The cross-country voyage of the Hawaiian 2002

[B-Doon]

Kevin,

Sorry I missed you today! I was out without my cell, and I didn't get your message until this evening. I hope your trip through MO was good....Not much to see or do....but the girls are pretty

Brian

72inka

[KFunk]

How in the hell did that happen? hahahahah

[KFunk]

low and loud!

[KFunk]

ahh ok, so you can see how exciting Kansas City was.... it was kinda weird since I'd been around the nightlife of Honolulu, and somehow I was in Kansas City now... and I have no idea why they took our picture, I'm not in the least bit trendy.... (I'm the one on the left)

But KC was pretty fun and a good place to stop over. Somehow I had it stuck in my mind that Kansas City was like a trading post to go buy and sell cattle, but it was a pretty big city.

Karl (a54atii) got me thinkin again, and I-70 wouldn't be much fun. I keep forgetting to mention, but this whole trip was Karl's idea to begin with. He planted the idea in my head back when he was in Hawaii.... so blame him, haha.

So, I headed up route 24 instead of I-70, which would take me diagonally toward my friend in Normal, IL. It was mostly 2-lane roads thru small towns, so pretty fun and relaxed.

Now, more mechanical wonders:

I've been trying not to mention a weird problem that I first noticed in Arizona. I didn't want to worry anyone, since it was probably just a tuning problem with the carb.

But when I pushed the gas pedal all the way down, the car actually bogged down and ran like crap. I had to accelerate gently. If I floored it, it just stumbled and did nothing. I didn't have complete confidence in the car, and wondered if this was a sign of worse things.

I hadn't yet tuned the carb for new elevations, and avoided the issue.

Well, it was finally starting to bug me, so I did the normal tuning procedure in KC. But still, no improvement. I finally figured out it was mainly only a problem when I tried to kick into the secondary barrel of the carb.

For the outsiders reading this: The carburetor in my car has 2 barrels that dump in fuel to the engine. 90% of the time the smaller primary 32mm barrel is the one that does the work. But when I press down the gas all the way, the big secondary 36mm barrel opens and the car makes angry german growling noises and takes off.

So I was cruising across Illinois today, and it was really starting to bug me. I worried something might be really wrong in the secondary barrel.

Finally I just pulled over next to a cornfield, popped the hood, and took the air filter off to look down in the carb.

It took me a little bit, but then I noticed something weird. I really don't know carbs that well, so please correct me on some terminology. But theres the brass tube thru the center of each barrel, and a slot where the fuel comes out of the brass tube. Well, in the primary barrel, the slot pointed straight down as it should. But for some weird reason, in the secondary barrel, the slot pointed diagonally upward.

Well damn, that was easy to figure out. It's tough to get fuel to go up and then down. So, I just stuck a pencil in there and pushed the slot down.

I drove on, but of course it didn't last. I then decided I had to go ahead and take the top off the carb and fix it right...

So in the next town I found a Napa and dug into it:

I have no idea how that brass tube is supposed to hold in its position. It just rotated freely in there. I asked the guy at Napa, and he had no idea either. I just put a tiny bit of some silicone around the outside of the brass tube, ans slid it in there.

I noticed that my air filter had also been completely filled with crud (in only a few months), but the Napa guy had no idea how to find a Weber filter....

Well I put it back together, and took off. Wow, the car was strong again and accelerated hard when you floored it...Nice to have that back, and regain confidence in the car.

Plus, now I could make it backfire even louder, hahahah.

Then I cruised into the next town, following a horse trailer. Suddenly the throttle jumped wide open on its own. Oh crap, what did I do when I had the carb apart? I coasted on in and looked.

Now re-wind to the time I was in Vegas and took apart my throttle linkage. for some reason I lost the little metal piece thats supposed to hold the threaded part of the horizontal throttle bar in place. I tightened it up really good and let it go.

But now, finally, it had unthreaded all the way and allowed stuff to let go. doh. Ok, i tightened it up and headed on.

I eventually made it to my friends apartment in Normal, IL at Illinois State University. We had a cheap hamburger, and I played with the grasshoppers in his research lab:

OK, tomorrow I'm headed East. I'll try to get ahold of you guys in Dayton, and maybe we can have lunch or dinner real quick. But I probably oughta get goin home quick, as my grandpa wants to see me and he's been having a rough time lately.

