Most of you know we are on our way to Austin, yes Fogblanket, to a house with out a garage 
. After packing the house, we drove the two hours to spend the night at my folks in CT. I was in the middle lane and noticed the steering was suddenly unresponsive and there was a massive "dead spot" where turning the wheel in either direction yielded no result. I look over and say, hold on babe, something is wrong with the steering. I am barely able to get the truck slowed down and into the brakedown lane and when I do there is a deathwobble like no other. Great, 2,500 miles to go and we are already broken down. Upon further inspection, the bolt that secures the panhard rod to the frame had fallen out.
called AAA... the towtruck driver was a great guy. i explained what was wrong and he says, no problem, the NAPA down the street from my shop will have the bolt. we roll in to the NAPA and there is a loud music coming from the back... actually, it was coming from the tenants below them, the electric blue strip club! unreal, an auto parts store with stripper music playing all day and the easiest access you can imagine.
long story short, they had the nut and bolt that i needed, 14mm fine pitch, lucky me! 40 minutes after breaking down we were on the road.
the next day it was 11 hours of driving out west through penn then down to virginia... skyline drive finally stopping in charlottesvile. the cruiser ran well, guzzled gas, around 13 mpg maintaining about 70mph on the highway.
today we drove 5 hours to asheville, nc. more of the same, highway 81...
all in a nice trip and i hope the cruiser holds up.
. After packing the house, we drove the two hours to spend the night at my folks in CT. I was in the middle lane and noticed the steering was suddenly unresponsive and there was a massive "dead spot" where turning the wheel in either direction yielded no result. I look over and say, hold on babe, something is wrong with the steering. I am barely able to get the truck slowed down and into the brakedown lane and when I do there is a deathwobble like no other. Great, 2,500 miles to go and we are already broken down. Upon further inspection, the bolt that secures the panhard rod to the frame had fallen out.called AAA... the towtruck driver was a great guy. i explained what was wrong and he says, no problem, the NAPA down the street from my shop will have the bolt. we roll in to the NAPA and there is a loud music coming from the back... actually, it was coming from the tenants below them, the electric blue strip club! unreal, an auto parts store with stripper music playing all day and the easiest access you can imagine.
long story short, they had the nut and bolt that i needed, 14mm fine pitch, lucky me! 40 minutes after breaking down we were on the road.
the next day it was 11 hours of driving out west through penn then down to virginia... skyline drive finally stopping in charlottesvile. the cruiser ran well, guzzled gas, around 13 mpg maintaining about 70mph on the highway.
today we drove 5 hours to asheville, nc. more of the same, highway 81...
all in a nice trip and i hope the cruiser holds up.
We have a napa here in town that all they LC guys go too - they know us buy name now. It very funny to go on a Saturday - you never know who you might run into. 
