I had a great trip.  It was nice to put faces to names  finally.  I really
enjoyed
the Arizona weather and the really great folks.  I spent a total of
about $200 on some Champ parts.  And the Champ made it back to Texas with just
one "burp".   As I was entering Albuquerque, I drove over an expansion joint in
the highway and the truck just DIED!!!   Dang!! off on the shoulder I coasted.
Popped the hood and started looking for some electrical malady.  Finally
noticed that the distributor cap was askew.....It had popped right off. And
when it did, the rotar broke at the base.  Ok....what to do?
I had no spare rotar with me.  I had brought along a roll of electrical
tape......so, I gathered up the two chunks which had broken off inside the
distributor and taped the darn thing back together.  I wrapped it as tightly as
I could, all the while just knowing that it wasn't going to work.  Ok...back in
the cab, turned the key and BINGO!!! It started right up.  Drove on in to
Albuquerque and found an Auto Zone open on Sunday afternoon.   Asked the parts
guy if he had a rotar for a '63 Stude V8.   "Well, I'll have to look in the
"Specialty Book".   "Yes, Sir, I have 2 of them.  $1.79 each."   WOW!!! too
good to be true!
I bought them both.  Put a new one in, and drove on in to Amarillo with no
further glitches.  MPG's were 17.6 for the entire
drive start to finish.  The automatic pulled the mountains between Mesa and
Winslow with no problems at all.  And cruising at 70 on the interstate was no
sweat   Here are some pictures I took of  the cars, the people and the drive
back.
You'll have to manually switch the pictures until you get to William Eastburn's
orange Champ 4X4.  After that, they switch automatically for some reason.
I had a great trip.  It was nice to meet you finally.  I really enjoyed
the Arizona weather and the really great folks.  I spent a total of
about $200 on some Champ parts.  And the Champ made it back to Texas with just
one "burp".   As I was entering Albuquerque, I drove over an expansion joint in
the highway and the truck just DIED!!!   Dang!! off on the shoulder I coasted.
Popped the hood and started looking for some electrical malady.  Finally
noticed that the distributor cap was askew.....It had popped right off. And
when it did, the rotor broke at the base.  Ok....what to do?
I had no spare rotor with me.  I had brought along a roll of electrical
tape......so, I gathered up the two chunks which had broken off inside the
distributor and taped the darn thing back together.  I wrapped it as tightly as
I could, all the while just knowing that it wasn't going to work.  Ok...back in
the cab, turned the key and BINGO!!! It started right up.  Drove on in to
Albuquerque and found an Auto Zone open on Sunday afternoon.   Asked the parts
guy if he had a rotor for a '63 Stude V8.   "Well, I'll have to look in the
"Specialty Book".   "Yes, Sir, I have 2 of them.  $1.79 each."   WOW!!! too
good to be true!
I bought them both.  Put a new one in, and drove on in to Amarillo with no
further glitches.  MPG's were 17.6 for the entire
drive start to finish.  The automatic pulled the mountains between Mesa and
Winslow with no problems at all.  And cruising at 70 on the interstate was no
sweat at all.  Here are some pictures I took of  the cars, the people and the
drive back.
You'll have to manually switch the pictures until you get to William Eastburn's
orange Champ 4X4.  After that, they switch automatically for some reason.
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/arkiejazz/album?.dir=1a2c