Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/02/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> Dale, I have nothing against MGA's, except the fule-pump! Well actually, since you mentioned the fuel-pump Tom, the only time the MGA quit on my drive to Alaska was one evening as the sun was going down. But, being an Electrical Engineer, I quickly discovered that the wire had worked itself off the fuel pump so I put it back on and tightened down the terminal. Started it up and away I roared. I always installed Abarth mufflers on my MGs including the 1954 1250 TF I had but that is another story. > I used to carry a hammer that was used to bang on the fuel pump cover when it stopped. So maybe by hitting it with the hammer all you were doing was jogging the loose terminal. You were applying Mechanical Engineering methods to fix an electrical problem. > It invariably did this at busy intersections or at traffic lights. My 1977 fuel-injected Rabbit used to do this. So I would push it out of the intersection and wait about 10 minutes then it would start up and work fine for another few months. It would quit out on freeways also. > To top it off, it started snowing in the last 2 hours and we > were pulled over by the police. Funny you mention MGAs and the police. I got lots of tickets. Once I had her cruising along about 60mph heading south from Fairbanks toward Anchorage( couldn't go much faster because the permafrost or whatever had caused the ground to be very up and down like a roller coaster) and I looked up and notice a sign that said to resume speed. Oh oh I thought as I looked in my rear view mirror seeing the red flashing gum balls on top of a pickup. So the nice policeman followed me back to the little town with the speed limit I had not even been aware of and waited for a couple hours for the justice of the peace to finish dinner, come into town and fine me. But the wait was interesting for I told the officer Antarctic lies and he told me about being a trying to be a policeman when it was 60 degrees below zero and his pickup's tires froze hard enough break. He bought me coffee at the cafe and we smoked my cigars. The smoking clothes story kinda reminded me of the many times in my drop head coupes when I lost hot cigar ashes between my legs... Hey Tom, one of the best things about being a geezer is having lots of interesting stories to tell. So you young whipper snappers get out there and live some interesting stories. They will come in handy some day when life kinda slows down on you. Dale - --- $ dale-reed@worldnet.att.net Seattle, Washington USA $