Last Saturday morning at 4:30 a.m. Arizona Time, I set out to deliver my son's
Mk2 Spit to him in the LA area. I also had to take some
interior panels to my Daughter who lives in Long Beach. She has a '65 VW and I
bought the parts for her Christmas present. THey did
not arrive on time, so as any good Dad knows, I had to go there for
installation.
The trip over was pretty eventless and I made good time arriving about 12:30
Pacific Time. I unloaded the Spitfire in the Hotel
parking lot because I had prearranged for my son to come over and collect it
(with his girl friend following him home in his new VW
Jetta).
My daughter then came over to the hotel and I installed the interior pieces in
the parking lot. We both then went to our respective
domiciles to clean up for the prearranged dinner that evening.
My son and his girl friend came over at about 4:00 and we went over to my
daughter's apartment and the two couples and myself went out
for a nice dinner. Afterwards, it was decided that my daughter and her boy
friend would go to a movie and my son would get his car
home. So on that note we split up and the remaining three of us went to see
"The Mexican".
After a few exciting previews, the start of the movie was interrupted by my
son's girlfriend saying that he had trouble on the
freeway. So we got our money back and headed back to where his car was parked.
His description of the problem was: "It ran fine until
I got on the freeway and then it just quit. I tried to start it a few times
and it would just sputter a bit and then die."
I started troubleshooting with cars whizzing past my arse at 80 miles per hour.
Good solid spark, fuel visible in the glass filter,
the engine turned over fine. I scratched my head and removed the hose from
the fuel filter, turned the engine over and no fuel came
out. I then removed the float bowl cover from the front carb and no fuel there
either. I removed the top of the fuel pump and it was
very nasty. So I cleaned it out as best I could and reinstalled the top and
still no fuel. Then I removed the feed line and gas
poured out. My conclusion was the pump was bad. So I removed the top part of
the body to expose the diaphragm and it appeared to be
intact. With that off, I spun the engine and the diaphragm did not move.
So I removed the pump from the block and discovered that the rod that holds the
cam follower onto the pump came out and allowed all the
parts to fall into the oil pan. Case Solved!
So, I went back to the hotel ad got the truck and trailer and went back and
loaded the Spit back up (again with cars whipping by much
too fast and close). I drove the 45 minutes over to his apartment and we
pushed the car off the trailer and into it's parking space,
pinching my thumb in the process! Afterwards, we again said our good-byes and
headed back to Long Beach. I dropped by daughter and
her boyfriend off at their car and said goodnight. It was after midnight by
then.
I arrived at the hotel, showered and hit the sack with a thud that was heard
back in Tucson, I'm sure! However, I think that everyone
in Long Beach decided to drive in front of the hotel and the noise kept me
awake until well after 4:00 a.m. I finally dozed off and my
internal alarm clock woke me up about 8:30. I jumped in the shower to shake
out the grogginess and my daughter called while I was
doing so. She wanted to meet me for breakfast and I said OK, so she drove over
to the hotel.
We went to a place she likes and we had a nice breakfast followed by a tour of
the race circuit that will be used for the Long Beach
Grand Prix in early April. We were passed by a boat!! (on a trailer, of
course). Then she took me back to the hotel so I could get on
my way home. When we arrived, I decided to investigate a faint hint of
gasoline in her bug. I looked in the engine compartment and
there was no sign of leakage. Raising the trunk lid, I discovered that the
fuel sending unit had fuel floating in it. Apparently it
was leaking when the tank is full. One of the pieces of cardboard that covers
the fuel tank was completely saturated with gasoline,
hence the fuel smell. I threw that out and told her to have her boy friend put
some duct tape over the sending unit cover and it will
be ok until I can get her a new sending unit. THe float is filled with gas
anyway causing the needle to remain on 1/4 tank regardless
of how much fuel is actually in the tank.
So my work finally done, I washed up, checked out and made my way back to
Arizona, arriving in time to see the premier of "The Lone
Gunman"!!!
A full and very tireing weekend, decorated with some satisfying troubleshooting
and work done for my kids! What would they do without
me?? .... Please don't answer that! :)
Regards,
Joe Curry
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