The International Cessna^® 170 Association

WHAR WE WENT FRUM BROKE CRANKIES TO STUPIDBAKERS AND DUMER TRADERS I DOANT NOE BUT CENTS WEIR WAY O/T HYEARS A STORIE BOUT A BROKE CRANK. IN THU WINTER OF 1979 WE WERE COMIN BACK FROM OUR HACIENDA DOWN BAJA WAY. BOUT 50 MILES SOUTH OF SAN FELIPE THE MILL LET OUT A LOUD CLUNK BUT KEPT ON RINNIN LONF AS THE REVS WER OVER 2000. IT WAS AROUN MIDNITE ON THAT PRIMITIVE ROAD SO WE KEPT ON TRUCKIN TOWARDS THE LITTLE TOWN. WE MADE INTO THE PEMEX STATION AND BACKED IT UPON TO A LITTLE BANK AND STARTED TEARIN THE MILL DOWN WE GOT FRONT (REAR) JUGS OFF AND FOUND THE CRANK BROKE BETWEEN 2 AND 3 JOURNALS. DEANA AND I HAD TO MEET A FLIGHT IN SAN DIEGO EARLY THAT MORNING SO WE GOT ON THE HAM RADIO BACK TO SAN FELIPE AND FOUND SOMEONE COMING THRU. ANOTHER FELLOW, ROY, WHO LIVED IN HEBER, OFFERED TO BRING HIS TOW BAR AND TOW THE CAR AND CARRY THE TWO BOYS, MY SON AND NEPHEW, TO HIS HOUSE. OUR RIDE PICKED US UP AT 1AM AND OFF TOWARDS TIJUANA WE WENT.

NOW HERE IS THE JOKER. OUR SON JON,16 (GOING ON 30) REASSEMBLED THE OLD 1600 ENGINE, BUSTED CRANK AND ALL AND TOOK OFF TOWARD LOS ANGELES. OBLIVIOUS OF THIS, WE CAUGHT OUR FLIGHT AND WENT STRAIGHT FROM THE AIRPORT IN KC TO OUR "CROSS CULTURAL ORIENTATION" MEETINGS. ( I HAD JUST BID THE JOB IN SAUDI ARABIA). WE WENT STRAIGHT HOME FROM THOSE MEETINGS AND WERE PLANNING TO SLEEP FOR 18 HOURS, AS WE HAD BEEN OVER 24 WITHOUT ANY. NO MORE THAN HIT THE DOOR ANDTHE PHONE RANG.

IT WAS MY BROTHER IN LA WONDERING WHERE THE HECK THE BOYS WERE! I RELATED THE STORY ABOUT THE ENGINE FAILURE AND THE PLAN FOR RAY TO PICK THEM AND THE CAR UP AND TOW IT TO HEBER. HE ADVISED THAT "ROY" HAD CALLED AND SAID THEY WEREN'T AT THE PEMEX IN SAN FELIPE AND THOSE FELLOWS SAID THE CAR LEFT AROUND 2AM!

AFTER MANY FRANTIC CALLS TO CHIPS OTHERS AND OTHERS WE ENDED UP WITH HAVING NO CLUE. BRO SAID HE WOULD STAY IN TOUCH WITH THE POLICE AND OTHERS AND FOR US TO GET SOME REST. YEAH RIGHT! BUT TURNED OUT THE BOYS CAME DRIVING IN ABOUT 9PM LA TIME. SON HAD DRIVEN THE VW ALMOST ALL THE WAY FROM SAN FELIPE TO EL CAJON BEFORE IT LOCKED UP. HE HIKED BACK DOWN THE HIWAY TO A SALVAGE YARD HE HAD SEEN AND JEWED THEM OUT OF AN OLD VW ENGINE BLOCK WITH A GOOD CRANK. HE PUT THE THING TOGETHER ON THE SIDE OF THE HIWAY AND DROVE ON INTO LOS ANGELES PROUD AS A PEACOCK. I WAS SO MADDER THAN HECK AT HIM FOR ALL THE ANXIETY HE HAD CAUSED. HAD HE BEEI WITHIN MY REACH I PROBABLY WOULD HAVE KILLED HIM BUT SECRETLY INSIDE I WAS VERY PROUD OF HIS RESOURCEFULNESS.

MISS THAT BOY

Sounds like a chip off the Old Block,I like it, nice story


W.

Back in about 1990 or 1991 a buddy and I were on an annual winter trip to Baja California. We ran across three young fellows, camped on a beach near Loretto, who had been down there Marlin fishing with a home made boat, a 70 HP Yamaha outboard engine , on a home made trailer, pulled by an old 6 cylinder Ford pick up. The truck had blown a piston and they were in the throes of repairing it while camped on the beach. Two of the boys were from California and the other was an Australian.
They had pulled the engine using the Boat launching winch off the trailer attached to a tree. The Austrailian had hitched hiked back south to the city of Constution to a junkyard to find a piston. They apparently didn't have any junked Ford sixes, but they found, what I seem to remember, was a Chevy 350 piston with the same bore diameter. There was a slight slght difference in the distance from the wrist pin to the piston head, but they figured it would work. They also found, when they tried to install it, that the Ford wrist pin was very slightly larger. No problem. They just honed out the wrist pin holes with a piece of emery cloth wrapped around their finger until the Ford wrist pin fit. They got it all together, poured the old oil back in it and drove it home to way up in northern California.
So help me, that old Ford is still running on their ranch up there. Talk about Amreican ingenuity!

Not to resurrect a zombie thread, but I never miss an opportunity to correct George. Studebaker always designed and built their own engines, that 1951 would have had a Studebaker Champion 170 ci flathead... NOT a Continental 226, which WAS used in Kaiser/Frazer cars.

Russ Farris

blueldr wrote:Back in about 1990 or 1991 ... Two of the boys were from California and the other was an Australian.
They had pulled the engine using the Boat launching winch off the trailer attached to a tree. The Austrailian had hitched hiked back south to the city of Constution to a junkyard to find a piston. ... Talk about Amreican ingenuity!

Well.... I think theAustrailian appears to be the ingenius one, bluEldr...

russfarris wrote:Not to resurrect a zombie thread, but I never miss an opportunity to correct George. Studebaker always designed and built their own engines, that 1951 would have had a Studebaker Champion 170 ci flathead... NOT a Continental 226, which WAS used in Kaiser/Frazer cars.

Russ Farris

Good one, Russ! What took you so long...???