Hi Scott;
You fuel gauge sender leak is one I had on my car too. A new cover and
gasket fixed that. I also had the dreaded "hole in the tank vent hose"
that crosses over from the driver's side tank to the fuel filler neck.
It's a good idea to renew that hose while you are at it when you have
the tank exposed to fix the sender leak.
The wheel bounce problem is sometimes baffling. Are you running wires?
If so, good luck! If alloy mags or steel, you have to make sure the rims
are straight and true to expect a smooth ride. If you have a bent wheel,
if not too bad they can sometimes be satisfactorily straightened on
special equipment. Around here the price varies between $50 and $100 per
wheel. (Canadian $$$)
If you have straight wheels and new, balanced tires, and they still
bounce/wobble, you might have a "road force variation" problem. This is
a fault related to the tire belts, and there are special machines
designed to find and sometimes fix this condition. "Hunter" has the most
commonly available equipment.
http://www.broadwayautoclinic.com/balance%201.htm
I have had to resort to this cure more than once, as wheel vibration
drives me crazy, which is likely why the vibration gremlins hang around
my garage.
Good luck with sorting out your car. Sounds like you are well on your
way!
Cheers,
Dave Munroe
Subject: My Tiger Stretched it's Legs this Weekend
Well, after all of the work I did on the tiger and the last minute fixes
I made, I am proud to say that the tiger made its first long distance
trip this weekend. It was the first time I took it on the freeway and
the first time I took it for a trip longer than 5 miles!!! I drove it
about 80 miles early on Sunday, and other than a few minor pitfalls, it
was a decent trip.
My steering wheel was still shaking, but after the new tires, not nearly
as bad. I am not sure where else to look to correct for that since I got
an alignment, and the new tires and the rims were not terribly out of
balance. What else.
The biggest two problems I had were bad but became minor due to some
good luck considering how unsafe it was. As I was driving on the 405
with my wife behind me, I could hear what sounded like sparks in the
trunk. As I was pulling over , the car died on me. I open the trunk, and
the hold down brace for the battery (metal) has vibrated to the point
that it easily welded itself to each of the top terminals on the
battery. It was pretty hot and smoking, but I got it unwelded with my
trusty hammer. I left the brace off and hooked up the battery and got a
boost from my truck and it started. Then as I was walking back to the
tiger, I see fuel almost pouring out of the drivers side trunk. It looks
like since this is the first time I actually filled UP the tanks, I
found a bad seal for the fuel sender. Add it to the list. It wasn't
until after I got back on the freeway that I thought about how lucky I
was that the fuel did not meet those sparks from the battery. That would
have been bad.
Well after that it was a good trip. A little noisy and I think my intake
gets too hot since when I stopped for a break, I had to wait 10 minutes
to start it back up. I think the intake/carb just overheat and get vapor
lock or something. What can I do to resolve that? As I said, decent trip
and I hope it was not the last. Thanks to everyone for all the help!!
Scott
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