1 Steam Cars : Phorum
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Flooded garage
Posted by: SSsssteamer (IP Logged)
Date: October 28, 2004 08:22PM
<HTML>I thought that I had seen it all. After 20 years of driving our 1914 Stanley 606, it is still teaching me new tricks. I drove it yesterday and I put it away with a full tank of water. In two days I am going on an antique car tour, and I wanted it to be ready for quick steaming. Since as the boiler had cooled, it had siphoned a good portion of the tank water into it's boiler, so today I topped off it's water tank again. I noticed that the boiler's reflex water level glass was about 4" from the top. Thinking that the boiler should have siphoned full and that it may just be a bubble trapped behind the glass, I openned the throttle to give the boiler sight glass some vent. The steam chest valve was still closed from yesterday, and I left the garage for lunch. I went back into my garage about three hours later and there was about 20 gallons of water floating over my cement floor and still more water was draining out of my exhaust flue. The Stanley was siphoning water out of the water tank, all the way through the boiler, through the engine and out the exhaust flue (stack). As soon as I closed the throttle, the flow of water soon stopped. What a wet mess. :-( Has anyone else ever had this experience? What other car could continue to give you twenty years of new tricks? ;-)</HTML>
Re: Flooded garage
Posted by: David Nergaard (IP Logged)
Date: October 31, 2004 04:00PM
<HTML>That's a new one. At least it was at home, not something that kept you from getting home. My car broke the square end off the left hand half shaft in the rear axle the last time (obviously!) I drove it this year. Miraculously, the wheel did not come off; it stayed in place long enough to load the car on AAA's flat bed and roll it back into my barn. 34 years, and the car is still finding new ways of NOT getting me home!</HTML>
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