Well, the last two days have been most interesting...
Took the car to get inspected for having a salvage title on Wed. After the
guys at the salvage inspection place asked where the carb was, if the oil
cooler was the air conditioning system and if the MG was a kit car they
passed me. I'm guessing they passed me out of confusion more than
anything.
To get the inspection office I had to drive the car 60 miles on backroads
which it handled fine most of the time. I was noticing that the car would
loose power for a few seconds every few minutes. I replaced with gas
filter with an incorrect one that AutoZone sold me and it got worse. I
managed to drive it another 60 miles back to MG Automotive. We replaced
the gas filter with a correct one, replaced the cracked gas hose from the
carbs to the filter and tightened some clips. We then took the gas hose
off of the carbs and turned the fuel pump on. It was sporadically pumping
gas and air. We looked at the fuel pump and saw that it was new but that
there was a leak around the banjo fitting on the line that goes from the
tank to the pump. I tightened the bolts and saw that it seemed to be
pumping almost perfectly.. I drove it around the block a few times and
seemed to be ok. The next mistake was a big one...
Thinking I had fixed the problem, I started driving it another 60 miles
back to where I live. With only 10 miles left to go, a huge 5 hour
traffic jam appeared (ironically, a semi carrying auto parts had jack
knifed and went over an embankment). The car started to die again despite
running beautifully the entire time. I limped the car over to the side of
the road, disconnected the battery, locked everything up and started
walking to the nearest exit. I called my girlfriend (the best g/f in the
world, no disputes please) and asked her to come pick me up. While I was
waiting I called the state highway patrol and told them that I would get
the car the next evening and to please not tow it. I've ordered a new
banjo connector and a new metal fuel pipe from the gas tank to the pump.
With all that happened and as busy as I was I forgot to drink liquids to
keep myself from being dehydrated in the 83 degree weather that day. When
i finally got home, I got quite sick and had to stay home from work.
I'm going to pick the car up in a few hours when all the roads clear up.
Hopefully the car is still there and nothing has happened to it.
Geoff
--
Geoffrey Gallaway || I dunno, I dream in Perl sometimes.
geoffeg@sloth.org ||
D e v o r z h u n || -- Larry Wall
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