Near disaster with a dodgy dizzy
Picture the scene... I've been working all wednesday rebuilding my wifes main car... after a little fettling of carb linkages , choke settings and a good clean I pronounce the car fit and healthy.
I have driven the car about 300 miles on Thurday without a hiccup to get some initial miles on a tight engine and it hasn't missed a beat.
It's Sunday lunchtime and we're heading down to the coast for a big Birthday lunch with Humph Hale (fellow PI racer etc)..........
About 10 miles from home (it's about 30 to the coast) Del hears a nasty screech from the engine which combines with the rev-counter going nuts. Bugger I think it's either the dizzy or (worse case scenario) the drive gear picking up on the new cam .... YIKES...
Anyway it still drives perfectly at this point so I decide to continue to lunch amid general abuse aimed at old cars in general... the noise gets worse and the rev counter gets more random... but we make it there no worries...
Over a beer and lunch me and Humph decide it must be the dizzy bushes running dry and picking up... a check of the shaft confirms plenty of play... we limp home... literally as the wear gets terminal and the points and hence timing goes very random up the big hill out of Perth ... much abuse, etc...... :-)
Get home at 3.30pm and quickly bung in a brand new 43D dizzy with Pertronix (bought from Witor cheap I had recalibrated it and was saving it for the white car .. well that was my best excuse why it wasn't on Del's car) and all is well....
Just another near disaster ( I was flying to work Monday so Del could have been stranded) in the life of old cars as everyday ones.....
I have driven the car about 300 miles on Thurday without a hiccup to get some initial miles on a tight engine and it hasn't missed a beat.
It's Sunday lunchtime and we're heading down to the coast for a big Birthday lunch with Humph Hale (fellow PI racer etc)..........
About 10 miles from home (it's about 30 to the coast) Del hears a nasty screech from the engine which combines with the rev-counter going nuts. Bugger I think it's either the dizzy or (worse case scenario) the drive gear picking up on the new cam .... YIKES...
Anyway it still drives perfectly at this point so I decide to continue to lunch amid general abuse aimed at old cars in general... the noise gets worse and the rev counter gets more random... but we make it there no worries...
Over a beer and lunch me and Humph decide it must be the dizzy bushes running dry and picking up... a check of the shaft confirms plenty of play... we limp home... literally as the wear gets terminal and the points and hence timing goes very random up the big hill out of Perth ... much abuse, etc...... :-)
Get home at 3.30pm and quickly bung in a brand new 43D dizzy with Pertronix (bought from Witor cheap I had recalibrated it and was saving it for the white car .. well that was my best excuse why it wasn't on Del's car) and all is well....
Just another near disaster ( I was flying to work Monday so Del could have been stranded) in the life of old cars as everyday ones.....
posted by andy t at 6:47 PM
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