Memphis, TABs, and raucous applause (longish)

[Noah <sitz@xxxx>]

Aside from being a little crispy around the edges (I forgot to put suntan
lotion on my nose. Face yes, nose no. And my brane hasn't fully integrated
"receding hairline" into it's worldview. And so, I shall peel.), Memphis
was a blast. Even my GF (the one with the blond and pink hair that
everyone (including Elvis!) *had* to touch =) ), who isn't into cars all
*that* much says she had fun, and is now jonesing for pigeon forge
(although I suspect that's due at least in part to her desire to run the
Dragon on her new motorcycle.)

Things learned:
===============

Pay attention to the little gremlins; if they're there, they're not going
away, and they have a nasty habit of turning into larger gremlins with
claws, teeth, and a really bad attitude.

When I started my D up for the memphis run, the tach (but not the engine)
spiked to like 9k RPM, then settled down almost immediately to the correct
location. The run to memphis was without incident. While /in/ memphis, I
go to start the car thursday morning, and it won't start. Dash lights,
yes; cranking, no. "Well, that's unfortunate," says I. Got the car bump
started, and I chalk it up to one of the doors being left ajar all night
(further investigation with have revealed that the courtesy light fuse had
previously been pulled by yours truly to prevent such an occurance. I've
been putting off that BrainRAM upgrade for far too long, it seems.) The
rest of memphis was without incident.

On the way /back/, I notice that the tach is spiking all over the place.
We stop for food. After food, car won't start. Car is re-bump started, and
off we go, tach still spiking wildly. A couple of hours later, we spot a
couple of NC DMCs a little way up the road, and accelerate to catch up.
They pull off shortly thereafter and, since I need gas anyway, I followed.
Filled my tank up, and discover I'm dead in the water again. Grand.
Wandered up to the restaurant where the other D owners and gone, and met
Bill Lane (hi, Bill!) who was a) willing to help and b) had a DMC Joe
Assistance account (note that I bought mine yesterday. Hi, Joe!) attempted
a few things, failed to get anywhere, and managed to get a hold of Joe who
was en route someplace and *still* willing to take a few minutes and try
and help me over the phone. "Sounds like a bad ground," says he. At his
suggestion, ran jumpercables from the negative battery terminal to one of
the bolts securing the passenger seatbelt buckle to the frame. Bingo, car
starts. The rest of the trip home, the tach is behaving, and no further
problems were encountered.

What Happened
=============

Two days before departing for memphis, I finished swapping in my TOBYTABs,
including replacing the bushings. The negative line from the battery
grounds to the frame by attaching itself to one of the bolts securing the
passenger side TAB bushing to the frame. Overzealously applied
grease/locktite/anticorrosion compound (I haven't had a chance to get
under the car to determine which), or (possibly) a broken wire killed the
negative ground. Moral: Be careful when you do your TABs, you may disable
your electrical system. Moral2: AlwaysAlwaysAlways carry jumper cables; I
always keep a pair in each car I own... right after I have to go out and
buy a set because my car's dead. I'll learn on of these days, really.
Moral3: if you haven't already, find the carcare course at your local
community college. I don't expect to be able to pull and rebuild and
engine (yet), but this problem was something I should have known how to
fix, darn it. I'm hunting for those classes now.

Big thanks (BIG! HUGE!) go out to Bill Lane, who was cool enough to sit
there with me and try and come up with possible solutions, and who
actually drove me up to the Wal-Mart (man, those things are *everywhere*)
to get jumper cables. Megathanks also to DMC Joe, who pulled his RV off
the highway to help out someone who hadn't (at the time) paid for his
services. Finally, although it's been said half a bazillion times (both
on-list and off), thanks to Ken for putting on the Memphis show. We had an
utter blast.

Noah
#2867