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Reliability

To: spitfires@autox.team.net
Subject: Reliability
From: Douglas Braun & Nadia Papakonstantinou <dougbert@rcn.com>
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1999 09:14:08 -0500
>ok, i'd like to get in on this reliablity thread.

Me too, me too!

In about 9000 miles of driving my Spit, I have never
had to call a towtruck or leave the car at the side of the road
to go and fetch help.

The problems I can remember are:

1: A couple of flats, caused by bad inner tubes.  I changed the tire,
and I was on my way on 10 or 15 minutes.

2: A couple of instances of bad misfiring, caused by carb/fuel line problems.
I got a screwdriver, fiddled with the appropriate things, and was on my way
in 15 minutes.

3: A couple of dead batteries from the lights being left on.  A jump or a push,
and off I went.

4: Running out of gas from not paying attention to the gauge. :-(

But probably there have been a couple of occasions when I got in the car, set
out from home, quickly decided that something wasn't quite right, and
turned around to go back and use my other car.

I did a Bay Area -> Portland, OR trip once, and a Bay Area -> Yosemite trip,
and had no problems then. 

Here are some not-so-obvious things I have in the trunk (apart from the usual
screwdrivers, wrenches, fan belt, etc.):

1: A spare inner tube (I have wire wheels)
2: A wire with an alligator clip on each end.
3: A cheapo mini-voltmeter.
4: A couple of feet of 1/2" heater hose and a couple of clamps.

Doug Braun
'72 Spit


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