The Commute From Hell!

[jlandry@domain.elided (John A. Landry)]

Well, it was my turn this morning for the commute from hell!

I drive approximately 33 miles to work on the busy I5 freeway between
Olympia and Tacoma Washington.  To start off there was a 5 mile backup
where a car had previously stalled in a one lane open construction zone.
The car had long since been cleared, but the stupid highway construction
crew decided to head for home without removing the "MERGE RIGHT" and "LEFT
TWO LANES CLOSED" signs in the several miles leading up to the scene.  So
you have mass confusion as everyone is trying to merge into one lane for no
apparent reason.  Thank god for having a CB and for truckers nice enough to
call back and let everyone know the lanes weren't closed off.

What does this have to do with IH?  I'm getting there... trust me!

So I go another 10 miles and hit another backup.  I'm in the lane second
from the left of five lanes.  As traffic rapidly slows down to a crawl, my
trusty old Traveler decides it's time to misbehave.  As I close the
throttle, it basically begins to shudder and die.  I quickly hit the
throttle and the engine roars back to life.  But because of the restricted
traffic, I had little time or room to do much of anything.  I discovered
that as long as I kept the throttle open, it seemed to run perfectly, but
as soon as I lifted my foot from the accelerator pedal it would shudder and
begin to die.

There's no way to describe the feeling of terror and aloneness when your
car begins to break down in rush hour traffic and you've got 3 whole lanes
of bumper to bumper traffic to cross before reaching the shoulder... you
have to experience it to fully appreciate it.  I had a hell of a time
getting anyone to let me change lanes (normal around here) while I jockeyed
the throttle and brake.  I had to restart the engine several times... which
is the weird thing... it would restart just fine.

My guardian angel was watching out for me today and I survived the crazed
drivers to make it to an exit lane where I managed to get off the freeway.
The first light I stopped at the engine died.  It easily restarted.  Next
light, sane thing but not as bad.  By the third light, the problem was
almost completely gone.  I finished driving the 8 or 10 miles to work on
surface streets without any symptoms of the problem.

Now I'm paranoid to take the truck on the freeway to get home, but I have
no other choice for a large part of the commute.  You can be sure the
extreme right hand lane will be my home on the drive!  I just which I had a
clue as to what could have caused this.  I plan to poke around at lunch to
see if anything stands out, but I doubt I'll see anything.  The symptoms
son't immediately stand out as a red flag to me.

If it were fuel supply related (like a plugged filter or failing fuel
pump), I'd think the engine performance would be worse at higher rpms than
at idle.  I suppose it could be ignition related.  I run an MSD 6A and it's
never given me problems before.  I would think it would just plain quit if
it had problems.  I thought it might be a problem with the idle circuit in
the Edelbrock carburetor, but I find it hard to believe both of the twin
circuits in the carb would plug up at once and then all of a sudden clean
themselves out.  This is really strange.

Why is it that an engine will never fail right as you pull into your
driveway?  Any one have any ideas?

John
NOTE: To reply, replace "mouse-potato" with "halcyon" in e-mail address!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
jlandry AT halcyon DOT com       |
Conservative Libertarian         |   1976 Red / White / Blue (and rust)
Life Member of the NRA           |  "Bicentennial" IHC Scout II Traveler
WA Arms Collectors               |
Commercial Helicopter - Inst.    |     Own and drive an International 
http://www.halcyon.com/jlandry/  |   It's a project to last a lifetime!