A Steamy Story

Today was a gorgeous day in central PA, with high temp around 70, and clear, sunny skies. Kelly Williams called and said he was going to take his Stanley Steamer out for a shake-down cruise. I suggested the Grant St. Garage as a destination, in case it needed some mid-trip adjustments. He agreed, and said that Mary Ellen and I could have a ride in the Stanley - one at a time in this two-seater.

As we were walking to Grant St, Kelly called again, and said there was a problem. The car was immobile on the side of Marietta Pike, a couple of miles outside the city. We walked on to Grant St. so I could collect the Z3 Coupe and get out there. Not the most likely rescue vehicle, but it was all I had. The truck is in the shop for some gas tank work I wasn't willing to tackle myself.

Once I arrived, I pulled around behind the Stanley and turned on the emergency flashers. Those weren't exactly standard equipment in 1911, so Kelly didn't have them on.

Kelly had done some preliminary unloading and unhooking before I arrived, so I could immediately help him lift off the seat. The problem was then immediately obvious:

It's a little tough to see, but the threaded outlet at letter A should have been threaded into elbow B. Vibration had apparently caused it to back out. The Tee fitting at letter C takes the steam into the engine. We'll talk about that in a minute.

Kelly understands how all this works, which is impressive to me. He did all this plumbing himself.

Even when it is broken, the car is beautiful!

Kelly reattached the plumbing, and then there was an interesting procedure to get the burner re-lit to heat the boiler. In only a couple of minutes, it was ready to test. Except it wasn't a test - Kelly took off, leaving me standing there! I managed to get a brief video:

I took off in pursuit, but didn't catch up until I found the Stanley parked again, right across from the PA College of Art and Design, about 3 blocks from our house. 

Fortunately, he had gotten the perfect parking place - the next-to-front in the row. That allowed me to pull in right in front. That allowed an interesting shot of two two-seat sportsters, separated by almost 90 years.

Remember the Tee fitting at letter C in the photo near the top? Kelly determined that it had broken or come unfixed inside the engine cover. Too complicated to fix on the side of the road, so he called the number on his Hagerty classic insurance card, and they sent a flatbed. Mary Ellen walked down for a photo op:

The best pizza in Lancaster City is the House of Pizza, just a block from the Stanley, so ME and I walked up to order one while Kelly stood guard over the Stanley. We ate on the steps of the College of Art and Design, and the flatbed arrived just as we were finishing. I moved the Coupe and he pulled right in. The sun was so bright, it overwhelmed my cell phone camera, but here's an artistically blurry shot of the Stanley on the truck:

Those of us who make and fix things are remarkably unperturbed by events like this. Kelly will take the Stanley for a week-long driving tour later in the summer, and he was happy that this problem evidenced itself now instead of on that trip. It was all an agreeable adventure, complete with a pizza picnic!