Dear All,
Having missed the previous TSSC meeting due to the undriveability of
Carly, I was really looking forward to going up to Whitwell last night.
When I got home from work, I raised the bonnet to check the oil and
water before heading off for the distant reaches of Hertfordshire. The
oil was 'way down, and I suddenly noticed that the whole of the front
suspension on the left-hand side off the car was covered in engine oil.
A turn of the key, and it became obvious what the problem was - oil was
literally *spraying* out from the oil filter seal. Given that that oil
filter was only fitted a couple of weeks ago, I felt distinctly miffed.
I nipped up to Halfords in the hope that they might have the correct oil
filter in stock. As I arrived, they were closing the last
roller/shutter door. :-( Nevertheless, I begged the service manager to
help, and to my surprise, he not only had the correct filter in stock,
but also fitted it for me, for nothing (getting himself absolutely
filthy in the process). Thank you, Halfords! There was no sign of
anything wrong with the old one (which makes me nervous about the state
of the thread and sealing face on the block), but that problem does, at
least, seem to have gone away for the moment.
However (there always seems to be a "however" when it comes to Carly),
the problem of her blowing blue smoke out of the exhaust (which had
nearly gone away completely) came back with a vengeance when I topped
her back up. This is particularly galling, since I had managed to
track down some branded 20W50 (Castrol Merit, sold in Jet service
stations), and had had high hopes of it curing the last of the smoke.
Anyway, trailing the occasional cloud of smoke, I drove up the A600 and
arrived at the Bull in Whitwell at exactly the same time as a Herald and
a Vitesse. As we all stood in the car park chatting, a steady stream
of Spitfires rolled up - Red 1976 1500; Cream 1978 1500; Dark Green
Ashley conversion 1966 MkII; Dark Blue 1971 MkIV, followed by a jet
Black 1969 GT6 Mk2. We all parked in a line, and with a bit of luck,
the photos will come out, and you'll see them all in a future issue of
"The Courier". A few more Heralds arrived over the course of the next
hour, and we ended up with the biggest turnout of Triumphs for a club
meeting this year.
A good time was had by all - few of us actually made it into the pub,
but instead stood around in the car park, examining each other's cars
and talking - and I look forward to the next meeting, when I hope to
remember my own camera...
ATB
--
Mike
Michael Hargreave Mawson, author of "Eyewitness in the Crimea"
http://www.greenhillbooks.com/booksheets/eyewitness_in_the_crimea.html
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