On The Road Problems
On The Road Problems
August 2007
Well, not exactly a problem free month this one!! - Here is a scenario that all Classic Car owners try to avoid ;
I was on my way back from the garden centre, only about 3 miles away from home... when the old 'kangaroo' effect started. Daisy travelled about 10feet... and stalled. I started her again, all seemed fine, and off we went... another 10feet. I was getting an odd effect, she would start, and appear to be ok, then suddenly there would we no power at the accelerator, quickly followed by stalling :(
Getting out to have a look I suspected the carb, it would appear that Daisy was not getting enough fuel, I had not long put in the electric pump, hence I suspected the carb. I always carry tools with Daisy, just in case. But I did not have the right tools to diagnose the problem, so I had to call the AA. I am always glad that I am a member of the AA, but its really for my other cars, not really Daisy, the reason being that calling the AA when you own a classic car seems (to me anyway) as a sign of defeat. You take a certain pride in owning a classic car, and you have a certain amount of pride in the fact that you know everything about your car, down to the smallest detail, after all, YOU restored her. So, phoning the AA, I am admitting defeat in a small way... :(
On the positive side, I was very impressed with the AA assistance. The guy turned up in about 30minutes... first thing he says is .. "Ahh... when dispatch said Anglia, I assumed you had a 105e!!.. its been a long time since I saw one of these" The AA man spent almost an hour with me, rather than the 'lets just tow you home' attitude I was expecting, what I got was a 'So.. lets see if we can figure out why this old girl is dying', which I was very impressed with. With the aid of the AA man, we found that Daisy was definitely not getting enough fuel to the carb. He disconnected the fuel pump and showed me that the pump was not pumping fuel correctly, I explained that I had only fitted the pump a few weeks ago. The AA man started testing the voltage and earths on Daisy... what he found astounded me. The multimeter showed anything from 3volts to 11volts!! Daisy definitely has some serious issues with dodgy earths! The main feed to the fuel pump was only showing 9volts, not enough for the pump to work, and hence 'dead Daisy'. I now need to look at all Daisys wiring, especially the old 'bullet connectors' and replace them with good solid connections. When I have evaluated the wiring, I will update the page again...