That's cool. But this was more of a gusher than a leak. And I had to cross a
toll bridge to get home -- it would have been a real bad place to get
stranded, without a cell phone.
--
Max Heim
'66 MGB GHN3L76149
If you're near Mountain View, CA,
it's the primer red one with chrome wires
on 11/8/08 5:03 PM, Simon Matthews at simon.d.matthews@gmail.com wrote:
> Max,
>
> When I had a heater valve start leaking, I was able to get home (just
> a few miles for me) by removing the radiator cap. The heater valve was
> only leaking under pressure and removing the pressure stopped the
> leak!
>
> Regards,
> Simon
>
> On Sat, Nov 8, 2008 at 2:59 PM, Max Heim <max_heim@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>> 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
>> _______________________________________________
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