Day one was otherwise uneventful, until it became time to turn on the
lights. Viola, the lights worked fine, but every time I pulled the light
switch the fuse for the dash lights (and the rear running lights, radio and
most of the interior accessories) would blow. That would not have been a
problem, except that motel rooms in rural Iowa are few and far between.
Finally, about 11:00 p.m. an oasis appeared in the form of a "tourist" motel
in Sloan, Ia. (560 miles) There would be time to sort out the lights in the
daylight. I wasn't going to make the west coast if I was spending half my
travel time working on the car.
It was actually two days later that I found a short in the accessory circuit
causing the blown fuses. Once again, Dan's wiring harness was faultless.
It was my stupid attempts at adding things that created the problem.
Flying up a portion of I29 in western Iowa, the miss came back with a
vengeance. At Sioux City I decided it was time to stop and sort it out. It
was really an opportunity to re-evaluate this whole scheme. As I exited the
highway and pulled into a used car lot the car died completely. After much
cussing and head scratching (and a call to technical support) I was of the
opinion that yet another electronic ignition module had gone bad. It was a
lousy position to be in as I was already 600+ miles from home and the only
real option would have been to lay over a few days while the part was quick
shipped in. Closer examination revealed that the wires from the module had
wrapped around the dizzy shaft and been broken. A quick trip to the parts
store and I was able to tape the feed wires back together. The car was
running strong and all indications were that the miss were gone! Yahoo,
maybe this was the end of the car problems.
NOT. I came to a stop sign in the beautiful metropolis of Butte, NE and
gunned it to pull away. Once again, everything stopped completely. I then
coasted into the parking lot of the only business in town, which just
happened to be a Massey-Ferguson tractor dealership. (You have got to
appreciate the irony of that situation!). Once again the wires from the
Mallory electronic distributor had fouled with the dizzy shaft, this time
breaking all of the wires. After pulling the various parts out, I carried
the electronic module and the connector into the shop and the mechanic took
the time to fix me up with proper connections and wrapped the harness. It
was only because the fellow was willing to take time to do it right (and
cannibalize an old radio harness he happened to have laying around to get
the right pin connector) that this trip was able to happen at all. 17 bucks
and 2 hours later and we were back on the road. Knock on wood, that was the
last major problem. I highly recommend the M-F deal in Butte NE, if you
need a good Triumph mechanic :).
Northern Nebraska and Southern South Dakota are particularly desolate,
especially on the back roads. The ONLY other traffic seemed to be a kid on
a hot motorcycle with whom I danced for several hours. At a stop late that
afternoon he told me he was on his way to Sturgis for bike week.
(to be continued)
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