Eine vielversprechende Vorschau auf die Bilder entdeckte Mehl in dieser Woche bei Facebook.

Das Abgefahren Magazin 06/2011 erscheint am 6. Oktober im Handel und ist entweder beim gutsortierten Zeitschriftenkiosk oder im Internet zu beziehen.

Nach ein wenig Recherche kam schnell der Verdacht auf: Eines der Nadellager der Lichtmaschine hat das Zeitliche gesegnet. Überprüfen lässt sich dies, indem man bei laufendem Motor mit einem Schraubenzieher oder einem Hammer an der Geräuschquelle lauscht. Der Schraubenzieher übertragt dann die Laufgeräusche direkt bis ans Ohr und man kann sie gegenüber dem Umgebungsgeräusch (V8-Geblubber) besser wahrnehmen.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hört man nun ein schleifendes oder mahlendes Geräusch stehen die Chancen gut, dass es sich um ein defektes Lager handelt. Auch mit ungeübtem Ohr und ohne einen Vergleich konnte man das bei meiner Lichtmaschine gut ausmachen. Im Video ist es etwa ab 0:09 min zu hören, kommt jedoch live noch deutlicher rüber.

Nach dem Ausbau der Lichtmaschine bestätigte sich der Verdacht recht schnell.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Although I was skeptical till the very end, everything went off without a hitch. Of course I had to take the car for spin with the new plates. Naturally this called the cops into action because I hadn’t yet fixed the license plates properly. But they were very understanding when they stopped my at the local supermarket and turned a blind eye. Day saved!

After all I would like to express my thanks to all the people supporting me in words and deeds on the long journey to registration. Particularly this would be Adrian and my dad, Mehl & Goof, Ralf H., Piwi and thomas from the Mopar Forum Germany. Many thanks to all of you!

Last year Adrian borrowed me the book “60s Cars – Vintage Auto Ads” from his comprehensive fund of literature. That’s where I discovered an advertisement for the ’67 Ford Thunderbird which blew me away because of the car’s fantastic rear lights. Unfortunately the designers seem to have made the front and the rear separately and discovered a bit too late they designed it in different width when putting all together. A likewise stunning rear end appearence could be seen in a picture of the ’69 Chrysler 300 (s. image at the right). Every time I saw this ad the car got me more interested. A bit of Internet research revealed Chrysler hadn’t only made the rear lights even nicer for the next model year, but also teamed up with Hurst Performance, producer of the famous Hurst Shifter, to produce a special variant: the Chrysler 300 Hurst. However this decision wasn’t made until the Chrysler 300 of 1970 was already well in production. Accompanied by the fact that it was hardly advertised, only 485 (or 501 – depending from source) cars were made. In the next (and last) model year 300 Hurst wasn’t offered again.

Given how rare these cars are, I didn’t expect to ever see a 300 Hurst in real life, not to mention to buy one of them. After all even the regular 300s of 1969 to 1971 are hard to find over here. In last year’s early October I finally discovered two 300s at the German car trading site mobile.de. A ’71 Coupé and a 300 Hurst! But I couldn’t imagine at all, a Hurst would be offered for this price. [missing content...]

We also discussed some organizational issues. Besides from the important question of how much it would cost us, we had a talk about such minor points like vaccinations, visas, acquisition of sponsors or team names. At the end of the evening we finally registered our teams at the organizers’ website. By now we are listed as team #195 and #196. The big, unanswered question of the night is still existing though: What’s the meaning of our team name? We really don’t know!

Tonight I met my old friend Oliver who beat us to the draw and took part in this February’s rallye challenge with his team “Steinheim goes Afrika”. He had some quite good hints for us and tried insitently to hold me off from going to Gambia in a Mazda 121 DB. In fact this encourages me even more to do so. I think…

His main arguments against using a 121 were it’s missing all-wheel-drive, the tiny space it offers as well as it’s low clearance resulting in lesser fun going off-road. Nothing you can’t countervail with some improvisation paired with a good load of momentum, I guess.

Just in time for the literature supply a package of spare parts from Austria is on its way to me. It took a bit longer than I expected at first, but the important thing is I can start soon. All this great weather lately got me more and more nervous and I can hardly wait anymore to go for a cruise in the evening.

And because the gagging order doesn’t apply any more now, I’m gonna end the guessing game and disclose the secret. It’s a 1979 AMC Pacer D/L:

“Party on, Wayne!“

That I would buy a small car one day, noone might have expected – me included until three weeks ago! But when I stood in front of the car back then, it was plain sailing. Good condition, low quantity still existing (even in the US, I’ve read), geek factor and fancy design were a clear basis for decision-making.

And now some bare figures: