April 2015 newsletter(3 26 edit)

MONTHLY CRUISIN’ with the Mass Cruisers Auto Club

“CRUISIN’ AT THE SPEED OF FUN”

We’re on the Web

www.masscruisers.com

And Facebook

April 2015 Volume 25 Issue 4

Lady Cruisers painted flowers until they dropped. Left. Cast of charac-ters: (L to R, back) Dawn Titus, Marie Armando, Amy Nunes, Ann Hines, Cathy Andrew, Diane Thorn-ton, Laurie Touhey. (Front) Lorna Rabbitt, Marcia Silvestri. Neringa Bryant taking the picture!

We crashed at Diane’s home (page 4). Weekly Cruisin page is back (page 5); the Lady Cruisers paint pretty pictures(page 8). Another session of Wrenchin ’n’ Coffee with Bob Hines was fun and informative (page 9) and Cruiser Roy Rossman demonstrates his technique for growing tin whiskers on a bracket (pages 10 &11). Care to predict when our Bass Pro Cruise Nights will actually begin? Memorial Day is a safe bet.

MONTHLY CRUISIN

Our clubhouse is located at 124 Main Street, Norfolk, behind the Dunkin Donuts shop and across the street from the

police station. For more information please call: 781 551-0520. Visitors, guests and those interested in joining the

Mass Cruisers Auto Club are welcome to attend one of our monthly meetings held on the third Tuesday of

each month in Norfolk.

We’re on the Web!

www.masscruisers.com

Club Officers

President– John Buchanan

Vice President—Diane Thornton

Secretary—Patrick Touhey

Treasurer—Wayne Lestan

Webmaster—Steve Vining

Newsletter Editor—Paul Saulnier

Facebook Admin. – Patrick

Touhey

New Member Liaison—Dole Cole

Sgts. at Arms—Rick Lawlor &

John Sturniolo

Charity Coordination –

Frank Bryant

By-Laws – Roy Rossman

MAAC Representative— John

Buchanan

Special Events

Cruise Night—Steve Huntington

Car Show—Rich Armando

Club Events Calendar – Marcia

Silvestri

Advertising Rates Business card space…….$25.00/yr

To advertise in the Monthly Cruiser, please send a business card and a check for $25.00 to

Mass Cruisers Newsletter P.O.

Box 217, Wrentham, MA.

02093

Directory 2

From the President’s Tail Pipe;

any one want Marcia’s Audi? 3

March 21st Monthly Social

by Diane Thornton 4

Weekly Cruisin

5

Monthly Calendar 6

Car Shows and Events 7

Lady Cruisers Pages

by Marcia Silvestri and

Diane Thornton (cont.)

8

Wrenchin ‘n’ Coffee

by John Buchanan 9

An Environmental Concern

Gone Astray

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -An Environmental Concern

Gone Astray (cont.)

10 - - - - - - - -

11

Page 2 Contact us by snail mail:

P.O. Box 217, Wrentham, MA 02093

Or by email:

[email protected]

From the President’s Tailpipes Monthly Cruisin Page 3

We are coming down to the wire. Will the snow be totally gone from

Lots 14 & 16 for our April 16 opening cruise at Patriot Place; will the forsythia, tulips

and PJM Rhododendrons be in full bloom? We are all suffering from this winter of

2015 that doesn’t want to quit. Is this what it was like leading up to the last ice age?

I am trying to be as positive about feeling ready to get behind the wheel and doing

some serious early April CRUIZN to the first Wheels of Time Cruise in Raynham on the 9th and Herb

Chambers Cars & Coffee on the 11th to get our cruise & car show flyers into the hands of our fellow hard

core enthusiasts, but we keep getting only one or two days in March where the temperature is edging close

to 50 degrees. On the bright side, Bob Hines has rescued our winter doldrums with his highly successful

Saturday morning “Wrenchin’ n’ Coffee” sessions at his Robert’s Automotive shop http://

robertsautomotiveinc.net/ , the monthly socials are always a welcomed stress reliever to help get us

through the winter, thank you 2014/2015 social hosts: Frank & Neringa Bryant, Mark Creighton; Sarojit &

Kumkum Malik (during a snow storm no less) and Diane Thornton. And, the Lady Cruisers have also

stepped up with their first event held at the Patriot Place Muse Paintbar http://musepaintbar.com/patriot-

place/ by testing their inner artistic selves with renderings of promised spring flowers.

