Getting ready to Travel to Marquette, MI

I have been trying to get Miz B completely ready, as far as possible, to make the 2,300 mile round trip to Marquette, Michigan, for the MAFCA National Convention.  I have had the car over to Mark, the mechanic for a thorough going over, lube job, brake adjustment, steering work, and tune up.  I picked her up about a week ago to go on a club outing to Aiken.  Thought everything was fine until we were about 4 miles from home when the little car starting bucking and skipping.  I seemed to be able to get her to run a bit better by working with the spark and the choke.  So, on Saturday morning we were off to Aiken.  About half way to the meeting spot in Red Bank, the car began acting up again.  Joey was following us in the Tudor and he seemed to be doing just fine, until we pulled into the parking lot of the meeting place.  Clara, that's Joey's car, just DIED!!!  Not good!  So, John decided to ride with Joey, for the just in case.  I was on my own.  No problem.  I knew that no matter what, Miz B was going to continue to run, even if it wasn't as smoothly as I hoped.  So, we were off with the club to Aiken.  It seemed that any time I accelerated above 35 mph, the car decided to start bucking.  But, we made it all the way to Aiken without any real problems.  

We certainly enjoyed our day in Aiken.  Joey decided that he needed to get back to Columbia a bit earlier than the rest of us - I think he had a date!  So, John went back with him.  Vernon had to tow his car with his truck to get it to start.  Joey definitely has a battery/ground issue!  Anyway, they left and made it home without incident.  I stayed on with the club and we visited a beautiful old mansion which houses the Aiken Historical Society Collection.  Then, we were back on the road to go home.  I left the group in Batesburg/Leesville.  They were having dinner at Shealy's and I wanted to get home to have dinner with John.  So, I was on my own with my bucking A!  Like I said, the little car doesn't quit, even when she runs poorly!

During the following week I drove the car - it is all I drive anymore!  She drove just fine unless I went more than 10 miles.  I finally figured out that if the engine got hot, it just didn't run well at all!  So, it was back to the mechanic for Memorial Day weekend.

Well, it was an easy fix!  We have had the ignition coil polarity reversed ever since we came home from St. Augustine in March, 2011!  Come to find out these little cars can go years without any issues with their polarity reversed until a particular load is put on the engine!  Well, she is fixed!  I've really driven the heck out of her over the past week and all seems to be fine.  

On Wednesday, we went over to Smith & Jones and purchased the conversion kit for halogen headlights.  I have never been comfortable with the brightness of my headlights and going to Michigan was a great motivator for putting these on the car.  The first one went in just fine, no problem.  The second one was a different story!  We could get the hi beams to work, but the low beams didn't work.  We tried all different combinations of wiring harnesses and bulbs to finally decide that it was a defective bulb.  So, it was back to Smith & Jones for a new bulb.  Davin, graciously, tested the bulb and sure enough, it was defective.  So, as a preventive measure, we purchased an extra bulb for the trip and left with an exchanged bulb and a spare!  I'll be driving the car at night a few times over the next two weeks, just to make sure all is good with the new lights!