I took practically no pics all weekend.
Google thought it had a good bypass for a wreck going through Pigeon Forge. It was wrong, it took over an hour. The only saving grace was that I had to inch DOWNHILL for that hour. The drive through Great Smoky Mountains NP is beautiful, but it's just not worth driving through Pigeon Forge afterward. But there was a small bear wandering around the twisty road it detoured me through:
And on the way back home the Mountain Meet Miata curse struck again. I've driven it 3 times, first time was a combo starter and rear wheel bearing failure, came home on a Uhaul trailer. Second time not so much a curse as me not seeing a nasty pothole and whacking a tire hard enough to slowly leak down over night. And this 3rd time? Just east of Nashville it hesitated, tach dropped, then backfired and continued running several times in a row until it just died. Luckily close enough to an exit to coast off I-40 before stopping. After it cooled a bit it refired and ran for about 30 seconds before dying again for good. From the symptoms I figured either a crank sensor or a Megasquirt fault of some type. Well, only one of those can get fixed on the shoulder of an interstate exit. Late on a Sunday, so just called my wife for a rescue trip and Ubered to a hotel. In the morning we got a new crank sensor and went back. Either that works, or we get a Uhaul trailer and pull it home. Spent about 20 fiddly minutes replacing the crank sensor and.... it worked! Drove home flawlessly, and it will probably do what it's done int he past, get driven a bunch and never have an issue until I take it to MM again. I think it doesn't like Volvos. Since it was parked on an interstate exit overnight it got the green GTFO sticker of shame as a souvenir:
Fun fact on Miata crank sensors. Most sensors I've ever dealt with before are carefully made to bolt on and have a correct air gap, no way to mess it up. Well, the Miata/Mazda engineers have different ideas. The sensor has a single bolt, you snug it gently and then pivot the sensor over into the correct gap. Rotate the front pulley until one of the teeth (I think there are only 4) is next to the sensor, then set the gap using a regular credit card, and tighten the bolt.
