This won't be as colorful as Andy's, but I've got homework due in 7
hours. And NO, I haven't started yet.
The Christmas Holiday - By Eric Van Iderstine
Old news
Halfway to Grandma's, I decided to check under the hood.....leaking
coolant...signs of another order to Moss. Glen, you were right about it
just being a leaking gasket, and not a cracked head (the car that is).
New news
Put in new head gasket, and discovered why the car was running so
cool..NO THERMOSTAT....luckily, I ordered one. The parts go in fine,
Before removing the head, the compression was 130 130 140 135 (ok for my
low compression engine, and I still haven't check the "after"). It is
now one day before the big trip to New Mexico....the alternator goes
out. It turned out to be a bad diode...no time to do anything except put
a GM one in (and I had deleted the message for which one other had
used). So an 80 mile trip to a place open during the holiday (comforts
of country living) later, I home rig a lower bracket for the oversized
alternator.....
It passes the wiggle-by-hand test, so we (my fiance and I) pack up and
leave for Farmington, NM, some 1300 miles away.
We left about 5:00 in the evening, and before we got out of Vardaman, the
fog was getting thick.....and it just kept getting thicker. We got out
of fog on the other side of Little Rock, AR!!!! Yep, we drove A LONG WAY in
the fog.....at times visibility was down to the front of the hood. We
felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, even though we knew that
there were farms and houses all along the road. By the time we got to
Little Rock, the car would die if you tried to let it idle, so we had the
choke pulled out to raise the idle to 1500.
In Little Rock, we got gas and Johanna said she smelled gas.....so I
looked under the hood. It was apparent by the fuel leaking out from the
carbon canaster that the float levels weren't right..... So at 10:15 on
Dec. 31, I pulled the carbs.
Pulling the carbs showed that the bowls weren't set right, so
I reset them and put them back on....still leaked...pulled them, reset
them...put them back on, still leaked......bt this time, I had spoken
with several people all commenting about how bad it must be to be working
on a car in 40 degree weather on New Years eve?????? It didn't even
phase me, I was too engrossed in the carb problem to worry about the
temperature or the date........
(aside) I hate that little spring in the end of the float neelde peice,
any advice??
**possible helpful hint**
At this point, I discovered a new way to set the levels......I hooked
the fuel line to them (one at a time), while hold the carb outside the
body (barely) and had Johanna turn the ignition on.....I let the fuel
spray, and pushed the float up until it stopped. This way I could set
the level and check it in one minute instead of 25......So they finally
went back on correctly.
**end of flammible hint**
And off we go.............my coffee which I bought when we first got there
was almost frozen......and it was 12:30 am.
Next stop was Fort Smith....nothing major, just gas.....
On to Amarillo, breakfast and a toothbrush at McDonalds. It was very
cold outside, and very cold in the MG....(I think I know why now, I left
a foam peice out of the heater box....which I'm guessing sealed the
airflow from just circulating in the heater box.) so there was very
little airlow inside the MG.
Texas was cold and flat....as was the first part of New Mexico....though
the scenery did pick up some in New Mexico......
Until we got to Albuquerque, we just drove with the trucks at 75 mph, so
much for lower truck speed limits.
At Alburquerque, we headed north to Farmington..... When we got off the
interstate 15 miles north, the scenery really got neat.... We were
driving through Indian reservations, and there were canyons, snow covered
mountains, and a beautiful sunset.
Somewhere between Alburquerque and Farmington, it snowed just enough to
make us pull over and wipe the road grime off the winshield (no winshield
washer). From there until Farmington, we enjoyed one of the most
beautiful drives I have ever seen.
We pulled into Farmington about 5:00, and after searching a few streets,
found Joan's (older sister) house........25 hours after leaving
Vardaman. If you don't count the two hours of tuning, it took us 23
hours, not bad, and that included a few long stops for meals......
We were exhausted, and got inside and took our shoes off and turned the
heater on!!!!!!
Janice (other older sister, all J's) and Joan were due in at 9:00 (but they
were SURE that they would beat us), so we ordered a pizza, had some
coffee, and relaxed....
The next day we pretty much did nothing......we did retorque the head on
the MG, at 1300 miles instead of the reccommended 500, but I didn't think
we should pull over in the middle of nowhere Texas and have to torque the
head and adjust valves......A quick check with the colortune showed a
VERY rich mixture......so I leaned it out and the MG was running smooth
again.
Skiing in Durango was all we did the next day.......It was a gorgeous
drive (in Joan's Blazer since we needed to carry skiing gear...and
Janice). They (Janice and Johanna, Joan had to work) taught me to ski,
so I had lessons until noon. After lunch, we did the lower part of the
mountain about 5 times before going a little highr up. On this part, you
actually had to KNOW HOW TO TURN......AND NOW!!!! This proved to be the
most fun part of the day......we did this part a jillion times. We did
got to the top of the mountian, and skeed (what is the past tense of ski,
and how is it spelled??) down...I fell a jillion times, but had learned
how to fall earlier, so I didn't get hurt......It took about an hour to
ski down the mountian, and we decided the second place we skied was more
fun, so we did it about 6 more times before leaving.
The drive back was also complimented by a beautiful sunset......they must
have a patent on them.
The next day, we slept late and recovered from skiing...we all had sore
wrists, knees, and backs...... That evening, we went back to Durango to
eat at a place where J,J,& J had gone the last time they were there.
We got back and packed for the journey home................
I'll stop now......and write about the trip home later
The trip home of course highlighted by a breakdown in Childress Texas.
Eric
Eric L. Van Iderstine - ME senior - Mississippi State University
Design Coordinator - MSU Formula SAE......Powered by Honda......
elv1@Ra.MsState.Edu http://www2.msstate.edu/~elv1
74 MGB - 85 Buick LaSabre - 95 DiamondBack Sorrento
|