A couple of nights ago, I noticed the island's mechanic working late so I stopped to chat with him. Turns out he was trying to diagnose a starting problem on a 90's Ford Taurus. He couldn't get a reading on his coder. Pretending it was an LBC, Together, we tracked the problem back to a bad coil - one of those new coils that sends power to each plug independently. The mechanic noted with relief that this problem was fairly simple.
Two days later, on Saturday morning, it's time to the oil and filter on my Spider. I start the car to warm it up; it runs for 3 minutes and then just dies out and won't restart. I check the cap and rotor, check for a spark at the coil [yes], check the plugs [dry]. So why are the plugs dry after trying to start the car several times.
The TR-7 has died directly in front of the Land Rover, so now I must take the Corvair to the local garage and see if the mechanic is around. Knowing I had to come off the island in the TR-7 today, he comes by with a sigh.
He confirms the spark and notes the dry plugs. He tries a shot of starting ether and we have brief combustion. So now it's the fuel system.
I pull the line from the tank, at the bulkhead, and then then remove the in line fuel filter. It's not clogged when I blow through it, but I also note that there's no gas spurting out. so the mechanic checks the fuel line at the fuel pump. There's no gas there. We take a coffee cup, fill it with gas, and then stick the intake line to fuel pump into the cup. The car starts briefly. So now it's time to look at the gas tank and lines.
Although I don't have a working gas gauge, I do reset the trip odometer every time I fuel up. It read only 122 miles - so I should have lots of fuel left. We take a long fuel hose to try and blow air back into the tank. You can hear air blowing through, not gas bubbling.
I put in a couple of gallons of fuel and turn the key. After a few pumps the car starts right up. Oops!
Today, the car came off island in the pouring rain. The car then ran 100 miles in the storm without further incident.
Gotta love a car that's such fun to drive yet so easy to repair.
Jeff
Jeffrey Aronson
P.O. Box 90
Vinalhaven, ME 04863
USA
'80 TR-7 Spider
'66 Land Rover Series II-A [2]
'66 Corvair Monza
www.landroverwriter.com
