The Steering Column
From your Co-chairmen

Russ Meyhaffey's
Right Hand Drive

Where did it all go? We’ve asked this question to ourselves many times, especially about time and money. But in my case right now the question is about…oil. Granted we deal with LBC’s (or is that, LBL’s – Little British Leakers) but this is ridiculous!
At the risk of repeating myself, thank you to everyone that helped - manually and spiritually - in the rebuild of my A’s gearbox and engine. The engine re-install took place the day before the BCU show (Saturday, September 9th to be exact) thanks to a couple last-minute recruits (John Schroeder and Don Anderson). Everything goes back together properly and in its place, torqued to the proper specifications (kinda) with only a few leftover nuts and bolts. Well, not so much leftover, but replaced as necessary!
We were well pleased that, after all the miscellaneous connections were made and a shot of ether, we got IGNITION! Stop…restart…stop…and restart. No leaks, no grinding or whining noise so we’re good-to-go, right? Get back in the British car stuff, right? Not quite, other commitments kept us away from BCU the next day. The weather was really bad for BCU unfortunately this year so we weren’t kicking ourselves too much. We didn’t try to make up for lost drive-time but over the next week, Amy and I had some evening drives to get the car reacquainted with us.
Beautiful. Four weeks behind schedule, missed club and other driving events but we’re back! We head off for the Second Annual Beer, Wine, Cheese and Shakespeare Tour which was absolutely terrific! As great as that trip was, this will be my lasting memory: 9.5 quarts of oil. You know it’s bad when you can count your oil usage in gallons! As we drove through the small towns of Wisconsin on a lovely Sunday with people on their front porches and lawns waving at our LBC (or LBL) caravan, I couldn’t help but think: They wouldn’t be waving if they knew how much oil I was smearing on their roads!
I haven’t been able to assess the situation yet, though I have a few suspicions to check first (rear engine plate, rear oil pan area and crankshaft rear end). It’s not burning oil, it’s an oil leak. But anyone traveling behind me will smell the oil being burned off the tailpipe! We’re not out for the year yet though. I look at it as a continuous oil change!
Other stories in this issue cover the B-W-C and S Tour but I have to lend my “Great Job” and “Thank You” comments to John and Ann for a another terrific Wisconsin trip! Be Safe!