Well, my MGB's "untowed" streak has ended after roughly 20 years. The
temperature suddenly shot up in heavy traffic in the East Bay on Thursday.
It was clearly due to rapid coolant loss, and I was headed to BART to get to
a meeting in Oakland, so I just left it and walked to the station. When I
got back to the car around 5pm, I bought a gallon of water at the liquor
store and dumped it in and fired it up to see where it would come out. It
turned out to be the heater valve. Since there is no easy way to bypass this
contraption, I had to weigh the value of continuing my string of successful
"limp home" repairs (I was two blocks from an auto parts store, so I could
have got some RTV and gasket material, if there wasn't any in my trunk kit,
and rigged a blockoff) vs. getting grubby in my business clothes and
certainly arriving late at my in-law's for my wife's birthday dinner. Given
that choice, discretion seemed the better part of valor, so I found a pay
phone and called AAA (which my wife only signed us up for a few months ago).
So I arrived on-time, albeit in the wrecker with the B on the hook.
This morning I snipped off some sheet copper, punched two holes into it, and
created a blockoff plate. I had to plug the other heater hose with a 1/2-in
bolt. I drove it home to my house with seemingly no ill effects. The first
place I called for a new valve was out of stock, but I just found one, too
late to pick up today. But I don't really need the heater yet, in this
climate, not since I put the hardtop on at any rate.
--
Max Heim
'66 MGB GHN3L76149
If you're near Mountain View, CA,
it's the primer red one with chrome wires
_______________________________________________
Support Team.Net http://www.team.net/donate.html
Mgs@autox.team.net
http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/mgs
http://www.team.net/archive
|