Inevitably, spring follows winter, so we’ll be hitting the road in

our favorite rides despite the “Tax Man” who comes along mid-month trying to put a dent in our freedom-

of-the-road enthusiasm. We’ll get through it as we always have with this reminder from my friend and fel-

low car enthusiast, TY; “Life is too short to drive boring cars!”

For Sale (cheap):

2006 AUDI A6 Convertible, 1.8 automatic, 70,000 miles, $7500 or best offer. Call Marcia 508 384 7883

Monthly Cruisin Page 4

March 21st Monthly Social

Hostess Diane Thornton

How many Mass Cruisers can you fit in the Red Wing Diner and in March Madness monthly

social hostess Diane

Thornton’s Dining

Room? At least 25

with some additional

standing room to

spare for the 32 club-

members that at-

tended the March 21

monthly Social. The

question, as we

pulled into the al-

ready packed Red

Wing Diner parking

lot, was how this

monthly social was

going to work out on

a Saturday night after

driving through the

heavy U.S. Route 1

traffic coming from

the New England

Revolution’s home

game at Gillette Stadium and the New England Home Show at the Dana Farber Field House which was in the middle of

its weekend run at Patriot Place. On top of that, inside the Red Wing Diner it was standing room only for waiting din-

ers. Additionally, a big family birthday party snuck into two of the long tables earlier at 5 pm that the diner staff were

planning to use for us and their meals hadn’t been served when we started arriving at 6 pm.

On the chance we could not wait to all be seated together at the same time, the first dozen members arriving at the

Red Wing were seated while the others queued up in the old 1940 era diner area for some before dinner quaffing

while waiting for the earlier birthday party goers to clear out. The food and service, excellent as always, was worth

the wait. Our server, on her second 12 hour shift due to the unusually heavy weekend crowd, was dog tired but she

handled it like a pro. And then, we all exited when done eating to drive the 3.5 miles over to Diane’s newly refurbished home in Walpole for after-dinner dessert & coffee.

The worry about space at Diane’s home did not seem to be a problem either as everyone kind of settled in from the

living room into the dining room, kitchen and the attached garage where she had chairs set up for the guys to hang

out. The pot luck dessert offerings were enough to feed hundreds as usual with a sampling of offerings such as the

stop-light decorated cupcakes that Michael Roy’s two daughters made especially for the social to Mark Creighton’s

home-made friendship bread which I tried for the first time and wound up sneaking out the remaining loaf home under

my coat when no one was looking. Mark says he makes these delicious loafs, 15 at a time, and stockpiles them in his

freezer for special occasions like this.

Thanks Diane for pulling off an impossible recovery with the Red Wing Diner being able to accommodate 32 raucous

car nuts while handling an unusually heavy Saturday night diner dinner crowd.

Monthly Cruisin Page 5

Monthly Cruisin Page 6

May 2015

2nd, shows in Raynham & Seekonk and swapmeet in Mansfield (also on the 3rd)

