Time for me to report in again.  On Wednesday I took Dennis to SFO, arriving about 3 hours before his flight departure time.  Since there was almost nothing to do there outside of the TSA-secured area, he got in the long line for that agony.  I stood by and watched until he'd cleared, then went back to JimK's, where I spent the night again.  Dennis reported being in the car with his family headed to Macon, GA at about 9 PM.

A long-time GMCNet friend came for a short visit on Thursday morning, then I headed to Manny's.  He'd warned me that road construction in his area would not be cleared until 3:30 PM, so I should delay my arrival.  To avoid the heavy afternoon traffic, I decided to go head to San Jose and park in a shopping center until that time.

The mile or so from Applied GMC toward the interstate went well; everything seemed normal after my engine repair, which hadn't been road tested.  But when I merged into interstate traffic, it was only with the cooperation of other drivers -- I could hardly accelerate to 55 mph!  Californians, because of the always-dense traffic, are not in the mode of  "merging is entering traffic's problem" -- because they do so much of it, the through traffic will yield to merging traffic -- thank goodness, in this case!

It was only a mile to the next exit, so I took that and headed back toward Applied GMC.  By the time I covered those couple of miles, the engine seemed to have warmed up better and there was no problem, so I didn't pull into the lot (I'd have had to disconnect the toad to turn around if I had), but proceeded toward another interstate on-ramp.  With everything now seeming normal again, I got back on the interstate, this time with no problem.  After 10 miles or so, things deteriorated again -- the coach seemed to lose power -- I could hardly keep up with traffic.

So, I exited again, and searched for a shopping center with space for me to park and troubleshoot.  That didn't work well.  Most lots were too small, constricted, and full.  Finally, I wound up stopping in a little-used merge lane at the exit from one of them, right beside the "No Stopping at Any Time" sign.  One of the first things I saw after I got out of the coach was the flat tire on the LF of the Honda!  And wisps of smoke from the brakes.  Guess what, I'd somehow tripped the "dead man switch" cable and had driven all those miles with the brakes applied.  I have a readily visible warning light on the GMC dash that's tied to the toad's brake lights; I'm sure it never came on -- I think.

The toad's rear wheels didn't seem too hot, but the front ones were really steaming.  The normally aluminum-colored wheels were almost gold colored for 6" around the hubs.  The plastic hub caps were loose in their sockets over the spindles, and the valve stem caps were drooping.  REALLY hot! :-(

So, I replaced the LF tire with the spare and turned off the dead man switch.  With those fixes, the GMC suddenly regained all of its power and I proceeded to Manny's.  To get the toad up his hill, he had to use the still-functional parking brake on the CRV, while I drove the GMC.  The front wheels squeaked a bit in one spot, but otherwise his hill was no problem for the GMC; it's now parked in his driveway with a beautiful view of San Jose spread out below.  It's quite a place they've got here!  The only "work" I did that day was to unload the several crates, TH-425 and Manny Brakes, that I'd hauled from GA.

On Friday, I removed the ruined front calipers and rotors and found replacements at AutoZone.  Using Manny's account there, the cost of replacements was only $189.  After bleeding the brakes, the pedal seemed normal, so I didn't test drive the car.  Manny let me watch him dash around the shop and even allowed me to help assemble crates for the shipments he wants to get out on Monday (running me around fro parts meant he didn't make the Friday shipments planned).  Karen Bradley came over for a first-time meeting, and to discuss features of the Manny Brakes.  The lovely lady is just as sharp as you'd expect from her outstanding documentation of the 1-Ton and Manny Brake installations -- nobody's been ghost writing for her!

Saturday morning I needed to run some errands but when I pressed the CRV brake pedal hard before moving, the pedal dropped most of the way to the floor! :-(  And a puddle of brake fluid appeared around the LF tire. I soon found that the hose to that caliper had burst right at the caliper fitting -- heat damaged.  We found the replacement at a large parts store in Fremont, and the hose for the precautionary replacement on the other side at the local AutoZone.  It took only a few minutes to replace both hoses and bleed the brakes again.

My errands included a trip to a Cooper tire dealer (I expected to have to replace the flattened from heat LF Cooper.  Nope.  A new valve stem and proper inflation all around put the tires back in good condition.  After I returned from my errands, Manny actually let me remove the sheet metal from 3 transmissions he'd set up on his work bench for overhauling.  That utilized all of my transmission expertise.  But he did let me put the pans in the wash cabinet and turn it on!  His generosity is overwhelming! :-)

All that strenuous labor, in the heat San Jose's been having, had really worn me down by late afternoon so I retired to the GMC, only to find that I had no water for a shower.  Manny and Deo had departed for a dinner engagement so I had to find the sewer and water connections Manny'd told me were available.  Using all of my extension hoses, I was able to hook up, dump, and fill the H2O tank.  It wasn't long after my shower that I passed out.

This morning, I drug out late to find Manny, whom I thought was leaving early for a family function, working away in his shop.  After watching for a while, I came in to finish this posting.  It's now time for me to leave to visit HER cousin in San Mateo, who's promised me the soul food dinner I missed last week because of the GMC engine failure.  Wish me luck on this excursion with the recently crippled Honda. :-)

Ken H.