Wow .. I can't imagine owning a Bricklin without a working hatch. (I've had
to crawl thru & work on the battery, solenoids, etc from that area many
times!). The previous owner must be a masochist!
There's probably no good way to correct this situation -- Bricklin doors
WILL EVENTUALLY FAIL TO WORK! Count on it! Anyway ... here's some additional
thoughts for you.
Take preventative measures to be sure the system doesn't EVER fail! (Yeah,
right ... see note above)
Convert the latches to air (a Tanner mod), make sure your tank can be filled
with compressed air and setup the car to be powered from the outside. That
way, you can fill the tank from the outside (if needed), or power the
switches only (air solenoids don't need it). Shouldn't take much power to
just run the air solenoids...
You could make the doors fault tolerant (separate the air & electrical
systems for each door), or, just mount all the equipment outside of the
passenger compartment where you can get to it in case of failure. Obviously,
you will need to take preventative measures to be sure the system doesn't
EVER fail! :)
Get a fiberglass replacement rear clip and get that hatch back!
P.S. - I generally leave my drivers' side window down when stored over long
periods.... has come in handy from time to time.
-----Original Message-----
From: K M [mailto:symbiotic@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 08, 1998 11:40 PM
To: bricklin@autox.team.net; lasmith@ixlmemphis.com
Subject: Re: Ign.Switch and a glassed hatch
>Also,any suggestions on how to exit a Bricklin
>when the air system fails...I donot have a rear hatch,
>The previous owner(s) glassed the hatch in,with no chance
>of restoring, (back to original)
Quite a modification. As to getting in and out, what I would do,
although it may not be too safe, is to move the latch on the passenger
door sill far enough down so that when the door closes it doesn't latch.
Then you could count on being able to get in that way and so long as you
don't haul a bunch of passengers, it is not too dangerous. The weight of
the door keeps it shut and it is fairly hard to imagine a scenario where
having the door unlatched will hurt someone (but this is coming from a
guy who rides a motorcycle in crazy San Francisco every day).
Next I would rig up a wire or some such device to the interior latch
mechanism so that you could pull it in an emergency from the outside.
Look, there is no way that those air doors are going to be 100%
reliable. There is just too much stuff to go wrong, from the battery,
to all the air lines running all over the place, to the Bricklin's
somewhat unreliable switches, to the regulator, etc., etc. It is so
unreliable that, although I have done a lot of work on mine and I know
the systems very well, I still have a little switch for the compressor
that I shut off overnight and I have a little valve that isolates the
storage tank that I used to use when I figured it was an even money bet
that the doors would screw up.
What you need to deal with is those door latch solenoids -- they are
crappy anyway and if for electrical or mechanical reasons they don't
throw, that car will be hard to get into. Even on my car I leave the
hatch unlatched (no exhaust problem so far but I have been feeling a bit
lightheaded) because the hatch key is somewhat unreliable just so that I
could still get in that way. Alternatively, I have a folding slim jim
that I guess I could get to work if I practiced a bit.
You should not have a problem getting out of the car. Use the inside
latch release and shove the door open. If the failure is a constant
thing, like on both of the cars that I have owned (when I first bought
them -- it is the very first thing that I fixed), get a broomstick to
hold the door open, take out that safety "T" thing on the top of the
cylinder, remove the cylinder so that it is out of the way and prepare
to get some bruises (and stares) getting in and out (you will also screw
up the interior door panel if you do this too much). It is not a pretty
sight. Without reliable doors, these cars are a real pain. Plus, as I
always tell people who come by to talk about the car, this is the only
car that I have ever owned where a person has a decent chance of not
being able to get into it at all. By the way, window glass is about
$250.00 per side. Good luck.
>I guess the window is my escape route..
>If door is shut and windows are up,,I'm in trouble!!!
>Thanks for any help I can get...
>Lloyd #2343
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