Last Sunday certainly turned into a funday.....
Car had been running fine, taken it out to a local meet the previous meet and ran faultlessly, apart from getting it back in the workshop afterwards and I stalled it and it struggled restart, put this down to starter motor heak-soak and bought a thermal blanket for it.
Sunday I decided to go off for a drive as there was a classic car show in the next town (Newark, 20 miles away), again felt great driving the back roads there.
But after getting stuck in traffic in town it started missing slightly, not idling very well, I nursed it to the car park and as I pulled it cut out and would not restart
Pushed it into a parking space and thought I'll have a walk round the show and leave it to cool down for a while.....
A couple of hours later I came back to it, took a bit of turning over to get started and sounded like it was running on 3 cylinders, though maybe driving it might clear it so set off.....
Got on the bypass and it was still misfiring, it was driveable apart from at low revs which is not ideal as I was bound to encounter slow/stationary traffic at some point, didn't want to risk it stalling again and unable to start so pulled into a lay-by.
Checked the plugs over, gave them a clean but this made no difference, decided at this point to call out the RAC, they might be able to fix it, if not then at least they'd get me home.....
3:00pm Called RAC, explained problem, they dispatched a patrolman
3:15pm Text from RAC - Mark is on his way in about 30mins.
4:00pm Mark arrives and tries to fix it, checks a few things, it starts but is no better - says he can follow be home if I want to chance driving it, I opted for recovery. Ok, no problem - however as your car is lowered you have to pay extra to have it recovered!!!!!
Pay £50, recovery truck sent for, Mark leaves.
5:45pm Phone call from recovery guy, he's about an hour away.
6:45pm Recovery guy turns up, can't tow me as hes not been told it's lowered and only has the tow dolly that won't fit!?!?!?!?
He sends a message saying I need a specialist recovery truck and leaves.
8:50pm Proper recovery truck turns up
9:50pm Get car back to workshop.
Not the best of days, really did question why I bothered messing about with cars if this is what is going to happen.
Needless to say I won't be renewing with RAC at £190 a year if 2/3 of the cars on the policy aren't eligible for recovery.
Not got to the bottom of the problem yet, pulling the plugs after running it shows No.1 is wet, the rest OK, so misfire on cylinder 1.....
In other news.....
Made up some centres for the rear wheels.....
Before...
After...
Decided to make up a towing eye after the fun the recovery guy had trying to find somewhere to hook his cables....
A bit agricultural but should do the job, fitted to the end of the chassis rails behind the bumper....
And had ordered a new steering wheel the previous week, in celebration of having a working car again
Needed a new boss making up, different PCD required and also needed to be shallower to allow for the dish....
Old...
Was hoping the base of the boss would be solid so I could just redrill it to bolt to the spacer but it wasn't so spacer drilled and tapped for 4x68mm pcd
Bolted up with longer bolts the depth of the spacer....
Horn push wouldn't fit in centre because of the thickness of spacer so kept the buttons, not keen on them but will do - may move them to holes in steering wheel spokes....
Also been having problems with the bonnet catch, got so stiff was having to use two hands on the handle and brace myself against the dash to release it.
As I've relocated it and run it s a slightly different route there was a bit of a tight turn in it near the latch, have rerouted slightly and put oil/wd40 down the cable.
While the latch was off I gave it a clean up, paint and stainless bolts to match the rest of the bay....
