Well, this past weekend I thought that may B me and my B were going
to have to get to know each other real well again. . after almost
30,000 trouble free (really? :-) miles, she decided to remind me that
she did require occasional attention and $$. On the way to the meet
screaming up 280 at about 85 MPH :-Q=, a strange noise began to
emmanate from beneath the bonnet. By the time I got to the long line
to drive in the the meet it had reached an annoyingly loud level and
as I sat in the sea of beautiful, polished, rare, expensive, lovingly
resored, OVERHEATING, sea of Aston's,Austin's, Jag's, Rolls,MG's, et
al, I began to question the possibility of making in home in my
precious B. Embarrassed, I pulled away from the aforementioned,
sea of OVERHEATING, british cars and sped to a noisy retreat across
the street at the shopping center. The strange thing about the noise,
and the one that caused me such distress, was that it seemed to be
coming from the transmission. . .the gear shift itself resonating
with the high pitched frequency of the noise. Input shaft? Tranny
bearing? Layshaft? I suddenly pictured myself without transportation
and my B up on jackstands with her engine and tranny in pieces next
to her. . this feeling stayed with me as I perused the truly magnificent
collection of cars at the show. . an obviously it coloured my experience
to say the least. . .a sort of bittersweet feeling, you know.
Suddenly even the homeliest of MG seemed nicer than my poor car, and
as they drove by, their beautiful exhaust note reached a level of
pleasure I couldn't recall my own car ever making. . Funny how that
is.
Well, to make a long story longer, I made it home, some 20
miles back to Cupertino, and parked my sick car in the garage to go
upstairs and pout about. And then it happened, INSIGHT!, while
watching the Niners game I was overcome with excitement. . I raced
back to my hapless car. . .I lifted her bonnet. . I got out the 9/16
socket. . I loosened the generator. . I removed the fan belt. .I
put the key in the ignition. . I started the car. . I heard the
familiar purr and slightly uneven idle (tickover) of my LBC. .
The strange thing is, when I look back at my overreaction, I cannot
fathom HOW a faulty generator could manage to make the whole engine
vibrate and howl like it did. . but it did. Upon closer inspection
of the unit, I noticed that the brushes could not brush anymore
because they did not exist anymore!!. Even though I rebuilt the
generator less than 2 years ago. . .the high load placed upon it by
my CD changer and 40W amp ate the brushes up in less than 15K miles!
A great lesson learned and a great sigh of relief. . .
Thanks for listening, doc.
later
teej
--
TJ Noto 66 MGB 69 Triumph Bonneville
The Wollongong Group
1129 San Antonio Rd Palo Alto CA
415 962-7172
"Once again Yankee ingenuity Triumphs over British craftsmanship"
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