a report on an ‘incident’ en route to the

August 8th BBQ

by Al Dann

Bob and Deb Frascatore opened their home for a BBQ for club members, neighbors and friends on a nice early August Saturday.  I’m told* their home in Upton has a fairly large garage, workshop, and a showroom for Bob’s wonderful collection of antique clocks.  [See the Director’s Corner above for more info]

In attendance: Larry Legor (1956 Special), Hal and Phyllis Lund (1957 Century), Ron and Diane Silvia (modern), Paul Wellington (1940 coupe), Jim Terruso and friend Leslie (1969 Skylark), Dave Shipman (1992 Riviera), Jim Shiels (modern), Jon Henry and friend Robin (1967 Electra 225).

*Nancy and I headed for Upton in the ’53 Buick woodie to join the group on this beautiful Saturday and were cruising along the Mass. Pike minding our own business when an awful clatter of metal interrupted the silence.  “Whose car was that?” I wondered as we kept sailing right along.  Several hundred yards later we came upon what used to be a state police building and pulled over to see if we were in trouble.  Boy, were we!  The drive belts were all hanging loose and this strange looking pulley laid in the bottom of the engine compartment.  I didn’t even know what it was at the time.  Turns out it was the harmonic balancer/pulley assembly that bolts to the end of the crankshaft; it had broken off.

A guy approached from the building, which no longer houses the state police, to ask if we needed help.  When seeing the damage he offered to call the AAA tow facility which handles that section of the Pike.  The flat-bed arrived in about 20 minutes (photo at right - “Fit to be towed”) to transport the disabled iron the my mechanic’s shop in Framingham.  From there Nancy and I called a cab to get us home, but it was too late to turn around and make it to the BBQ.

To sum it up, a new balancer/pulley assembly was obtained from Bob Bolduc at Colonial Auto Body in Lowell and successfully installed.  To access the crank area, the radiator had to be removed, so, while out, it was inspected, flushed, and repaired as necessary before being reinstalled.  One of the fan pulleys was slightly bent during the incident, so.it must be replaced in the near future.