We headed out of Paris, started up a long hill, and I noticed a truck stop at the top, so we decided this would be a good time to fuel up for the stretch run. Rachael pulled up to the right of us, Dale crawled out and greeted us with, "Man, this transmission is COOKED!" "What?", Boone and I questioned in unison. "Yeah, I was just getting comfortable again when we started up that hill, she shifted from 2nd to drive, and it flared up then slipped for a ways before it finally found 3rd. I asked her what that was and she told me to go back to sleep!" "Great", Boone muttered and walked over to open the hood of the Belvedere. Dale kept going, "Yeah, she's only been using 2nd and drive, said her DAD told her not to use 1st on the street". Boone spun and gave an accusing glare. "I don't trust her driving without low band apply..which is why the other transmission was supposed to be in here!" I tried to push Dale under the bus. "You Moron", Boone wasn't biting, "3750 lbs. car with 400...(he took an appraising look at Dale) 450 lbs. of humans, 600 lbs. of gear, a stall convertor, and 2.76 gears; and YOU have her taking off in 2nd and short shifting to drive?" "It sounds much worse when you put it like that..." I squirmed. I was still fueling the Valiant as Boone pulled the trans dipstick put a small amount of fluid on his finger, rubbed it between his finger and thumb, and smelled it like some Native American tracker on the trail. "It's burnt pretty good, but I don't think it's toast...probably make it if we change the fluid tomorrow" he spent 15 years building automatics so I trust his judgement on such things. Rachael walked out of the convenience store without a care in the world, and was blindsided by both of her uncles telling her what a poor job of driving she was doing, and explaining thier interpretation of how she should shift the car. I expected tears, anger, something, but she stood there and listened while keeping her emotions in check. She opened her mouth to say something, then just pointed at me. Boone just looked at her and said, "You're an adult now, 'my Dad is an idiot' is no longer a valid excuse!" I walked over to intervene, and looked under the hood of the Belvedere, to my surprise, I saw two stock, steel lines bolted into the bottom of the radiator...now it was my turn! "I thought you put a cooler on this last year!" I exclaimed. "We put one on my Satellite, remember", Dale piped in, while Boone just looked at the ground. "What kind of MORON puts 2.76 gears in a full size B-Body, straps a bottle in it with the intent of running 11's, and doesn't upgrade the trans cooler?" "It's just an 11" convertor..if you drive it right it shouldn't be a problem", Boone muttered, I'll ride with Rachael, and coach her on shifting it."
Dale jumped in with me and we headed on down the road. "We're pretty close aren't we?" Dale asked. "If you consider 140 miles pretty close". "Good Grief....I'm gonna have to re-think some stuff on the Gremlin, even if I woulda finished it, I don't think we'd have survived this first drive!"
