After 14 months in storage, some new tires and a few other checks I
went for a drive in the Sprite today. All in all it did very well
but it is not up to and extended trip. First thing is to burn off
all the old gas which will take a little while with my current do
list. Need to change all the fluids and do a major tuning, it
started missing and to overheat near the top of a big upgrade at
about 75 mph. One of the float bowl needles is not closing so gas is
coming out of the float bowl overflow.
Oh, before going into storage at speeds above about 45 mph the car
would seriously squirm when going over irregularities in the road.
After checking everything I could think of I had concluded that the
belts were separating inside the tires. Todays drive has confirmed
that conclusion. So my comment is regardless of how good a tire
looks if it is more than 6-7 years old you are at serious risk of it
coming apart.
Bob Kitterer
1960 Austin Healey Sprite (Mk IV in disguise)
1966 Austin Healey Sprite Mk III (Trevor)
2000 Miata Special Edition
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