No reason for it to be so quiet, let the fun begin.
I suppose, it being early and I'm just shaking off the Ny-Quil induced haze
which seems to have helped quell the horrid cold I've been fighting since
last week, I'll tell the Story of Two Identical '78 Wraith IIs to try and
spur some conversation out here.
I had a friend who had a considerable amount of money back about 10 years
ago who wanted me to exercise his cars which he kept at a house he did not
often use. I toyed around with his '77 MGB, a '70 Shadow with a loose front
end and a screamer Cadillac 500 engine transplant, and finally the
tan-Everflex-top-with-the-brown-paint '78 Wraith II. 182k miles or so, ran
great, had been converted to EFI by the NYC dealer. Had a lot of fun with
that car, used it on and off again for about a year.
Towards the end of said year, I took the Rolls into town for some minor
errand, still dressed from seeing a client (I did a variety of computer
services back then) in a blazer and bowtie. Coming out of the hardware
store, I spotted an older woman leaning against the RR fender of the car. I
asked her if I could help her out - her response was "My late husband left
a car just like this in my garage, and now it won't start, and it needs to
go. Would you like to look at it?" So off we went, at 25mph, to the old
woman's house. All along the way I had assured myself the car in question
was a brown Lincoln or Mercedes at best.
She opened the garage door and the car was "my" car's twin. Sold by the
same dealer, it was also converted to EFI. It was only a couple years later
that I learned these cars had to have been done up this way, that they
didn't come with electronic FI! Yes they were '78s and not late '80s from
California! Getting back to the car, 42k miles, everything gorgeous,
cranked after putting a jump on the flat battery very nicely, but no fire.
The old lady was forthright: "How much would you offer?" as though I went
around buying up RRs daily. I needed to get out of there. "I'll give you
nine-thousand, on the spot" said I, figuring she'd usher me out of there.
But nooooo. Her eyes lit up and I knew $5,000 would have satisfied her. Off
to the bank, called the wrecker, got the car hauled back to Mom's place
where I had adequate room to work.
Since I worked on relatively newer SAABs at that point primarily, my first
instincts were to check the status of the fuel injection. I started with
the obvious and found all lines in place, pump running, et.c. Next I moved
on to the pressure regulator - and found my culprit. No pressure on the
regulated side, or very little, maybe 1psi. Matched the Lucas/Bosch number
on the side of the unit on there, checked it for good measure against "my"
car, and after a few telephone calls went to the local Jag dealer where
they had just the part. Part fitted along with a fresh battery, WHOOMP,
burbleburble et.c. Car fired right off.
Long and short of it was, the Avon tyres were not cracked, the leather
needed cleaning, the car got a full detailing and sold two weeks later for
$23,500 in the New York Times classifieds to a fellow in Mt. Kisco, NY. If
you're out there, speak up, I've since forgotten your name!
At 10:33 19.04.00 +0200, Francois Davel wrote:
>List
>
>We are not dead but sometimes I think we are close to it, it is good to
>have some life
>
>Francois
>
>South Africa
>'79 Shadow II
>
>
>
Cheers-
William "Chip" Lamb
West of Sweden SAAB
Charles City, VA.
http://www.wmsbrg.com/sweden/
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