3rd, more Seekonk and Puerto Rican carshow in Providence

9th, spectator Drag Series, Seekonk speed-way; cars & coffee, Burlington

12th, Business Meeting @ Clubhouse

19th, Members Meeting @ Clubhouse

14th & 28th, Bass Pro Cruise Seasonbegins

April 2015 Su Mo Tue We Th Fri Sat

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

12 * 13 14 * 15 16 17 18 *

19 20 21 * 22 23 24 25

26 * 27 28 29 30

April 2015

12th, Ty-Rods Spring Auto Swap Meet,Stafford Speedway

14th, Business Meeting @ Clubhouse

18th, Wrenchin’n’coffee, Robert’s Automo-tive, Attleboro, Mass. 8AM—Noon

21st, Members Meeting @ Clubhouse

16th & 30th, Bass Pro Cruise Seasonbegins

26, Early ford VB Club Swap Meet, FitchburgAirport

May 2015 Su Mo Tu We Th Fri Sat

1 2 *

3 * 4 5 6 7 8 9 *

10 11 12* 13 14 15 16

17 18 19* 20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27 28 29 30

31

Monthly Cruisin Page 7

Lady Cruisers Pages

by Marcia Silvestri & Diane Thornton

Monthly Cruisin Page 8

Rumor has it:

Sue Chadsey is now free to do all the things she couldn’t get to while working for a living. Jean Waite’s high school basketball-playing grandson has been named MVP by the Boston Globe and the Bos-

ton Herald.

Marcia Silvestri’s new baby grandson will most likely have arrived by the time you read this. Rose Sawayer says she never wants to see another snowflake, and would be happy if she could live some-

where warm for the rest of her life. She gets a statewide “Amen, sister!” on that. Did you see? The facebook posting of the big green “Welcome to Massachusetts” sign, with a smaller

“Closed Mondays” sign tacked on below? Or the usual white “Entering” town sign that read,

“Alaskachusetts” and had a picture of a yeti for the town seal?

Tip ‘o’ the Month: If you have a car accident, never admit you are at fault at the scene, but always make sure you ask if everyone

involved is alright. Many times, people think an accident is their fault, but there are circumstances that could

reduce their responsibility. Wait until much later, until you’re calm, and have time to reflect on what hap-

pened. Unless you were texting, in which case, put on your handcuffs and report to jail.

Above. L to R: Laurie Touhey, Diane

Thornton, Marie Armando, Amy Nunes,

Dawn Titus and Lorna Rabbit.

Above. Up front: Lorna, Dawn, Amy

Facing the camera, one row back: Laurie,

Marie. Next table, back to camera: Cathy

Andrew. Ann Hines seated on the right.

Above. We take the same class together and get such

different results! Such fun! Marcia's painting on the left.

Neringa's on the right.

Monthly Cruisin Page 9

The March 14 monthly “Wrenchin’ n’ Coffee” Saturday session at Bob Hines Robert’s Automotive in Attle-

boro started out great with the DD coffee & St. Patrick’s Day decorated donuts and a box of complimentary

Snap-On Tool catalogs & price lists. Projects for the day were:

John Guravage’s 1967 Chevelle was back in the shop to install a complete Pypes Performance stainless steel ex-

haust system. Mike Rabbit also had his 2005 Dodge Stratus

up on the lift to track down an error code that he could

not clear from the downstream sensor of one bank of the

V-6. Frank Bryant brought in a Vintage Air heat

control switch from his 1940 Ford along with a

voltmeter looking for trouble-shooting assistance

to see if the switch was working O.K. and it was.

Bob Wood was also back at it with the TIG

welder setup for members to again practice there

welding skills.

All in all another good “Wrenchin’ n’ Coffee” session. Let

Bob know what jobs or project work you want to bring in for the next session on April 18 this time, not on the 2nd

Saturday.

