The “Wag” lives again!
After sitting for three months, the throaty growl of the ’74 409 cubic inch monster was heard rumbling though the neighborhood again… Much to the chagrin of my neighbors I’m sure.
Needless to say the battery charger still works and managed to shove enough electrons back into the battery to get things going again. She fired up on the first click of the key.
Man I love old Jeeps.
While the engine room got up to temperature I brushed snow off of the hood and windshield, and then it was time for the really expensive part of the ritual… Gas.
I climbed back into the beast, which is tricky if you’re not used to off-road vehicles as the bottom of the door is two and a half feet off the ground, and chugged out into the street. Oil pressure at 60psi, temperature at 150, pyros reading 700, fuel/air mix reading average… So I goosed the Wag a bit: I was in 2 wheel and the Wag lit up the tires and shot out down the snow packed street out front, obviously happy to be moving again. I pulled onto Highway 6, which is dry and free of snow, and was immediately tailgated by some bozo in an Audi A6 so I did what any sane man driving a 400 hp pre-runner would do… I put my foot in it!
The Wag responded by roaring through its dual 3-inch glass packed exhaust, dropping a gear, and pulling the front end up as we shot from 15 to 50 in the time it took for me to register that I was speeding. The side effect to this show of mechanical testosterone was that a foot thick, four foot wide and 8 foot long slab of snow slid off the roof and onto Mr. Audi’s hood and windshield, effectively burying the little car.
Needless to say he didn’t get within a dozen car lengths after that.
Ok, on to the gas station. I pulled into the local Gas Haus and proceeded to fill up; $20 rolled by, $30 rolled by, $40 rolled by… About this time the station attendant comes out to make sure the pump isn’t leaking or something. At $48 dollars I stopped and he looked relieved, until I took off the other gas cap and started filling again.
See, the Wag holds 50 gallons of fuel in two tanks and won’t even start on less than 90 octane gas, so I have to buy the expensive stuff which right now is $1.98 a gallon.
So, about $100 lighter in the wallet and about 300 pounds heavier in the back end of the Wag, I headed back home by way of the highway. I blew the carbon out of the exhaust and made sure the transmission was still tight with a 100mph pass down I-70 from Avon to Dowd Junction… Yep, I love old Jeeps.
That’s my day so far.
At 3pm I’ll be heading over to Tina and Rick’s place for dinner, but after that I have a sketch to get done before midnight… Sheesh!
Later…