Well thanks for everything, and I'll keep on keepin on.

Kevin

[ray_]

http://www.bmwcca.org.

Sign up and then email the editor. The fact that someone drives across the country in an old two is a story in and of itself.Get some rest and updated us.

He may be SOL. Roundel supposedly won't take previously published material, and the internet counts.

Ray

[KFunk]

I don't think there's much reason to take my time and see the sights at this point, since I'm so close to home. Don't really need to drag it out another day, and I'd rather arrive home in the late afternoon or early evening...

So I'm just gonna head down I-74 into Indianapolis, and take I-70 over to Dayton/Columbus. I think I might get to Dayton around 4 pm Eastern time, but thats just a guess. I'd love to get dinner or something with you guys there if you're free, but no big deal if you have to work or you're busy.

I've got Jim's numbers in my cell phone and I'll give you a call just past Indy.

From Columbus I'll have an hour and a half drive down 33, which I know all too well (except I haven't tried the new Lancaster bypass yet).

[Harv]

Congrats on almost making it! I wish I could get the time to drive down to Columbus from Cleveland to see you.

Good luck.

PS. I think the flared end of the venturi (carb part in your hand) points up. Been a while since I messed with carbs. I'll go check one on the shelf.

John

EDIT I went and looked. You can't put them up side down.

[brad_c-ville_VA]

if you make it to VA on 33, shoot me a mail! i'm not far south of 33 in charlottesville.

great story so far!

[-=Charley]

best thread ever.. in the world! hehe glad to see you got thru death valley, i was beginning to worry. great inspiration, hope my 02 can sometime be this cabable.

[KFunk]

Well, there's nothing like stuff falling apart on the homestretch to add some excitement....

But first, here's a pic of a mirage I saw somewhere in Illinois:

The gas price says $1.05. (!!)... and I quickly did a U-turn.... but something is odd about it.

Well, I took off outta Normal, IL and got movin quick down 74 and into Indianapolis. A bit quicker with the restored ponies due to fixing the carb.

Oh, and for that picture of the inside of the carb, its a bit confusing. In that pic, I've already fixed the problem, and I'm holding the venturi upside down to show the slot. The problem was the slot/brass tube within the venturi, not the venturi itself. The brass tube was spinning around freely inside, aiming the slot in the wrong direction.

So yeah, I got down to Indianapolis and rolled thru the middle of town past the speedway.

I pulled in for gas, and called Jim to see what was going on in Dayton.

Then as I got back in the car, some random stranger with a dufflebag walked up to me (in fairly nice clothes). He says "Excuse me sir, can I ask you a question? What size waist you have?" I told him.... and he said "Hey man I'm trying to make a little money, and I'm selling this underwear here in this bag." I quickly tell him I'm broke cuz I'm driving cross-country, and get out of there as quick as I can.

Within a couple blocks, some other bum walked up to the car begging for money, and I told him I was broke.

Does it look like you're rich if you're driving any BMW? Even a really old, abused one? Ah well, I wasn't too impressed by Indy.

So, I keep on a goin at the next light, throw it into 2nd gear. Wait, where's 2nd gear??? I jam it back hard and it finally pops in gear. And the whole shifter justs feels like its gone to crap. I can get it into 1st and 3rd gear, but pulling it back into 2nd and 4th is near impossible.

Well.... hopefully its only a linkage issue. No grinding noises or weird stuff from the transmission itself, but I replaced most everything in the shift linkage like 6 months ago, and if any of that broke it woulda just fallen out completely.

I pulled over at the next rest stop to try and inspect it, but then it starts acting fine again. Then my mom called, and said she had a roast in the oven waiting for me. Ohhh, gettin dinner in Dayton isn't gonna make her too happy.

So I get out on I-70 East and it was a fight, but I got it into 4th gear. I decided I better skip dinner in Dayton partly due to dinner at home waiting for me, and partly because I don't want to chance never being able to get it back into gear once I stop. I wanted to get as close to home as possible, so maybe dad could come get me with a trailer if necessary. So I called Jim and explained quickly.

