{"id":1910,"date":"2015-10-29T02:11:48","date_gmt":"2015-10-29T06:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.timeoff.org\/rick\/?p=1910"},"modified":"2015-11-07T21:45:04","modified_gmt":"2015-11-08T02:45:04","slug":"dodge-dart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.timeoff.org\/rick\/2015\/10\/29\/dodge-dart\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodge Dart"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was in my twenties I went through one of my\u00c2\u00a0car-less periods, only a motorcycle for basic transport. Rain or shine, winter or summer, I rode. Jerry, a guy I knew, felt bad for me one wintry day. He gave me a car.<\/p>\n

\"I
I don’t recall the year, but it may have looked something like this. Certainly not as clean.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was an old Dodge Dart. I don’t recall the year.\u00c2\u00a0If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re anywhere near my age you’ve\u00c2\u00a0probably seen thousands upon thousands of\u00c2\u00a0these old Dodge Darts on the road. They were bulletproof<\/em>: slant-six engine; three-speed on the column; torsion-bar suspension; bench seats complete with the saggy back rest. This one was blue. The interior was all musty from sitting in Jerry’s\u00c2\u00a0mom’s backyard for months and months. (She may have pressured him to get it out of there, helping lead to my good fortune.)<\/p>\n

I remember when Jerry bought the Dodge. He wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t much of a mechanic and he had asked for my help with its assessment. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The clutch is slipping some, \u00c2\u00a0you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll need to replace it eventually. But otherwise it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reasonable.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I think he paid a couple hundred for it.<\/p>\n

When I got my hands on that old Dodge the clutch was still<\/em> slipping some. The engine had two operating temperatures: hotter than hell, and hotter<\/span> than hotter than hell. Coolant boiled out regularly;\u00c2\u00a0the water jugs in the backseat were a permanent fixture. But that ol\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 engine\u00c2\u00a0never faltered, not once. In fact, it always delivered excellent heat. And judging by the sludge in the crankcase I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think Jerry ever<\/em> got around to changing the oil in the couple of years he had it. I know I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.<\/p>\n

I used to have fun with that slippery clutch!\u00c2\u00a0I knew a\u00c2\u00a0new friction plate would be cheap and easy to install. It became something of a game to see how much abuse the poor little clutch\u00c2\u00a0could take. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d wind that little engine for all it was worth and sidestep the pedal just to catch a whiff of the burning plate.<\/p>\n

I was using that very technique to enter the highway, pulling out of a\u00c2\u00a0local titty bar one afternoon,\u00c2\u00a0when the clutch signalled it had finally had just about enough. The sound was odd and clunky \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not good at all. A bit of friction remained, though, and the car lurched ahead. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t dare touch the pedal during the short ride home.<\/p>\n

The decision had been a sound\u00c2\u00a0one.\u00c2\u00a0The very next pedal depression was its last. Oh, the pedal would move alright, but it no longer mattered. Engine on or off, pedal or not, any gear could be selected at will while\u00c2\u00a0the car no longer moved on its own.<\/p>\n

So the next weekend I picked up a friction plate, release bearing, and other assorted parts and set to work. The drivetrain and transmission came out easy enough.\u00c2\u00a0But what remained of that poor clutch was a sight to behold. Some dust and shredded friction material along with some broken metal fell out of the housing to\u00c2\u00a0the asphalt. It was one of those moments that fairly begged for a digital camera. But this was WAY before that technology became\u00c2\u00a0ubiquitous. In short order the new clutch was again transferring\u00c2\u00a0engine power to the transmission!<\/p>\n

I was working in Bridgeport, Connecticut at the time and Monday morning I set out from my New Jersey home with confidence. With a week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth of clothing (and several water jugs) in the backseat, all was well with the world and the ride up Route 95 went without incident. But as I reached\u00c2\u00a0the job site there was a mighty clunk from the front end as the left front quarter sagged nearly to the ground. A quick look confirmed my suspicion: the torsion bar had broken free, its mount in the frame rusted out.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, before I checked into my hotel, I found a salvage yard and limped the old Dodge to its final resting place.<\/p>\n

The yard\u00c2\u00a0operator paid me just about enough to cover my clutch parts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was in my twenties I went through one of my\u00c2\u00a0car-less periods, only a motorcycle for basic transport. Rain or shine, winter or summer, I rode. Jerry, a guy I knew, felt bad for me one wintry day. He gave me a car. It was an old Dodge Dart. I don’t recall the year.\u00c2\u00a0If … Continue reading Dodge Dart<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[80,104],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timeoff.org\/rick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1910"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timeoff.org\/rick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timeoff.org\/rick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timeoff.org\/rick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timeoff.org\/rick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timeoff.org\/rick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1910\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timeoff.org\/rick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timeoff.org\/rick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timeoff.org\/rick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}