I finally got up the nerve to go out for a spin. All in all, I went a good
20 miles. There's this guy downtown I have been getting parts from for
ages, and decided it'd be fun to finally drive a Midget down there. Went
slow the entire time, nice drive actually. Plenty of stares (at the car or
the smoke?!?), lots of kids waving...just like old times! :-)
I got almost home and doing fine, so I guess I started feeling a little too
proud or something. Now, what causes an engine to die when you hit the
brakes hard? I noticed several times the engine tried to die on hardish
braking, but usually I am able to hit the gas in time. A light caught me,
and being a sometimes decent citizen, I decided to stop instead of go. Bad
mistake. The engine died on the quick stop and wouldn't come back to life.
It sputtered but wouldn't start. Checked all the wires, no problems.
Seemed there wasn't much gas in the filter. Fuel wasn't getting to the
carb. Unhooked the hose and laid it in the air intakes of the carbs,
nothing came out. So I decided that instead of calling a tow truck, I was
going to suck on the fuel line. Once, twice...you know, gas tastes bad, and
it's the taste that just won't quit! I feel like I could light a match and
blow out some fire. I knew I was going to taste gas though. Anyway, that
did the trick. I heard more stories from people in those few minutes than I
have in years. People kept pulling up and asking if I needed help and we
all laughed and they said either they had an LBC at one time or knew
somebody. Even the officer that stopped said his sister had one (but he
wasn't laughing). People also didn't seem to understand why I had a cell
phone but wasn't using it, until they saw my toolbox. heh heh
One by one, things quit working throughout the trip, though. I think I need
to work on my fuse box. The tach finally gave out when I was almost home
too. The car ran quite well overall, except for the smoke. Do headers
always rattle like that? It's pretty disconcerting, but the guy downtown
said that's just what they do. I also forgot what it was like to drive
around in one of these things in the summer with the heat vents open. :-)
Oh, and the valves were rattling pretty bad. Better find my feeler
guages...
Oh well, just wanted to share!
Adrian,
back on the road, sort of...
('75 Midget)
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