BC FCA Whistler-Lillooet Drive

The BC chapter of the FCA sponsored a weekend trip to Whistler with a drive for lunch at Lillooet on Sunday.

I talked a fellow Ferrari friend to coming along in his 328 while I went in the 330.  Boy, I am glad I had Jeff as a wing man.

The weather forecast for BC was iffy, with rain or showers expected for the weekend.  At least it wasn't going to be a downpour as in 2003.  The closer to the border we got, the heavier the showers became.  My GPS was showing a big backup on the usual way, so we ended up on an alternate way through part of Vancouver.  During this, the wipers would sometimes stop working, but turning them off and back on would bring them back to life, at least the first few times.

This was when I noticed that the ammeter was mostly on the discharge side with only a few brief seconds at a stop light when it was charging heavily.

So we made it through the Vancouver surface streets and back on Canada 1.  By now, the wipers were completely stopped and there was lots of spray.  Once we were going, it was better, but then we hit another backup in N. Vancouver.  This was truly stop and go, mostly stop.  Now I was watching the ammeter like a hawk and as we were mainly stopped, the water temperature started going up, eventually causing the electric fans to go on.  So, instead of about a 6-8 amp draw to run the car, with the fans, it was ~15 amps.  We did get clear of the backup after a stop to let the car cool a bit.  Then the airflow cooled the radiator so the fans were no longer needed.  At a pull-out a little later, when the rain had slackened, I pulled the fuse panel cover and checked all of the fuses.  They were fine, but I noticed the passenger wiper arm was a bit cocked.  When I went to straighten it, the arm and blade came right off.  With the passenger side off, the wipers went back to normal operation.  I think that the cocked arm was just causing a drag and stalling the motor.

So now, I had a driver's side wiper (no passenger, so I didn't need to see out that side) and no fans needed, it was time to go on to Whistler.  At a fuel stop in Squamish, the battery was now low enough that the car would not restart.  This is where Jeff came in.  There was a Canadian Tire store a short drive (or a long walk) away.  We went down there and explained the problem to the counter lady, who also happened to be the auto center manager.  She actually was able to look up a 1966 Ferrari 330 GT battery in her parts computer.  The battery wasn't the correct large 27F size, but it did have the posts in the correct place and the right height and depth.  She checked the charge of the first battery on the shelf and it had a 100% charge.  This was good as it had to power the car the rest of the way to Whistler, about an hour drive.  I also bought a set of adjustable wrenches as the only tools in the car were the Ferrari toolkit ones which are metric.  Of course, the battery terminals are American sizes.  Now back to the 330 with the battery between my feet on the passenger side of the 328.  Did I mention that it was still raining,  Jeff kindly held an umbrella over me as I removed the dead battery and put in the new one.

Success, the car started and we made it the rest of the way to Whistler.  Once in my condo, I put a battery charger on the dead battery and gave it a full charge.

That night we met two couples from the BC group for dinner at the beer festival that was going on.  It turns out that they were the only ones that were staying overnight.

On Sunday morning, the weather was just as bad and with only two other cars for the drive to Lillooet, Jeff decided to head back home.  So I charged up the new battery that was in the car and packed the old one in the trunk as a spare.  I went down to the hotel where the others were staying and found an additional 10 Ferraris had driven up from Vancouver for the lunch drive to Lillooet.  I still only had one wiper, but with a freshly charged battery and a spare in the trunk and no slow traffic expected, I wasn't worried about getting stuck.

The drive to Lillooet over the Duffy Lake road is pretty spectacular, though it's even better on dry roads.  Many, many tight turns and not a lot of traffic.  I had decided to only go as far as Duffy Lake as one has driven the most interesting part of the trip by then.  I've done this before and really enjoyed that trip.  I had expected everybody to stop at Duffy Lake for a photo op, but as it was still raining the rest went on while I turned around and headed back to Whistler.

The weather for Monday was forecast to be much better, so I stayed Sunday night and drove home on Monday.  Of course, I charged the new battery back up and made it home the 4½ drive without having to swap.

Well, not exactly a smooth trip, but I didn't have to have the car flat bedded like the last Whistler trip, so I considered it a success.  Jeff did save me about a mile walk each direction, one of which would have been carrying a battery, so I owe him a lot.

Click for the continuing saga on the charging issue.