About Cletis and the wrench adventure:
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(
Taken from the webpage written by Cletis.)
Serendipity averts disaster (Saturday, September 8) I wanted to wash the road grime off the truck before going to the show grounds. So after breakfast, I went to a car wash. June stayed at the motel. Then I drove to a store the waitress had told us about to get some folding lawn chairs. The truck really started acting up on the way back. It finally quit on me three blocks from the motel. I was able to coast into a convenience store lot. Looks like it’s time to change that fuel pump.
Now, I was carrying one of those Craftsman tool kits with me. This thing has everything. Half inch, three eighth inch, quarter inch sockets, regular and deep, metric and American, combination wrenches, everything I should need. Wrong! First thing I find out is the fuel line is a 5/8” nut and the combo wrenches skip from 9/16 to 3/4. Luckily, there was a shop next door to the convenience store where a couple of guys were working on a race car. I borrowed the wrench I needed and soon had the pump changed. But she still wouldn’t fire.
What now? I pulled the fuel supply line again and there was barely a trickle coming from it. Maybe the rear fuel filter is clogged. So I jacked up the truck and climbed under it. I pulled the line from the rear filter and sure enough, just a trickle there. I blew into it and gas came gushing back. But then it went back to a trickle. Looks like I need a new filter.
A customer from the convenience store came up to check out the pretty ’56 truck being worked on in the parking lot. When I explained my dilemma, he volunteered to take me to a parts store. We went and got a new filter and the guy wouldn’t even let me buy him a beer for his trouble. See, there still are some good people left in this old world.
This isn't right! He left and I installed the new filter. I made sure I had good fuel flow but she still wouldn’t crank. Meanwhile, one of the Stovebolters called to see why I wasn’t at the show. (Thanks again, Joe) I told him what was happening and he was on the way to help. While waiting on him to arrive, I pulled the pump off again to check the drive rod and I discovered it was bent!
Apparently this thing had been bent for a long time but with the old pump on it, it couldn’t fall down out of the way. Of course, when I removed the old pump, it did fall out of the way. I went back to the race car shop. Another stroke of luck. They just happened to have one they’d sell me.
We'll get it figured out About the time I was walking back to the truck with the replacement rod, Joe and the crew showed up. We got the new pump back on and the truck fired up like it should have three hours ago.
We made it to the truck show about 1 o’clock. We missed the Stovebolters group picture. (Editors' Note: So did a few others, unfortunately. And here's a
bigger image with names, as you 'mouse over' the faces) and the serving of the cake. But it was a great show nonetheless. We got to meet some more Stovebolters who weren’t around Friday night. Of course, my truck didn’t win anything -- she’s a driver not a shower. But I did win a door prize -- a can of tire dressing.
We had catered barbeque at the motel that night. After that, a bunch of us invaded the lounge for drinks, cigars and karaoke. Check out the
Stovebolt Trio -- KC Mongo, John and Cletis
(Editors' Note: I think we changed the group name about four times.)()()()()()()()()()()()
Thanks for sharing your experience in here, Alvin. It was a hoot nanny at the American Inn. Got better each year. As you'll see.
