I know I know, where have I been the past 10 months?
Never fear, gentle reader, Tillie has been providing our family lots of fun adventures so far this driving season...I've just haven't taken the time to record her antics!
Let's start with the new "toys" Miss Tillie received this spring... Yep, a Quick Jack to make getting under Tillie easier and safer.
Quick Jack came in three boxes and was easy to assemble and put in service...QJ has a great instruction video on You Tube plus a lot of information videos for the potential buyer.
(FYI, I have no financial interest in any of the companies on this blog.)
Instead of jacking her up one corner at a time and putting stress on the body /frame, the Quick Jack takes Tillie up as a unit.
One of things that the Quick Jack allows is easier cleaning under Miss Tillie's skirts...so I grabbed the Griot's Garage Catalog and placed an order for "lotions and potions", as wife Rhoda likes to say!
Richard Griot's catalog always features a different "cover car", and the Triumph TR6 made the cover of Garage Handbook # 447C ...pretty cool !
Earlier this year, Rhoda and I joined the "LEBCC" (Lake Erie British Car Club). This is the group that puts on the annual British car show, "The British Return to Fort Meigs". For a little background, Fort Meigs is in NW Ohio and is where one of the War of 1812 battles was fought...that would be the second time the British tried to capture the colonies!
Since we are members of a British car club, it seemed like a good idea to get the proper headgear for motoring about in our "LBC" (little British car)
Of course, "made in China hats" would not be acceptable for riding in a British car, so a few minutes on the internet produced "Holden Vintage and Classic Motor Vehicle Company" in Bromyard UK. These folks have lots of cool classic car parts and "Motoring Clothing"...great fun!
The 4th of July was pretty hot here in NW Ohio...95+ degrees F, but we had planned on a road trip to visit some relatives in farm country, so off we went. Well, the first half of the trip was fine, but the second half, not so much. Tillie developed a nasty trick where the exhaust note went flat...with no power. This happened on and off several times just before we reached our destination. After visiting with relatives for a while, Tillie had a chance to cool off, and we headed home. There were no issues until the last 5 miles, when the problem recurred...luck was with us, and we limped home.
Trying to figure out this kind of a problem can be difficult, so I posted the issue on the 6-Pack forum to get some feed back from other car owners. My first thought was fuel percolation since the ZS carbs are right on top of the exhaust manifold. But a member who lives in the south, where it is really hot, responded that the symptoms didn't match his experience with percolation, and I do have a heat shield under the carbs. (Thanks Poolboy)
Well, if the problem wasn't fuel, how about ignition / spark / or distributor (or "dizzy" in Brit speak)?
Back in 2012, Jeff at Advanced Distributor rebuilt my dizzy and installed Pertronics electronic ignition...no points to mess with, or so it was thought. I called Jeff and asked his option on Tillie's problem. His first question was, "do you still have the Pertronics?" I replied "yes" and was surprised when he said that he doesn't sell it anymore...he has gone back to the old fashioned points/condenser due to performance problems, and he recommended I try points, also.
So, I ordered what was needed and received my new dizzy parts several days later. I thought this would be an easy swap out... boy, was I wrong! Not because of Jeff's parts, but because of my lack of mechanical expertise.
I thought I should be able to remove two screws and just pop out the Pertronics, but I have a vacuum advance with a micro adjusting wheel, and that caused me problems.
I won't go into all the ugly details, but I took apart way too many components and then had to try and figure out how to put humpty dumpty back together again !
My final error was putting the low tension wire from the dizzy to the positive coil post instead of the negative post. This error cooked the new condenser and caused all kinds of mischief when trying to make Tillie run. Thanks to 6-Packer "RRR" for pointing out the correct polarity!
Well, I finally got things sorted out, and just in time for a local car show. It was a fund-raiser for church missions, and Miss Tillie claimed a "Top 10" award. Not bad for the only British car out of 100 cars in the show!
Hey Dad, now can I drive ?
So Tillie, wife Rhoda, Dog Happy, and yours truly, are once again enjoying the country roads here in NW Ohio. Happy motoring everyone!
