day 372: there and back again. day two. I.

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while we did arrive in albany last night without any significant problems, i did notice that the galaxie was losing power as we climbed the last few hills that surround the city. while it seemed noteworthy, it didn't strike me to be an emergency since i could still make it up the steep inclines at a good speed as long as i downshifted into low gear. but it was noticeable enough that i opened the hood of the car in the dark after we arrived at the hotel to see if i could see anything out of the ordinary, even without a flashlight.

indeed, something was out of the ordinary! the batttery had slipped out of place and fallen into the alternator, mere inches from the radiator fan blades. there isn't a shroud protecting the radiator fan and if the battery had hit the blades the results would have been disasterous. in the dark, i couldn't tell if any serious damage had been done and as i moved the battery back into it's proper position, i could feel a liquid substance on my fingers which i immediately assumed was battery acid. but luckily for me the liquid didn't burn by fingers which is what you'd expect from battery acid and the car was starting fine which is not something you'd expect if the battery had been drained of acid. without any engine lights indicating a major problem, i decided to take a closer look in the bright light of the morning.

shedding a little light on the situation in the morning didn't really add any clarity though. beyond a little bit of fluid on the bottom of the battery and a chunk missing removed from the whirring alternor blades, everything as it should. the car started without any hesitation and the alternator light didn't come on which meant that, amazingly, it hadn't been damaged.

it seemed logical that the battery landing on the alternator must be in some way related to the loss of power when climbing steep hills, but i wasn't smart enough to put all the pieces together to form a coherent theory.

and since we hoped to drive to cleveland, ohio ( about 500 miles or 800 kilometers ) we elected to start driving and see what happened.

of course, some might wonder why the battery was not secured in place. some things seem so obvious with the benefit of hindsight :-)

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Taken with a Nikon D70.
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Taken on July 11, 2005

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day 372: there and back again. day two. I.

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