My drive-to-work, everyday car is a disreputably kept 1971 Porsche 911 T
showing 329,000 miles on the odometer. The paint scheme is determined by a
collection of junkyard replacements garnered by the 30+ years of utility
driving. The rust is honestly earned and the myriad colors determined by
natural selection.
Mechanically the car is kept to reasonably high standards. Through the years
the running gear has gradually been transformed into something of a sub- "S"
model.
Last week I spent an evening converting the air cleaners on the Weber's to a
later design. This is a flat-six engine with a 3 barrel down-draft
carburetor on each side. In the course of that operation a small washer
fell down one of the throats of the left-hand carburetor. The throttle was
closed so it didn't fall all the way through. After trying to rescue the
washer with one of those magnets on a slide-shaft, I gave up. The magnet
head couldn't get past the flow dividers that direct the intake swirl. There
was nothing to do but pull the carburetor off and turn it upside down and
shake the washer out.
However whilst unclipping the throttle linkage, I accidentally opened the
butterfly and, Opps, the washer dropped through the intake manifold. With
the carb out of the way I could barely see the edge of the washer where it
had lodged half way into the open intake valve. With the first touch of the
magnet-on-a-stick inside the head, the little bugger fell into the
combustion chamber! This had definitely gotten out of hand. Years ago I
learned in a casino, if your luck is running sour, leave the table. So I
closed the shop for the night.
The next day I told my friend, Neil Estes, about my plight. His response
was, "Don't worry about it, I'll get it out." In light of my anxiety, his
cockiness was somewhat offensive. In any event he turned up at my shop that
evening with a stainless steel wire epoxied to a small magnet out of one of
those cheap little screwdrivers with a shirt pocket clip. In less than 90
seconds, at the cost of a steak dinner, he fished the errant washer out of
the combustion chamber! It and the magnet now hang proudly in my shop.
There's an old saw, "smart's good, luck's better." But better yet is a
smart, lucky friend.
Richard L. Taylor
_______________________________________________
Support Team.Net http://www.team.net/donate.html
http://www.fot-racing.com
Fot mailing list
Fot@autox.team.net
http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/fot
|