We just got back with the Pontiac.
bang
Winston was happy to see his new car.bang
A light rain was falling as the former owner picked us up at the Winnipeg airport and wouldn't you know, the wipers had quit working. About that time it may have crossed my mind that buying a car on the internet and expecting to drive it 1,300 miles might not have been a great idea, but overall the car looked pretty good.
The car hadn't been driven at all for a couple of years but before that it had been driven daily. We hoped for the best but we also expected to encounter a few problems so we stopped and bought a few tools and looked things over. It turns out the wipers were just stuck. Some of the tires were pretty badly weather cracked but the car seemed to drive smoothly and aside from one loose rocker the engine sounded fine. So we put some new tires on and hit the road.
The sticky lifter stopped ticking after a few hours of driving and the car ran fine most of the way. We did have a problem with the ignition cutting out so we ran a hot wire from a toggle switch to cure that.
Here's a picture I took along the shore of Lake Superior. You can see there's still ice in this bay.
Everything was going great until the center bearing of the driveline seized up.
: Fortunately there was a section of pavement left from the old highway right where we stopped so we pulled the car down there, jacked it up and pulled the driveshaft.
The center bearing was pretty chewed up and pieces of the cage were jamming the rollers but we managed to get it freed up. The pedestal was also broken on one side and the rubber was almost gone. But we lubricated the bearing with some motor oil and used some foam weatherstripping to replace the rubber from the pedestal and hit the road again. The next town was about 80 miles away and I would have bet anything that we wouldn't make it there, but we did.bang
The next morning we called around and nobody had the bearing in stock but they could get one for the next day. So rather than wait we started thinking that maybe it might go a little farther so we headed to the next town where a NAPA Auto Parts store had the bearing but no pedestal.
We got the bearing but didn't change it hoping the old one would last another 300 miles and it did!
So all things considered I'd say we were pretty lucky. The car was really nice to drive and only had a couple of small problems. The rockers and rear quarters are pretty rough but if anything the car is a little better that the owner described it so we're pretty happy with it.
bangWinston was happy to see his new car.
bang
A light rain was falling as the former owner picked us up at the Winnipeg airport and wouldn't you know, the wipers had quit working. About that time it may have crossed my mind that buying a car on the internet and expecting to drive it 1,300 miles might not have been a great idea, but overall the car looked pretty good.
The car hadn't been driven at all for a couple of years but before that it had been driven daily. We hoped for the best but we also expected to encounter a few problems so we stopped and bought a few tools and looked things over. It turns out the wipers were just stuck. Some of the tires were pretty badly weather cracked but the car seemed to drive smoothly and aside from one loose rocker the engine sounded fine. So we put some new tires on and hit the road.
The sticky lifter stopped ticking after a few hours of driving and the car ran fine most of the way. We did have a problem with the ignition cutting out so we ran a hot wire from a toggle switch to cure that.
Here's a picture I took along the shore of Lake Superior. You can see there's still ice in this bay.
Everything was going great until the center bearing of the driveline seized up.
: Fortunately there was a section of pavement left from the old highway right where we stopped so we pulled the car down there, jacked it up and pulled the driveshaft.
The center bearing was pretty chewed up and pieces of the cage were jamming the rollers but we managed to get it freed up. The pedestal was also broken on one side and the rubber was almost gone. But we lubricated the bearing with some motor oil and used some foam weatherstripping to replace the rubber from the pedestal and hit the road again. The next town was about 80 miles away and I would have bet anything that we wouldn't make it there, but we did.
bangThe next morning we called around and nobody had the bearing in stock but they could get one for the next day. So rather than wait we started thinking that maybe it might go a little farther so we headed to the next town where a NAPA Auto Parts store had the bearing but no pedestal.
We got the bearing but didn't change it hoping the old one would last another 300 miles and it did!
So all things considered I'd say we were pretty lucky. The car was really nice to drive and only had a couple of small problems. The rockers and rear quarters are pretty rough but if anything the car is a little better that the owner described it so we're pretty happy with it.
Congrats again on the buy! 
The main thing is, you made it.