Hello again, everybody!
It seems like an age and a half ago that I turned off my
british-cars subscription before going on vacation to Moscow.
Well, I came back from Moscow safe and sound, but without any
cool iron curtain cars :-). Unfortunately, I had to do ``work''
at work, and so had to hold off on resubscribing.
Since that time, beside spending an entirely unreasonable
amount of time on home improvement, I've had a few british
car adventures....
``The Clankster''( my TR2 ) once again lived up to its
moniker. I was driving home from work, it started making
this terrible noise. It sounded like the engine coming
apart, like broken bits were clattering round and round
in there. I popped the hood, and fully expected to see
a broken fan blade whipping around on a thread, bashing
up the radiator.... Nothing. Although, interestingly
enough, the car was running on one carb! There was a
broken accellerator shaft coupling. The noise seemed
to be coming from the top front of the engine.
I called Bills Towing. ``Tow from Palo Alto to San
Mateo? You say you want a flatbed? That'll be $81,
please :-(. Thank god for plastic.
A busy life prevented me from looking at the Clankster
for a couple of days. I figured( hoped! ) it might be
a broken water pump impeller. My british-car buddy around
the block thought it might be a broken rocker arm pedestal
stud.
I popped the valve cover: studs all ok! ( whew )
Now to look at the water pump. Levered off the fan belt
with a screwdriver.....
The fan belt was missing about three inches of rubber!
Every time that spot with the missing rubber hit a pulley...
*** Clank! ***
Having got the Clankster back on the road, I turned my
attention to my MGA. This little guy has been sitting in
my garage in various stages of undress for the past three
years. It all started with a fried throwout bearing.
Having pulled the engine to get at the bearing, I thought
I might detail the engine compartment a little...
I wound up stripping the engine compartment to bare
metal, taking off the fenders and doors, stripping them to
bare metal, blah blah blah etc etc.
Then home improvement hit. Somehow I wound up building
an addition to my house instead of working on the car! For
two years! Life sucked. I sent the car to a local bodyshop
to be painted. Orange peel city :-(. Not only that, he
oversprayed my gas tank and front end, both of which I had
laboriously stripped and sprayed black Imron. ARGH!
Now the addition is, if not finished, at least weatherproof,
and I can spend a little time on the MG. This Friday, it took
me to work for the first time in three years. True, there was
no interior, just a pair of seats and the dash. And the car
was pulling severely to the right.
Once at work, I inspected the front end: ``gee, how come
this wheel points out when that wheel's pointing straight?''
Luckily, I had thought to bring a few tools, and was able to
do a quickie-by-eye front end alignment there in the parking
lot. Sure enough, the pulling was gone. This morning, my
JC Whitney toe-in guage confirmed that my eyeball alignment
was almost spot-on, just a teensy bit too much toe-in.
In the summer, a young man's fancy turns to carpet.... I
got out the Moss Deluxe carpet set that I'd bought so many
years ago ( say, uh, 7 years ago? ). Uh, oh. None of the
pieces matched anything in the car. Hadn't I checked the
thing when I bought it? What's Moss' policy on 7-year-old
returns, anyway?
( More rooting through the junk )
Whew! Wrong carpet set! That wasn't the MGA set; it
was a TR3 set that I bought from TeriAnn Wakeman. ( Hi there,
TeriAnn! Long time no see! ).
Further rooting produced:
* A new set of Moss sidecurtains
* A new spare tire cover
* A new, 66-month-guarantee JC Whitney top.
( First time I opened that box: the vinyl is ``pinpoint grained'';
I'll hold final judgement until its on the car, but it looks really
cheap in the box. )
* A set of Moss MGA rubber mats.
Gonna be an awesome car. I can hardly wait. Took
two vacation days next week just to work on it. Life is kind
:-).
--
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* Jerry Kaidor jerry@tr2.com, jkaidor@synoptics.com *
* KF6VB *
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