So aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?
JJJ
James Nazarian wrote:
>This is one for the books and maybe one for Barney's grapes of wrath pages.
>
>On Thursday we had a torrential downpour and Trisha and I happened to be out
>in my roadster at the time, we had to ford through a 100foot long 6 inch
>deep puddle and then decided that there was just too much rain and we should
>turn around and seek sanctuary at the grocery store. The roads reminded me
>of watching rally cars fording streams, there were huge walls of water on
>either side of the car wherever we drove. We turned around in a fire
>station and forded the same puddle again, unbeknownst to us, on the deep
>side this time. I have a tear in my shift boot and while crossing the
>puddle we went down a drop in the pavement, when we did this a geyser of
>water shot through the shift boot and soaked us both, we made it back to the
>supermarket and wandered around until the rain subsided. When we came back
>out the car wouldn't start, I checked the distributor cap and it had a large
>puddle in it, first time ever that I have had a water problem in the cap,
>but no surprise given the rain.
>
>On Friday morning I started off to help my brother do some work on his car,
>roughly 1/2 mile from home the car died and I was forced to pull into a CVS
>pharmacy. I was expecting water in the electricals or something similar,
>and after some searching I determined that the fuel pump was not working,
>given the fact that I had traveled completely downhill since I left the
>house I don't think it ever came on when I started the car. I hoofed it
>back up the hill to get the g/f's bugeye and went to buy a fuel pump. I got
>into the car and tried to push the water from Thursday's downpour off the
>passenger side of the tonneau and it all went the wrong way via the cowl and
>landed on me; soaked, yet again. The first store I got too only had a
>generic 4.5-7psi pump, no luck on the low pressure one; I went to a second
>autoparts store and asked for a universal fuel pump; for what car? I said
>universal and very hostilly described the square metal ones, I was rebutted
>with a we don't sell anything like that. So back to the first store to buy
>the too strong one, at this point the skies had clouded up and it was
>starting to drizzle.
>
>I bought the pump, some hose, and a cheap wire crimper kit and drove off
>praying that it didn't start to rain. Once I got back to the car I decided
>that for safety I would install the pump in the engine compartment rather
>than climb under the car to work in a parking lot. I installed it near the
>radiator by splicing it into my flex line. I ran the power via a toggle
>switch that I taped to the steering column so that I could switch it of when
>stuck in traffic to avoid flooding the engine. I have always carried wire
>and a spare switch but never a crimper or terminals, go figure. After
>starting the car and verifying that it worked I drove the sprite home and
>started walking back down the hill towards my car. On the way I was stopped
>by a woman at a bus stop wondering where I was heading and to bum her a
>light; after heading about 100 feet downhill I heard her yelling to me so I
>started back up the hill. Upon reaching her she asked me if she could have
>a ride and I declined by way of stuttering and headed back out again. This
>is, perhaps made funnier by another story so I will digress shortly...
>
>A few years ago on our way to a club Halloween party my clutch exploded and
>we were stranded on the side of the highway while waiting for AAA. A car of
>kids stopped and asked if we would buy them gas in exchange for taking us to
>buy gas. I informed them that we did not need gas and we were waiting for a
>tow. They said they would give us a ride if we would buy them gas. I said
>no, they persisted; after a number of f-offs and other kind suggestions they
>left us alone...
>
>I finished the 45 minute drive roughly two and one half hours after starting
>out without issue. After fulfilling my obligations to my brother we took
>his car to get a pressure regulator to control the fuel pump and to install
>the whole works more permanently.
>
>I had every confidence that my original pump would start working again but
>considering that it is currently my only car and it is the original pump I
>took this as a sign and decided to keep the new pump. I installed the
>regulator and set off home with the g/f behind me. Right down the street
>the car ran out of gas and I realized that I had forgotten to set the
>regulator, one quick twist to 3.5psi and we were off. 30 minutes or so
>later the car fell flat on its face, naturally I assumed fuel.
>
>After some prodding I figured out it was lack of spark, not fuel as I would
>have expected. I didn't want to test the theory with open spark because the
>stupid pressure regulator was leaking and I didn't want to blow myself up on
>a dark road at 11:30pm. I cranked the engine over and there was not motion
>of the tack so I felt confident that I was right and set about looking at
>the dizzy. I popped the cap and much to my surprise the wire inside of it
>that went from the coil lead to the binding post had broken. I'm sure
>everyone can relate to an otherwise dependable car having two unrelated
>failures on the same day and so I'll spare you my expletives. Out came the
>crimper and terminals for the second time today and I made up a temporary
>wire to get me home. This time the 45 minute drive only took 1.5 hours.
>
>The next day...Saturday... I set out for my dad's house (same destination as
>Friday) to fix up the dizzy and get some other things done. This time the
>car ran out of gas every 60 seconds and I would have to sit for 60 to refill
>the bowls and get under way again. After about a dozen of those I pulled
>the regulator out of the system, cut a chunk from my radiator overflow pipe
>off and plumbed it in place of the regulator and finished the drive.
>
>Out came the pressure gauge and I determined that the regulator was not
>letting any fuel through. The stock pump had come back to life by now and
>was making 3.5 psi 33 years after having been installed. The new pump was
>making 6 and when left unchecked was filling the charcoal canister with raw
>gas, this would explain why I was able to drive some long stretches, I was
>probably pulling gas right back out of the canister into the engine.
>Anyways... I pulled the regulator off and shimmed the spring to the point
>that I had the regulator flowing within 1/4psi of each of it's marked
>settings, and put everything back together. I made up another distributor
>lead and in the interest of not making a long story any longer, I have made
>it 1.5 days without a problem.
>
>James Nazarian
>71 MGB Tourer
>71 MGBGT V8
>85 Dodge Ram
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