Well, I guess I should explain why I wasn't at the Brit-Car jaunt
today. At least I spent part of the day working on poor Sybil. Alas,
I was unable to get her healthy enough to drive to the gas station, let
alone Monterey.
Among other things, we have just had our roof redone. Since we live in
a nice example of that uniquely Californian house called an "Eichler"
(after the developer who built so many of them) this is a messy
process. Eichlers have flat roofs with exposed beams inside; what I
see as the ceiling is the 2x6 tongue and groove subroof.
When the roofers tore off the old roof on Thursday, a lot of dust,
dirt, sawdust, old bits of tar and gravel, and the remains of last
weekend's rain all fell through into the house. To be fair, they did
warn us, and even gave us a roll of plastic to cover everything with.
Today we have a new roof and all is mostly cleaned up, but the last few
days have been, um, stressful.
What does all this have to do with British Cars, you ask?
Well, Sybil has been sort of sputtering after a few miles of driving.
Just as she gets good and warmed up, it seems like one carb stops
working and she sputters to a halt. This used to be fixable with a new
fuel filter, but lately that old trick wasn't working. I even pulled
the fuel tank and cleaned it out last summer, to little avail.
After moving to Palo Alto (and towing Sybil and the Bentley with
Daren's monster truck-like object (Thanks!)) I tried some more. Chris
Kantarjiev suggested that the problem might be inadequate fuel
pressure, so I put in a Facet pump (and discovered that, considering
shipping costs and all, Pegasus Racing is cheaper than J.C. Whitney, at
least for Facet fuel pumps. If you want fuzzy dice, Pegasus can't help
you.) However, when I went to take a wheel off so I could drill a
couple of holes for the pump mounting, I broke off a wheel stud. I'm
glad my daughter was off down the block on her bike or she would have
learned some new swork words.
A visit to Dick Nyquist's Amazing GT-6 Museum and Parts Warehouse got
me a new one, (and I'll replace it and the lug nut as soon as my TRF
order comes in, Dick!) and I even managed to get it in without
dismantling the front hub.
But when I wired up the pump and went for a drive round the block, I
got twice round when the sputtering came back. That was last Sunday.
I decided it was the needle valves. One was sticking closed when it
got hot. I would pull the carbs and put in Grose Jets.
Well, yesterday was spent sweeping and mopping and learning that
mineral spirits will get tar off of linoleum and that surgical gloves
are a Good Idea when you spread mineral spirits around and that
ventilation is a REALLY REALLY Good Idea. I had no idea white linoleum
tile had so many colors in it....
But today I managed to pull the carbs off and dismantle them. Economy
Imports, a local Moss distributor, even had rebuild kits in stock.
(These kits seem to come with gaskets for every Stromberg CD carb ever
made, always leading to a few puzzled minutes whilst I decide that it's
OK that I didn't use all the parts since my carbs don't have the
automatic Hot-Water WhiffleSnubber...)
The REALLY interesting part, though, was that these carbs ALREADY had
Grose jets installed! Now I need to decide whether to put the clean
Grose jets back or go ahead and use the conventional needle valves
supplied with the kit.
What do y'all think? Is it time for a Grose Jet flame fest already?
--
Berry Kercheval :: kerch@parc.xerox.com
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