So the Blue Volvo has been acting up.  The transmission light has been blinking and the engine has been stuttering.  I checked the codes (thanks to Brochu Citgo!) and it says it’s the throttle position sensor.  I cleared those codes and the car was fine, so off we went to Mount Washington. I brought a small socket/wrench set with me because of it, which I generally don’t do.

The car was fine – until we started up the road.  Then the transmission problem returned.  Harumph.  I kept it in 2nd gear, because 1st gear was worse, and we made it to our station, Air Force.  This is the last checkpoint before the finish line.  When we got there we were in the clouds.

I pulled in to the parking area and as I turned the car around I smelled coolant.  I looked at the gauge and it was on the red line!  Holy crap! I have never had any cooling problem on any of the 850s I’ve owned, so this was a new one. I parked the car and turned off the motor, then jumped out and opened the hood.  Smoke was pouring out of the electric fan motor!  I disconnected it’s power cable and got back into the car, for it was 41˚(F) with a 30 MPH wind, and I hadn’t put on my winter jacket.  I was concerned about a fire and I didn’t have an extinguisher – but I did have lots of bottles of water.

So I kept getting out of the car and checking the smoke, wanting to make sure the car didn’t catch on fire…

It cooled off alright.  I called Cliff, the ham organizer and asked him to call Stephanie and ask her to look for a replacement fan in Gorham, the nearest town.  I figured I could coast the car down the mountain and limp it into Goreham, which is all downhill from the summit.

I heard back from Net Control that she couldn’t find anything in Goreham, they were all closed on Saturday, but she cold get one from Gates Salvage in Hardwick, and she’d bring it to me.  But she was going to cover Audrey’s radio show, so she couldn’t get there until 3 PM.

So we had a nice race event and went up to the summit afterwards.  But the clouds were still cold so we couldn’t do much outside.

At 1 PM (about an hour) we headed down. It was great because there was NO down-bound traffic, so I put the car into 1st and let it roll as fast as it wanted to go.  When it got to 4000 RPM, Id brake back down to 2K. The engine didn’t overheat because we never hit the gas.

At the base, I went across the main road to the parking lot of the Auto Road, so the kids had something to do, and I got to work on the fan.

I had it about 3/4 the way out when I took a break.  Errol was on top of an embankment and so I went up there for a minute.  Suddenly he said, “There’s mom!” I looked over and Stephanie was in the green Pathinder talking to the traffic control sheriff. I called her name and she heard me, and came right in.

It took about another half hour to finish replacing the fan, and then we all caravanned back to Vermont.

What an adventure!