Today, for the first time in three years, I took my MGA for
a Long Ride. Well, actually, I took it to work last Friday,
but we'll pretend that doesn't count, OK?
The interior isn't quite yet finished, but I'm fresh out
of patience. First I delivered my son to San Bruno, which
is about 10 miles north of my house. Then I headed south.
I went to work in Silicon Valley via a slight detour. The
road is called ``Old Skyline'', and it's a twisty one,
winding about the mountainous spine of the peninsula.
Coming down into the valley, I noticed a sort of burning
rubber smell. Oh, oh, the new brake shoes. So much for
breaking them in gently :-).
Having arrived at work, I then took my friend Dave, who
also frequents British-cars, out to lunch.
All in all, it was a long hot day for the MG. Coming home
on the superslab, she started to hiccup. I thought, ``woa,
we must be about to run out of gas''. I eased off toward the
right lane, and took the next exit. Pulled into the gas
station. Turned the car off. It ``ran on''. But really
strangely. Usually when a car ``runs on'', it sort of
hiccups and burbles, gradually bumbling to a halt. But this
was a nice smooth idle. After a couple of seconds it stopped.
I filled the car with 92-octane premium ( gonna have to
experiment, find out what `tane it really needs ). Went on
home. Car ran fine. That must have been it, ran out of gas.
Hah! Last turn before the house, car starts hiccuping again.
I pull in, go have supper, come back out. Views of burned
valves, broken rings, fried points, dirty carbs all go through
my head. Then I opened the hood, had a good laugh, and fixed
what was really wrong. Can you guess? ( answer below )
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The ignition coil had come loose, and fallen out of its mount.
It was jammed down between the engine and the frame, and was
still connected. But the hot wire had melted its insulation
into the field wire of the generator, connecting the two wires
together. And this had caused the ``running on''.
Crap! The two most visible wires in my almost-new Moss
wiring harness - burnt! Luckily, only the insulation was hurt.
For the moment, I just taped over the wounds... Have to do
something prettier later.
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* Jerry Kaidor jerry@tr2.com, jkaidor@synoptics.com *
* KF6VB *
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