The engine in my Midget ran today, for the first time since Saturday. I
had to shut it off after about 5 minutes, though, as the rear carburetor
started leaking pretty bad. I set out to tune the car last Saturday, and on
the suggestion of a friend I removed the hoses from the bottom of the float
bowls, in order to let any sediment out. Turns out the little washers on
there were original equipment, and weren't too thrilled about being taken
apart. This was when I discovered another charming feature of the Midget:
when there is a problem with the carburetor, it will leak gas directly onto
a big, hot piece of metal bolted to the engine block. After the fuel has
warmed up a bit, it drips from there directly onto the exhaust manifold.
I'm sure this will prove lots of fun after the engine has warmed up.
Victoria British sent out another batch of parts this Tuesday, and I was
hoping to get the car working yesterday. Unfortunately, I still haven't
learned that optimism and British car ownership just don't fit together. I
only ordered two of the little gaskets, and both of them are currently under my
car somewhere. I picked up some rubber O-rings locally, but they only lived
for about ten minutes before the gas started leaking again. Looks like time
to order another batch of parts. Let's see, if I live on nothing but Ramen
noodles and sell all of my earthly posessions...
I'm starting to think I should follow in the footsteps of the PO: patch
this beast up as cheaply as possible and sell it to the first fool that comes
along. It hasn't moved for two weeks now, but it's still managed to eat my
paycheck for the next two months. It also has this habit of eating tools--
it's swallowed three wrenches. One wrench fell into the hole between the
fender and wheel well, the other two have simply vanished without a trace. I
don't mind the loss of money and time, but missing tools are another story
altogether. Still, I doubt I'll have enough sense to sell the car. The
other day, after fruitlessly struggling with the carbs for what seemed like the
better part of an eternity, I caught myself wondering what color I'm going to
paint the beast when the bodywork's done. What was that Barnum used to say?
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