Disaster Averted, But The Day Turned Out OK

[rsavage]

Yesterday morning, I gassed up my newly completed Blazer and headed for a car show about 20 miles away in the City of Buffalo. I got about 3 miles and the truck started to stumble. I thought "bad gas"? I immediately did a U turn and the truck died. I coasted to the shoulder and was just about to try to restart when I saw smoke from under the hood. Jumped out, popped the hood and saw that my alternator light harness was melting. Yanked the battery cable off and called for a tow back home. While I was waiting, I looked for a cause. It was easy to find. The alternator harness had enough slack in it that it was able to sag enough to just barely contact the exhaust manifold. I am so pi$$ed at the idiot who installed the harness during the build that he didn't notice that this was a possibility (the idiot would be me). Anyway, got it home and removed the harness. I was concerned about other damage but I think I lucked out. Went inside and ordered a new alternator/front light harness. I was disappointed about not getting to the show, but VERY, VERY thankful the damage was minimal. Got to thinking that I still had time to go, so I uncovered the 70 shortbed, transferred my cooler and stuff from the Blazer and took off once again. Gassed up in the same place as I had about two hours earlier and made the show. On the way, I got to thinking that I hadn't really run the Shortbed since last fall except for a couple of start-ups during the winter. I hoped I didn't have any more problems and I didn't. She made it without incident. In any event, I took second place in stock trucks and had a real nice rest of the day looking at 400+ cars and trucks in a park setting. As a side note, I really think that folks who put these car shows together need to break down truck classes a little more. This show had two classes - Stock Commercial and Modified Commercial. There were lots of nice trucks from the 30's to the present. Of course, my camera was on the passenger bucket of the Blazer.