Ken, have you ever cleaned out the gas tank?
A friend of mine had a similar problem with his boat. The port engine would just
quite for no explainable reason. We suspected that a piece of masking tape was
floating around in the tank and occasionally blocking the pickup. Since we
couldn't get the tape out, we removed the pickup (a tube about 3 inches long)
and drilled more holes in it. Now the tape can't block the end of the pickup as
it is impossible for all the holes to be blocked. And he has never had a problem
since.
The Spitfire gas tank may seem like a pain in the butt to get out but not nearly
so much as a boat. You can also pump it out from the filler but you can't
guarantee that you will get the offending piece out.
Best of luck
Vic Whitmore
76 Spitfire
Thornhill, Ontario
Ken Tharp wrote:
>
> Listers,
>
> I had something happen on Sunday that I am at a loss to diagnose. I'm
> hoping someone on the list has experienced this before and will know in
> what direction I should look.
>
> On Sunday, I was driving my 79 Spitfire on some back highways. I had
> driven about 30 miles, so the car was good & warmed up. Suddenly, the
> engine coughed a little. It kicked back in, and I was able to drive 1/4
> mile farther before I slowly lost power. It was as if I had run out of
> gasoline, but I had plenty. I sat by the side of the road for a few
> minutes, re-started the car, drove just a few hundred feet, and lost
> power again. This happened two or three more times, and I was pretty
> convinced I was going to have to call my wife to bail me out. I sat for
> another few minutes, re-started the car, and everything was fine. I
> drove it home with no further problems.
>
> This past June, I had similar problems. The fuel pump was replaced at
> that time, and I put in a 160 degree thermostat to attempt to get the
> water temperature down (which helped, by the way). My mechanic and I
> thought we had solved the problem, particularly since it had been over
> three months since experiencing any problems. Now, however, it's deja vu
> all over again. The only difference between yesterday's problems and the
> problems in June was that I was able to drive the car the 30 miles home;
> in June, even when I let it sit overnight where it stalled, I couldn't
> get it to run more than a few hundred feet before losing power the next
> morning.
>
> Help! Needless to say, any type of long trip is out of the question
> until this problem is solved! Thanks for any input on this.
> --
> Ken Tharp
> 79 Spitfire 1500
> West Des Moines, IA
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