[TR] A flood of flukes

[Geo Hahn]

I sometimes wonder what the ratio is between time spent working on the car
and time spent driving.

I suspect it may be close to 1:1 but, like that box of receipts I have, I'm
better off not knowing the specific totals.

Geo

On Tue, Jun 25, 2019 at 2:04 PM TERRY SMITH <terryrs at comcast.net> wrote:

> My wife had an old college roommate over for lunch on Sunday, so better
> part of valor I made myself scarce with a 4 and a half hour aimless drive
> in the TR3.  I should say four hours and twenty-eight minutes, because
> exactly two minutes from home the car lost all power.  No coughing,
> stumbling, fluttering.  Just total power one minute, complete shutdown the
> next.
>
>
> Towed it home with the loader, got it in the garage and went to work
> testing.  No spark out of the plugs.  Good spark out of the coil.  Swapped
> the Pertronix unit out for points, engine started and car ran fine.  I
> think I'm done with electronic ignitions.  I very likely killed the thing
> leaving the key on or somesuch idiocy to which I am prone.  Fluke number
> one.
>
>
> Next I ran it up to temperature at high idle so I could check the mixture
> one last time, I noticed it was overheating.  There are no knocks, rattles
> or grindings going on.  Oil pressure is steady and good.  Tested this
> twice, so I've either got a water pump or thermostat problem.  Fluke number
> two.
>
>
> Happen to have a new spare water pump already so I thought to replace both
> the thermostat and pump while the coolant was already drained.   I got
> under the car to unscrew the plug from the radiator to let the water out.
> Got the plug out, then noticed that not only the plug came out, but the
> threaded housing came out with it.  Apparently it's like a plug within a
> plug, one threaded, the other weakly soldered it in.  This is one of the
> new radiators from one of the Big 3. Fluke number three.
>
>
> Gadfrey.
>
>
> Spent today pulling the valence and the radiator.  I'll take it to some
> radiator place to have the plug housing brazed in instead of soldered.  At
> least getting at the water pump is going to be easier.
>
>
> Terry Smith, '59 TR3A  TS 58667
>
> New Hampshire
>
>
>
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