Dear All,
I was hoping that my introduction to this list wouldn't involve such a
serious problem but...
I have owned a '77 spit for about 6 months. PO rebuilt engine (which is a
'78 according to the numbers). PO left car in garage for a couple of years
without driving it before selling to me. I've done quite a bit on it, none
of which, I think, is related to new problem. There's 5-600 miles on the
engine.
Engine has always seemed to run strong; carburator runs too rich but "ok" (I
have a manual choke ordered, which I hope will help). There is a water leak
from around water pump; thermostat works and guage seems to work logically.
Oil pressure light seems to work logically. Monday after driving about 10
miles fine and while going up a hill (it's been up longer and steeper), the
car began to shake. Over the next 1/4 mile, shake rapidly deteriorated (on
level ground). I was quite busy trying to find a place to ditch the car,
etc; but there seemed to be no smoke, temp was fine, no oil light until it
died. Clutch had no effect on engine shaking (which didn't stop until
engine died). Sorry, I'm not good an "characterizing" the problem but it was
like the engine was "out of balance"; it was shaking the whole car, like a
wobble.
A friend towed me home (towed great :) ). Car won't start; it turns over
with a "womp womp", no water in oil, no oil in water, water was down by a
couple of cups, engine and transmission mounts are fine, when the car went
bad - it rapidly deteriorated but there was no sharp breaking sound,
metal-on-metal, or anything that I heard; just seemed to start shaking and
sounding bad.
What should I do to try and figure out what's wrong?
Thanks, brent
b_martin@lifesci.lscf.ucsb.edu
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