Another of the Traveller models I bought. Note the different hubcaps. There are several brands of Traveller. I believe the UKers like them as much as I do. You can see in this seller's representation there are a couple of dark spots where the "wing" mirrors would be affixed. It is explained in at least one brand's literature: if installed before shipment to the final displayer, they are invariably broken off, so they ship in a tiny plastic envelope. No glue provided.

Oops. It ran rough, real rough. I got my compression guage and oil can out of the car (which car I disremember) and set the guy up for a misdirection: compression test showed three goods and a poor; squirt of oil through the sparkplug hole, and a compression test showed no difference. I slapped my forehead and told the guy it seemed there was a bad cylinder, probably a broken ring. It would cost me a whole bunch to fix it. He knocked the price down part of a bunch, then almost a whole bunch, and we agreed to terms. Sold. Five hundred bucks.

Then the valve job, under $30 including springs. Then I went to Fords and Foreigns and traded most of my leftover MG TD SUs for a pair and a manifold from a 998cc Sprite. They installed clean on the Morris, but didn't do much for the hauling-around and up the hill. Raised the top speed after a long run-up, but was not a solution to the skinny torque profile. I suppose the big-diameter exhaust pipe exiting in front of the rear wheel wasn't a good step, either.

So, on with the Judson supercharger. They had improved/simplified the drive since the TD version: no longer required two belts on the pulleys. The carburetor was a Holley downdraft, and the drip-feed for Marvel Mystery Oil was easier to adjust. See photos of just such a kit as the one I installed, courtesy of a gentleman who sold one on eBay For multiples of what I paid.

There was a useful improvement as measured by actual accelleration up the 395 hill. I don't remember what effect it had on mileage. All that testing and trying made me hear a knock in the engine, so I replaced the rod bearings. Did the job in record time, lying on my back in the street outside the apartment. It was no longer a knocker, and after some careful run-in time, ran just as I had hoped it would.

But not as good as it should have: talking (on April 26, 2009) with Fred Puhn about his Traveller (#146 and 147 on this page), he said he did the same with his, and was disappointed at the result. His engineering curiosity led him to research, and he discovered the designers of the supercharger had put the carburetor on backwards. It was made to enrich the mixture on acceleration, and lean it on deceleration as a result of the G force-induced piling-up of fuel on one end or another of the float reservoir. The opposite was in effect with the carb mounted by the Judson factory.

There were a number of neat-os about these little wagons. A twin-size mattress fit nicely between the rear wheel-wells, and could be persuaded to double up over the folded back seat for travel. A sheet of plywood stored between the mattress and the rear floor and slid out supported the extended end. That back seat was easy to flatten for more room. Used as a seat, with a booster it suited Geneva to a tee. And it was storage for countless bottles of Kahlua, Dos Equis, and Mexican Kent cigarette knock-offs . . .

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