2016
Kingsport, Tennessee

Minutes

Toronado and Aurora Chapter Meeting

OCA National Meet, Kingsport, Tennessee – July 22, 2016

The annual Membership Meeting of the Toronado and Aurora Chapter convened at 4:00 in the Boone and Cherokee Rooms of the Meadowview Marriott Hotel and Convention Center.  After 4 years of the inconvenience of locked meeting rooms, this year we broke the “curse” and had our meeting room all ready to go, before meeting time – what a treat.

The meeting started with the usual self-introductions of all attendees; we found that we had a larger number of Aurora owners than in the past, so I encouraged their involvement in the Chapter as the “younger,” more current aspect of our club.  Jerry Wilson, President of OCA, was in an adjacent meeting room, so he popped in with his own welcome remarks.  He told us there had been an effort to get a  Cord to the show (modified/updated with a 455 FWD drivetrain), but complications got in the way.

Minutes of last year’s meeting were read, with no additions or corrections.

I reported the current balance in the Treasury as $1688.39, about $100 less than last year (and also without the deduction for the recent May/June issue of Toro and Aurora Times).  So, it appears our finances are semi-stable, sometimes hinting at a slight membership fee increase, other times not – we’ll continue at $15 per year as long as we can.

There was no Old Business for discussion.  For New Business, we discussed the TAC T-shirt project that Jeff Draugelis, our President, has been pursuing.  It was decided that he should proceed in, including consideration for not putting Chapter funds at risk.  In that regard, several ideas were agreed upon – pre-order and pre-pay and only produce accordingly, use of the OCA-approved merchandise vendor would hopefully expedite the project, a $15 price plus $10 shipping seemed acceptable, etc.  When eventually available, Ron Ahlston volunteered to handle shipping – many thanks for stepping up, in advance.

This concluded the business meeting, and we moved on to informal floor contributions and discussions.  An attendee told us this year’s Homecoming Show in Lansing, which featured the Toronado on its 50th Anniversary, was a huge success with 60-70 Toros in attendance; there also were 4 or 5 of the development engineers in attendance, offering varied memories of the early days of the Toronado.

There continues to be some interest in the possibility of a merger of our Chapter with the Toronado Owners Association, to which I responded there was no news that I was aware of.

On technical matters, Bruce Howard reported finding a non-NOS C-V joint seal that more closely resembles the multi-fold NOS design – Dorman’s #614-003.  He also described his findings of different thickness steering relay rods and resultant difficulties with fitment of idler and/or pitman arms.  Another offering was the discovery that motor mounts for the ’92 Toro are different from other years.  (I can’t help but wonder why did they make a change for that one final year of production.)

On the Aurora front, several owners reported problems of water leaks into the trunk.  One instance was repaired with replacement of the radio antenna’s rubber gasket.  There was agreement among several that the back edge seal of the trunk lid fits too deep over its support edge; it was suggested that some kind of filler needs to be placed to build up the height of the seal.

Also, several Aurora owners have experienced failures of the gas tank gauge.  The exact cause is apparently uncertain, but it was stated that Auroras do have access panels in the trunk floor which makes it easier to diagnose/replace the sending unit (and fuel pump).

There were several smaller discussions, with the meeting adjourning at 5:30.

Respectfully submitted,

Paul Andreas, Secretary-Treasurer