A friend of mine just bought a '77 MGB and I went over
yesterday to help him get it started. We discovered that
his fuel line to his 1 carb had a slash in it so after
fixing that and adding new sparkplugs it ran MUCH better.
About that time a neighbor came over and actually ask if
Ray would like to sell it. Ray said that he had just got
it and that we were trying to get it to run. We started the
engine and Ray and I noticed a dull red glowing cylinder
about 3" in diameter lying beneath the carb! As Ray and I backed
up to discuss this phenomenom, the neighbor leaned forward
to look at the glow. He was just straighting up when the
front radiator hose blew, spewing hot (HOT) antifreeze on his left
leg. He jumped back where a basketball goal had once stood. The
pipe that used to hold the goal is now broken off by a storm
and is embedded into the ground at a 45 degree angle. Of course
the broken end is a jagged rusty edge. When he jumped back,
he ran the back of his leg into the ragged metal thus cutting
a 1/4" x 6" x 1/4" deep piece of flesh from his leg. This caused
him to jumped back toward the front of the car where the MG
now spew scalding antifreeze on the other leg.
We ran over to a garden hose and held the stream of cool water
on the burns and probably really reduced the burns on his legs.
He limped home where his wife, a nurse, took him to a doctor.
It seems that if he had rooled the tops of his socks down, he wouldn't
have had the ring of 1/4" diameter water blisters around each ankle.
It only took 7 stitches on the cut/slash/gouge.
When we went to visit him after he had returned from the doctor,
Ray invited him over to see the car again. I really don't think
he's going to.
The dull red glow is a catalytic converter that shouldn't be glowing.
Ray will probably remove the air pump, etc. since in Georgia a '77
doesn't have that sort of thing. The pine trees suck up all pollution.
Don Mathis
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