[Spridgets] The Sprite Lives

Kitterer Bob bkitterer at mac.com
Tue Apr 8 15:08:14 MDT 2008


After 14 months in storage, some new tires and a few other checks I  
went for a drive in the Sprite today.  All in all it did very well  
but it is not up to and extended trip.  First thing is to burn off  
all the old gas which will take a little while with my current do  
list.  Need to change all the fluids and do a major tuning, it  
started missing and to overheat near the top of a big upgrade at  
about 75 mph.  One of the float bowl needles is not closing so gas is  
coming out of the float bowl overflow.

Oh, before going into storage at speeds above about 45 mph the car  
would seriously squirm when going over irregularities in the road.   
After checking everything I could think of I had concluded that the  
belts were separating inside the tires.  Todays drive has confirmed  
that conclusion.  So my comment is regardless of how good a tire  
looks if it is more than 6-7 years old you are at serious risk of it  
coming apart.

Bob Kitterer

1960 Austin Healey Sprite (Mk IV in disguise)
1966 Austin Healey Sprite Mk III (Trevor)
2000 Miata Special Edition


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