IN NEED OF YOUR HELP!
Due to the loss of the Alien's oil pump, it is now stranded at the Super 8 in Gaylord, Mi. Rick has requested me to located anyone, or who has a friend or relative in the Gaylord, Mi area to watch over the Alien for him.
Please contact Rick on his cell # 218-260-9615 or
cell #218-428-3538. Rick is traveling the northern part of Mi which has few towers. If can't be reached please keep trying both numbers.
Thank you for your help
BS Chairman
Gary Stellmach
248-356-8987

keep this near the top until he gets some help.


B

geez what a place to break down, not much up there at all.

They are in a rental car. The 914 is in lower Michigan.
Sorry for not listing all the info.

bad news...

yup, this sucks.

Has anyone contacted Rick yet?

bump

We were just up there a week ago on vacation. The in-laws have some friends near there. I will keep trying to contact Rick and find out what the cars status is.

I don't know these people all that well but they are a nice older (mid 60ish) couple. I can't speak for them, but I think they would be ok with Ricks car at their place until he can get it back on the road again. If you here from Rick please call me at 219-762-3179. I will keep trying to reach him.

-Garold

Just got off the horn with Rick;
He's prepared to roll out of home tomorrow to retrieve.
I'm plan B: I offered to grab it and trailer it home and garage it if he can't get it.
But I will run up tomorrow to check on it.

He's in good hands...

Rich and Amy Brennick

Hey all,

We made it home in the rental car. But not without incident. A guy blew a stop light and hit us in the right front wheel! This has been a trying day. I just spoke with Rich Brennick. He offered to drive by the Gaylord Super 8 hotel and check on the car tomorrow for me. I'm sure it will be fine there but I'm sure you all will understand my concern. He also offered to pick it up and take it to his place if we can't make it back to get it right away.

BTW: Rich, Sandy and I really enjoyed hanging with you and your wife. It was one of the highlights of our day.

The 918-S was running perfect at about 75 mph. suddenly there was a loud squeeeel for about a second. I stabbed the clutch and the engine stopped. I'm very watchful of the gauges so I know I had about 150 psi on the gauge just prior to the failure. The belt was still on all pulleys but it was chewed up. I loosen the tensioner and checked for a siezed water pump first. That was ok. Then I tried to turn the oil pump. NO GO! DRATS! The local highway patrol stopped and gave us a lift off the freeway.

Ever try to rent a car on Sunday? We spent some time on the cell and located a car about 8 blocks from the conveinence store we were at. (very lucky!)
We bought a tow strap and towed the car off the freeway to the Super 8 lot.
Just then Gary called to check up on us.

GARY! WE LOVE YOU MAN!


Sandy and I both HAVE TO work monday. But were taking Tuesday off and leaving Monday night to recover the car. Gaylord MI. is about 480 miles if we cross the Upper Peninsula. (55 mph and lots of lake shore towns dropping the limit to 30 mph) We figured we could get the car and be home for dinner on Tuesday.

I plan to post all about the wonderful people we met. But I will have to wait until late in the week. I hope all understand. Don't bomb me with questions now please. I have a full plate and I will need to focus on work and getting the car home.

I will say I met some of the most caring and feeling people you could imagine this weekend. Thank you all.

Thank you all!

Sorry to hear this news Rick. I'm glad you and Sandy got home OK though.

Hey Mike, You know what that means..... There will be an Alien Auto-topsy and I will be resurecting the old progress thread. Watch the counter climb!

Very sorry to hear about the Alien, beautiful car. But at least it wasn't the Alien that got smacked by the DA running the stop sign! Hope the damage to the powerplant is minimal!

shit. sorry to hear it rich. i'm sending you a pm.

kevin

...that thought damn near turned my stomach...

ET PHONE HOME.
I feel for you Rich, These projects take time to work the bugs out and right when you think you have, another surfaces. No way of predicting mechanical failures, They even have them on human spaceships.
Good luck be safe.

Chap

928 oil pump remove and replace = PITA. as tight as your engine compartment is I truly hope you can get at it from the firewall access. YOU SHOULD COUNT YOUR BLESSING THE TIMING BELT DID NOT BREAK. That euro motor is and interferance model. I have never heard of an oil pump siezing up on these engines. it is not a gear pump. 150PSI ???? hmm that is pretty hefty. 5 bar is 73 psi and when my motor was warm it would run just to the high side of 5 bar @ 3800 RPM. maybe 90 psi?
oh yea bump

My father has a pole barn and shop just South of Lansing. Don't know if that helps or not but you're welcome to park it there. Plenty of space.

