Yeesh. Battery acid.

btw, how does one accurately ID if a tire is a retread?

Neil.

On 4/13/07, The Bus Depot <vanagon@busdepot.com> wrote:
> > So what's the "unhealthiest" thing(s) you've done, as
> > regards your Vanagon, to keep it running, get it running, come to
> > peace with it,  make amends with it, or just "Keep The Love Alive"?
>
> > Tasted every fluid on board, sometimes intentionally (to ID a
> > puddle), sometimes unintentionally (blorp! drip right in the
> > mouth!), including the grand old master of disgusting tasting
> > automotive fluids, 90 weight gear oil from the differential.
>
>
>
> I'll bet I tasted a fluid you didn't.  Driving in my '77 Westy through
> Nowhere, West Virginia some years ago, I felt a thump and pulled over on the
> interstate ... to find that the tread on my Continental tire had peeled off
> and been left somewhere down the road. (It was a retread, unbeknownst to
> me.)  The tire was still holding air - it just had no tread section at all,
> and looked like a racing slick!   It was about at that point that I also
> noticed some liquid dripping from the engine compartment. It was clear, so
> it couldn't be oil (as a bus owner I knew very well what dripping oil looked
> like). Couldn't be water either, since this Westy was aircooled. So, like an
> idiot, I touched my finger to it and tasted it.
>
> It was battery acid.  Turns out that before bouncing merrily down the road
> behind me, the tread from my tire had punctured the bottom of my bus, the
> battery tray, and the bottom of the battery itself.  Mmm-mmm good!!
>
> We pop-started my bus and drove a mile down the shoulder of the road on our
> new racing slick to a nearby exit, figuring it was a safer place to change a
> tire and hoping there was somewhere nearby that sold batteries. Lo and
> behold, right at the end of the exit ramp was a store called Battery
> Warehouse!
>
> - Ron Salmon
>   The Bus Depot, Inc.
>   www.busdepot.com
>   (215)  234-VWVW
>
> _____________________________________________
> Toll-Free for Orders by PART # :  1-866-BUS-DEPOT
>

--
Neil Nicholson. 1981 Air Cooled Westfalia.

http://web.mac.com/tubaneil