Wrenchin’ n’ Coffee Sessions

by John Buchanan

An Environmental Concern Gone Astray

by Roy Rossman with John Buchanan reporting

Monthly Cruisin Page 10

Our March 17 monthly meeting guest speaker was none other than 15 year club member Roy Rossman. Roy

who has been a past club Vice President and President as well as, more recently, keeper of the club’s OFFI-

CIAL BY-LAWS and organizer of our club’s successful annual engine grill drawings these past few cruise sea-

sons, shared some of his past work history by stating he is an Electrical Engineer who was a six-year Navy

veteran, three of which, were with our country’s nuclear submarine service and, not too long ago, an engi-

neer at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth for nine years and, previously, the Yankee Nuclear

Power Plant in Rowe, MA. His inter-

est in the subject he titled, “An Envi-

ronmental Concern Gone Astray” has

to do with a little publicized phenom-

ena called “Tin Whiskers” that re-

sulted from an investigation of a nu-

clear reactor trip failure at the Con-

necticut Millstone #3 reactor in 2005,

one of our country’s many nuclear power station reactors built more

than 25 years ago. The failure was

caused by a common MIL spec. CR47

Zener Diode and was due to a short

to ground caused by a “tin whisker”

resulting in the universal logic board

used in the solid state protection sys-

tem to trip.

The “tin whisker” growth phenomena for lead-tin soldered components results when the lead alloy typically

used in soldering components fails to inhibit the growth of the tin over time or pure tin coated component

leads. The whiskers are 1/10 – 1/100 smaller than a human hair and are very difficult to spot, particularly in

the early years of a circuit board or component’s life. Of course, the drive for reducing a lead free environ-

ment in recent years could possibly have unintended consequences as a result of efforts to find lead alterna-

tive solutions in electronics, hence Roy’s titled presentation “An Environmental Concern Gone

Astray”

Although tin, zinc and cadmium are especially capable of producing whiskers, whiskers can also grow from

other base metals that are used for protective coatings and joining including silver, gold and lead. The photo

that Roy used as a presentation teaser shows an ordinary zinc coated steel ceiling cable clamp that was in

storage for a number of years. The clamp is hard to distinguish with all the “zinc whiskers” growing on it.

Roy Rossman displayingphoto of Zinc Whiskers

An Environmental Concern

Gone Astray (cont.) by John Buchanan

Page 11 Monthly Cruisin

The “whisker” growth problem, ac-

cording to Roy, was first discovered in

our NASA space programs. So why

should a bunch of car enthusiasts be

concerned about whiskers? How about

a 1960 vintage dash harness with re-

lays, switches and a number of other

components that have tin coated elec-

trical leads where shorts to ground are

possible. NASA has documented

whisker failures going back to a 1946

Military failure of cadmium whiskers in

capacitor plates. Cadmium is another

one of those environmental and health

concerns that was replaced by zinc in most applications where it was previ-

ously used.

NASA also documented a 2003 Toyota

Camry Dual Potentiometer Accelera-

tor Pedal Position (APP) Sensor that

failed in 2009. Examination of the failed APP indicated an intermittent resistive short. Further investigation at

Goddard using Scanning Electron Microscopy showed evidence of tin whiskers shorting between the two af-

fected circuit pins. Toyota APP Sensor Failure (Good read)

Unfortunately the “tin whisker” problem can only be detected less than 10% of the time using an ohm meter

and another phenomena that Roy showed a video of was “whisker motion” in the presence of an electro-magnetic field which could result in an intermittent failure mode which is even more difficult to diagnose or

detect.

Roy didn’t identify any easy solutions to recommend if you suspect a “tin Whisker” problem could be causing

electrical failures. He did note he has a headlight switch that exhibited funky intermittent behavior to the

point that he wants to take it apart when he has the time to see if it was in need of a shave. This sounds like

a golden, nay, a tin opportunity for the NHSTA to start using those advertising signs of old: Beware of “tin

whiskers” ; Shorts may COME; Shorts may GO; But, if your car SHORTS; Try BURMA SHAVE!

Zinc Whiskers

April 2015Member meetings are held the 3rd Tuesday of each month at the Norfolk MA clubhouse.

86 Washington Street, Holliston, MA. 01746 (508) 429-4241

www.vintagemotorsportsgarage.com

Cruise Night plaque sponsor for 2015

P.O. Box 217

Wrentham, MA 02093

Monthly Cruisin Last Page