Spent my break time searching for "how to's" about changing out an oil pump. Seems that this is such a rare occurence that nobody has posted about it. Guess you can call 928 International and talk to Mark Anderson. He should be able to give you insight as to what could cause such a thing. Plus they are real good about getting whatever part you need.

He may have heard of you and the Alien by now. Jim Bailey frequents Rennlist where I see you posted also. Sems the only guy to respond to your post there has the same view as I do. Only I am more sympathetic to the cause.

4:00 PM Monday:
Alien security patrol located victim...
Appeared to be sleeping soundly with no missing pieces...
Tucked away nicely...
Let the Super 8 counter gal know what was happening...
Cell VMs to both Rick and Sandy...
Mission complete.
Good Luck Rick.
Call if you need anything.
Rich Brennick

Rich,
It was nice meeting you Saturday. Your car is a beauty!
You need to post some more pics of it in the member thread!
I looooove that green!

Just spoke with Rich, Sandy and I took a vacation day Tuesday.She's a great road trip partner. Were leaving to recover the car later tonight.

Thanks Rich, I feel much better.

I got to thinking...
I could of had TWO flared V8 914s in my garage!
That would have been cool.
Have a safe trip, Rick and Sandy.

Seanery,
Also great to meet you. We'll see you all again.
Rich B

This is really great to see - If it were dire straits, I would have been able to make it up there - it's about 4 hours away though.

Rich, good luck driving thru the UP. Have a Pastie for me...

Later,
Tom

I'm out of here! Going to recover the car. Thanks all!

be safe!

FYI all,

Sandy and I just returned home from a 980 mile round trip across the Upper Penninsula with trailer in tow. The car is home and so are we.

We were never so close to loosing our lifes as we were today. We were traffic traveling 65 mph. 4 cars infront of us stopped behind a car making a left turn. We stopped as well. I always try to leave lots of space between myself and the car directly infront of me just in case.

I looking in my rear view mirror and saw a Jeep Grand Cherokee closing on us fast! The guy did see we had stopped. He slammed on his brakes, I stabbed the gas and closed the distance between our car and the car infront of me.

This gave the Jeep just enough room to clear the end of the trailer as he swerved to the right shoulder! He passed 5 cars half on the blacktop shoulder and half on the tall grass shoulder. I dought his speed dropped under 55 mph.

If I hadn't have gunned the throttle the Alien, my trailer and the wifes Xterra would be history. There is no dought in my mine the driver of the Jeep would have died at that speed.

Anyone know anything about Karma ?

Glad to be home,

Rick and Sandy

damm glad you guys are OK!

one wonders how all these people reach retirement age the way they're driving around here ...
Andy

Holy Crap! Stay off the road for a few days Rick!

Yowza Rich!

I've seen two things piling up in a rear view mirror and there is not much time or room to move -- (mine were trivial in this context!) -- very GLAD to hear you guys are alright!

And yeh, it's good to have the car home/etc

kim.

We all truly appreciate the effort you and Sandy made by coming all that way to share the Alien and your company with us at the MWC. Hope its a better run for you next year (Northwest Airlines?). The 2 trophies should be some consolation
-hawk

A good friend of mine's husband used to drag race an awesome 68 Camaro locally. He was pretty good, but not national or anything. He had just got the car finished after a major engine upgrade and was trailering it to a race. He stopped at a stop light when something very similar happened. Some kid in daddy's Dodge Ram hit him in the rear going about 55 mph, totalled the trailer, the camaro and the Chevy z71 he was driving. Broke his back and put him in the hospital for several months. The kid got a few scratches and bruises.

No doubt your attentiveness saved you and your wife a great deal of hurt. Be safe!

Glad you and Sandy made it back safely.

I've always driven small cars (Miata, Bugeye Sprite, Morgan Plus 8, MG midget, others) and I learned a long time ago to leave plenty of space between my car and the car in front and to pay attention to the rear view mirror. I can't count the number of times I've had to move forward to allow an inatttentive driver more room to slow down. The space has also allowed me to zoom around any car that might have broken down.

Hey Rick,

Glad you guys made it home. Damn, having an 8 conversion break down unexpectedly far from home, what a drag. I can't imaging what that must have been like.

I really enjoyed our brief talk at MWC. I hope you get the Alien up and on it's feet quickly. My daughter hasn't stopped talking about it. I heard her telling one of her little friends about "the Alien car" monday. It was priceless.

Yep, mine was run over by my Dogma..



Sorry bout the problems buddy! Glad you got it home... somewhat safely... :-0



M