Normally I've been stopping for coffee a lot more and taking breaks, but this time I just decided to run thru this entire tank of gas in 4th gear until I absolutely had to stop.

On the way, I saw several boats wrapped in plastic:

and, really the best state welcome sign I've seen so far has to be Ohio:

I also found once again that the worst drivers are always in Ohio, as I encountered far more left lane cruisers, and some road rager went nuts on me for unknown reasons.

Well, I kept it in 4th and hauled on thru Columbus, and down onto 33. As the gas guage was about out, I was plannin on stoppin soon. But then I hear the dreaded sound, 'ping! thunk thunk....' of a loose part or forgotten tool flying free and bouncing down the highway. I checked the rearview mirror and saw no carnage behind me.

I quickly checked my throttle to make sure it was OK, shifter still crappy as before, and steering tight.

Well, time to get to the nearest gas station and do some investigative work.

Gotta use a safe and secure jack to get under the car properly...

I slide on under there.... transmission: uhh, still there. transmission mount: still there. I tried wiggling the transmission around, and it seems secure. I reach up to feel the shift linkage, still seems OK. But then I notice the shift platform moves a bit too much when I touch it. OK, so its swinging freely. Feel around the front of the shift platform, where it attaches to the top of the transmission... and yep, one of the bolts for the shifter mounts is missing.

Guess who's workmanship gets blamed for that one, heh. Guess I should've Loc-tited those bolts. Lesson learned.... It's always hard to predict how much stress every part is gonna go thru, but I know I've been horribly abusive on this car, probably moreso than many 02s out there.

Well, its really tough to access those bolts and get them right, and at this stage I really didn't want to mess with it. It was still mostly driveable, so I pressed on. It was still a pain to get into 2nd and 4th gear, and extremely hard to get reverse, but it'd go.

As I got closer to home, it was weird driving these roads in the 2002. I know the roads perfectly well, but the 2002 was always in a completely different world. It's like taking your own car into the roads you know on a video game, just a weird combination of two different worlds.

But its good to be back in familiar air... The car definitely is a little more worse for wear, but nothing that can't be fixed real quick. The engine is still strong and takes off fast when you mash the gas, and it still handles amazingly well. I pulled on into home, and tomorrow I'll start lookin it over. It hasn't been washed since it was in Redwood City, so I'll get some pics of the thick layer of bugs on the front license plate and grille, as well as any more road damage.

I'll try to get some pics around town too, so you guys can see why I left Hawaii for this, hahah.

I already went up to my bro's house to see my cats for the first time since I sent them out via Delta air cargo over a month ago. They seem to be doing a fine, although a bit confused by the cold nights. Diego is still being a big wimp, but warming up to me again.

I've also got to post up some other funny stories and stuff that I keep forgetting.

Time to take care of the little stuff, and hopefully get moving onto a more permanent situation soon.

Brad: Actually, my aunt has already said she can get me into a teaching job real quick in Virginia, so I might be coming over your way! But for now, I need some rest and time to look into all my options.

I've still got some paychecks I need to cash, so I should be OK for a bit.

Well thanks again everyone, and please let me know if any of you need a favor in return someday.

Sorry to the guys in Iowa and farther north, but it didn't seem like it'd be good to take a lot more time going that way. My grandpa has been waiting on me a while, and at the time I had to decide whether to head north, I was a bit worried about the car due to the unknown carburetor problem.

But you never know, I could find a good job on the west coast again and head on back! haha.

[a54atii]

Glad to hear that you made home safely. Sorry we missed seeing you yesterday but there will be other opportunities. Come to the 02 gathering Sunday if you can. It will be fun to hear more of your stories about the trip. Take care and get some rest.

Karl

[brad_c-ville_VA]

sounds good man. keep us VA 02ers posted on your job prospects. always good to have another 02 in VA!

brad.

[jlandreth]

I'll third that motion.I'm in Medina cty.OH.about 4 hrs from Dayton.You can crash here

[_z_]

pretty fantastic saga mate & a great read!

congrats

[andrewro]

That was an awesome trip! Glad you made it safely home. I bet it was great to see your cats again!