This past weekend Jeanette & I had the pleasure of driving from Gnashville
to Oxford, MI for parent/student orientation at Ole Miss. Josh drove down in
his car with one of his hoodlum buddies and Jette & I took the prim down the
Natchez Trace Parkway.
Saturday morning I finally got the steering rack I had gotten from Milo
installed and packed everything up and we got on the road about 3 o'clock.
Handling was somewhat better, though still not what the maroon was (Milo:
I'm afraid I still need a new one). At least it was good enough for me to
feel safe about the trip. I still packed the major toolbox, just in case.
The Natchez Trace is a very good quality road that goes from just outside of
Nashville to, believe it or not, Natchez, Mississippi. It's really kind of a
greenway and has a rather strictly enforced 50 mhp limit. This is not
without good reason, as we saw several deer grazing right up to the road's
edge, and sometimes the view takes enough of your attention that you'd want
to slow down anyway. LOTS of flora and fauna. What a beautiful day.
The prim handled behaved exceptionally; my mpg SHOT up. Usually I get about
15-20 mpg as I live about 3 miles from work and the car seldom gets a chance
to warm up thoroughly, but with the OD in and a steady low speed I was
getting 30 mpg. WOW, I sez, this is great! Then about the time we got to
Tupelo, it started sputtering on over-run and dropping out entirely when
we'd come to a stop. The choke got us to Oxford and out to eat that night.
The next morning I went out to find out what the deal was. Pulled the plugs;
nothing weird there except they were more silvery than the usual kahki,
checked the wires - nothing there; distro hadn't moved. Finally I started it
up and started pulling the wires one by one. #1 died, #2 died, #3 no change,
#4 no change. Hmmm. Must be the carbies, sez I. Pulled off the cleaners and
was met by the sight of stupidity.
Apparently when I replaced the air cleaners, one of the distance pieces
wasn't on the bolt. We did the whole trip with it flopping around inside the
filter and it had eventually gotten lodged inside the carb, keeping the
piston propped up whenever I'd close the throttle. Silly... Put everything
right and she started right up, clean and strong. No other incidents for the
rest of the weekend, except for twice seeing a guy driving around downtown
in a very pretty BRG TD. He saw us as we were parking Friday night and
hollered "Nice car!" as he drove off. Nice town.
The trip home was a repeat of the way there, save that it was so hot we got
about 20 miles past Tupelo and had a vote. The top went up. Sure wish I
still had that zipout rear window, but it WAS much better. Thankfully we
won't be making the trip again until the weather turns a little cooler. BTW
we got 25 mpg on the way back.
Glenn "Checklist" Schnittke
-----------------------------------------
Schmaltzando = A glissando with grease. Preferably chicken.
Glenn Schnittke Recovering Musician
Nashville TN 615-385-2800
glenns@edge.ercnet.com 72147.3635@compuserve.com
'74 MGB - fatally wounded
'69 MGB - prim little touring car
-----------------------------------------
|