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Varoom, putt putt

To: fot@autox.team.net
Subject: Varoom, putt putt
From: "Mark J. Bradakis" <mjb@autox.team.net>
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 01:24:45 -0700
Well this year's edition of the Beach Party is over, my friend from Port
Townsend has headed off to the west desert, the house is starting to return
to normal, so I spent some time at the shop tonight.  The plan was to just
replace Killer's dead Holley fuel regulator, which I did.  I also fussed with
the carb linkage a bit, and I'm glad I did.

I'm a bit embarassed to admit this, but I should have checked the linkage
long ago.  I could have sworn I did, but the evidence doesn't bear that
out.  Killer sports a pair of Weber 40DCOEs, with this casting from England
that bolts to the top of the forward carb to provide a mounting point for the
throttle cable mechanism.  At one point I moved the lever by hand to "full
open" and peered down a carb throat.  The butterfly was barely half open.

One bellcrank end was hitting the idle adjustment screw, preventing full
throttle.  So now I wonder how long this has been occuring.  Has it been
since the beginning of Killer's career?  Was I not getting full throttle
at the Fort Worth VTR, Killer's first appearence on the national scene?
Could I have beaten John Lye in the autocross?  Could I have picked up 3/4
of a second on each course at Topeka that year and trophied at the SCCA
Nationals if I had full throttle?  Why am I just learning of this problem
now instead of 7 years ago?

The IVR season opener is coming up in a few weeks out at Wendover, and the
plan is to drag Killer out there for the race.  There's also an SCCA test
and tune for this weekend out there, but I doubt I'll be making that, I'll
be at the shop triple checking throttle movement on Killer.  In a few weeks
we'll see how this year's lap times compare to last year.

mjb.

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