Ah, the joys of vacation. You stress out from dealing with family and
get behind in your recreation. Here's my take on some recent issues.
1) Dashpot oil in cold weather. In my case, I am using the SU damper
oil. When things get below 40F, I have a terrible time before the engine
compartment warms up. Throttle response is poor and there is a lot of
front-fire on upshift (lean mixture with rapid drop in RPMs and opening
throttle. HOWever, when the engine compartment warms up (a few minutes
after the water temperature stabilizes) the car runs perfectly. Thus I
am loath to change out the damper oil since I only have to suffer a few
miles at the beginning of each drive.
2) MGs and born mechanics... well, I am pretty good at computers and
understand the theory if not the practice of electronics. I am NOT a
born mechanic though, and didn't start tweaking cars until I was 31. Now
that I am 33 I have done an engine rebuild and a host of parts
replacements and adjustments.
2a) Yes, MGs are simple to work on, compared with VTEC or whatever.
Thank goodness!! It's not clear to me, however, that they are much
different than any low priced car of their design era, in terms of
complexity.
2b) No, most folks in the general population don't have the time,
interest, or knowledge base to jump in and start half-turning screws.
Most folks don't know their cars to a deeper level than their VCRs, home
computers, or central heating/air conditioning systems.
3) I think the "priesthood" aspect is fun but doesn't help to spread the
feeling of joy and self-sufficiency we get when treating the car as more
than an appliance. Remember mainframes were the domain of a priesthood
and PCs the domain of the do-it-yourselfers.
John M. Trindle | jtrindle@tsquare.com | Tidewater Sports Car Club
'73 MGB DSP | '69 Spitfire E Stock | '88 RX-7 C Stock
Home Page: http://www.widomaker.com/~trindle
"9. Creativity is great, but plagiarism is faster. (The fifth law of
reality.) - Jack Neafsey"
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