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The Drive Home III: Day two – when problems arise

By William Hall, The Drive Home veteran

Any old car, especially those yanked from museums and displays and thrust into winter’s cold, must undergo a shakedown period. The cars on the America’s Automotive Trust/North American International Auto Show‘s winter road rally to Detroit are no different, and now that we have some miles on them, little problems are starting to pop up.

The first was rather unexpected. The rear axle of the dually truck pulling the support trailer had a wheel-bearing failure, and was sidelined for a short time. A quick call to Hagerty Roadside Assistance got the truck off the road and repaired within hours. Of course, with the support truck temporarily down, this set the stage for drama with the other cars.

An overcharge began to melt the positive battery lead on the IH.

The next to fall was the 1962 International Travelette truck of Hagerty and Club Auto. An earlier starting problem had blossomed into a generator/voltage regulator issue. A burning smell at sustained highway speeds (no doubt pulling high rpm on the four-speed transmission truck) was revealed to be an overcharging situation which melted the positive lead and pierced the battery case. The decision was made to disconnect the generator and run off battery power alone to Orlando until a new regulator could be located by the folks at Hagerty (they actually have a concierge for this!) at a local parts supplier.

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