.  That trailer is already spoken for!  Unless the woman who bought it is forced to back out of the deal, she will be the "lucky" person who will be trying to restore it!

I am definitely keeping an eye on the vintage trailer scene, but I'll be cautious before jumping in and buying one.  Biquette definitely ended up being restored mostly out of my ignorance and I dearly paid for it.  Vintage trailer restorations are evolving quite rapidly, and there is a new trend that is something like "resto-mods" for classic cars.  The idea is to provide as many of the modern conveniences of today's RVs while preserving the period appearance and feel.  So for the moment I'm continuing to learn more about my potential choices while indeed looking if there is a trailer for sale out there that I absolutely cannot resist.

Thanks again guys!

Cheers, Edouard 

[elagache]

Dear mid-60s Buick owners who try to use them prudently,

For multiple reasons, I wanted to take Biquette to make our weekly shopping run to our local independent supermarket.  Last week, I carefully staked out the area and found a very quiet spot to park her where nobody should have been near.

Alas, the best made plans of mice and men . . . . .    It appears that the grocery supply chains have been once more overstretched and that triggered another round of customer hoarding.  The parking lot and store was much busier than last week.  I had to wait 10 minutes before I could even enter the store and it was a madhouse.  After checking out, and of course, sanitizing my hands,  I took this photo with my iPhone:



65GS.com keeps images on the small side, so click on the image for a larger view.  If you look carefully, you'll see the people lined up to enter the store.  There is a man just above the windshield of the pickup truck on the left wearing a mask.  The line continues to the right until it turns the corner beyond the corner of the building.  It is definitely a photo of the times, but I won't take Biquette out to this location again until people calm down some more!

I hope everyone is remaining healthy, calm, and composed during these truly extraordinary times,

Cheers, Edouard 

[option B9]

   Hi Edouard and everyone trying to take your Buick out for a quick trip to the store or a spin down the highway to. a) put a few miles on after a long winter hibernation  .  or b) Four weeks in the house with the family is quite enough .  or c) All of the above. For me I choose C. Three weeks ago I took both Buick's out for a 40+ mile trip around the area highways so if things got worse I know that they had a good run at least once. Here in NYC Things went from bad to worse, and now we are really stuck at home with no end in sight. So I've been working on boxes of Buick parts that needed to be rebuilt/repaired and painted. As soon as we get some real warm weather I will complete a few more items on my GS restoration project so it will be ready for paint whenever this Covid-19 Virus subsides and people get back to work.
    Anyone doing anything interesting around the House or in the Garage during this COVID 19 way of life ??

                                                                             Tony 

[elagache]

Dear mid-60s Buick caregivers,

Last couple outings with my trusty wagon I had noticed that the RPM has porpoising.  When idling it could be as low as 700 RPM when the electronic fuel injection system is set to keep it at 800.  It was unpleasant enough that I decided to sideline the car until I could look into the problem.  I suspected something wrong with the EFI system.  The manifold pressure sensor is known to be vulnerable to failure on the FAST Sportsman.  I figured its time had come.

On Saturday, I woke up my 11 year old laptop to see if it still worked.  This is the computer I use to adjust the EFI parameters.  Fortunately, no problems getting it going after over a year of non-use.  Yesterday was the day I set aside to look into this.  Alas, all my efforts to troubleshoot the problem were for naught.  First, I tried to get the FAST diagnostics to report which sensor was bad.  Having failed that, I took a 5 minute log of the engine's operation.  I hoped to see the porpoising RPM behavior.  I could then look at the values of the other EFI parameters to see if one was also oscillating in the same way.  That looked like a likely way to find the culprit.  Alas, the engine really didn’t exhibit the RPM swings.  After all this effort, it seemed like I was going nowhere fast, so I put Biquette back in the garage and decided to take a careful look at the log using my desktop computer.

I looked at everything.  All the sensor values looked reasonable.  The RPM was holding within tolerance.  To my frustration, everything looked normal.  I did casually note that even the voltage was 12 volts.  I concluded that I would have to drive the car some distance before I would see the problem and only logging an extended drive would get me to the bottom of this.

I had other things to do, so this project returned to the back burner.  About 2 hours after putting Biquette in the garage, I noticed something very strange: the battery was still being recharged.  Normally the alternator is so beefy that the trickle charger reports a full battery after about a minute.  Huh?  I discharged battery?  Oh No! . . .

All of sudden, I remembered that 12 volt reading that I had overlooked.  Since I had gone to all the trouble of getting these data logs, I can show it that way.  Here is the first minute of the engine running yesterday:



The voltage starts out at 12.2 volts and drops down to 12 volts after the engine starts.  You can click on the image for a higher resolution version.

In contrast, here is the previous log I had taken on October 12, 2018:



As you would expect, once the engine is running, the voltage is a healthy 14.6!

The morale of this story is an old one: when troubleshooting keep an open mind and pay attention of all the symptoms before you!

Hopefully that's a quick smile before you undertake your next car related project!

Cheers, Edouard 

[option B9]

  Hi Edouard Thanks for the Automotive tech lesson. Now that brings up a question that I have been meaning to ask but  it was never really important enough to give it a high priority... But I will as you OR anyone else out there that just might have the answer. Way back when (in the 1970's) when I was in my Automotive Shop class we had a large engine analyzer that we would hook up leads to all the 8 plug wires, alternator, coil, battery and whatever else and it would give a us a full picture of how the engine is running. Just like your graph and most of the cars are tested these days. So my question is. Is there test equipment out on the market today that could perform a complete engine diagnostic on our vintage non-computer controlled Buick's by using a laptop instead of equipment that was as big as a refrigerator. ? Because I just don't have the room for it. I do have several good Tach & Dwell meters along with Timing lights and whatever else needed. But this is 2020 there may be something better that's affordable and easy to use.  I just don't know.. If there is such a thing please point me in the right direction. Since I now have plenty of time to look into it during lock down.
                                                                                              Tony 

[Jimbo]

Thanks for that  information Edouard . Nice write up.
Option B9, I was thinking the exact same thing about a month ago! Did a few minutes of research and then was sidetracked with something else. Hopefully someone else chimes in.

[option B9]

    OK Jim, So I'm not really thinking to much out of the box here, we are basically using the same testing instruments as they did back in the early 50s or maybe before then I just don't know!! But ever since the space race and the transistor things have gotten smaller and more sophisticated. I am not a tech savvy person at all but I hope there is some way we could hook up all of the components and get a true reading on a laptop, just like the new cars can. That would be awesome. And I hope someone out there has the answer so I can put my Tach & Dwell meters in a museum 

                                                          Tony

[WkillGS]

I can identify with that Edouard!
Shortly after I got my red 66 back on the road after an engine rebuild, I pulled out onto the main road where it was missing so bad I had to pull over on the shoulder. It had a Mallory electronic ignition and figured that was the culprit. I unplugged it, installed the bypass and was on my way without further issue. The next day I went to start it up and the battery was dead.... and a light went off in my head.... low voltage + elec ignition = it won't want to run. Took a look around and noticed the plug at the voltage regulator was loose.... plugged it back in and all was good! Sometimes it's the simple things!

A cheap digital voltage monitor is avail from Amazon.... it plugs into your lighter socket. Easy to R&R, easy to read, and under 10 bucks! Here's just one avail:
https://www.amazon.com/Zeltauto-Cigarette-Lighter-Digital-Voltmeter/dp/B00VL9JZ0K/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=12v+plug+in+voltage+monitor&qid=1588037916&sr=8-5