James,
Does this mean that you won't be driving it to the Glenwood Rallye next
month? <G>
Bill Dudley
67 MGB Roadster- Original Owner
74 1/2 MGB GT V8 Project
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-mgb-v8@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-mgb-v8@autox.team.net]
On Behalf Of James Nazarian
Sent: Sunday, May 18, 2003 8:05 PM
To: v8; mgs
Subject: What a weekend <Longish>
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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