What's Wrong?

I was doing some maintenance on a clients 1962 Austin Healey 3000 one day and while driving I noticed that the fuel gauge was not working properly. After removing the fuel sending unit and opening it up, I discovered that the components did not look to be installed correctly. The wiper arm was on the wrong side of the resistor and the resistor was not seated correctly in the housing. (see the photo below) I had never opened up an Austin Healey fuel sender before. So how did I know what it should look like? I didn't, but I did once take apart the fuel sender unit on my Vespa PX. A fuel sending unit consists of a float that is connected to a wire arm with a wiper end that slides back and forth on a variable resistor. When the wiper arm end rests at the grounded or negative end of the resistor the fuel tank is full and the fuel gauge reads full. As the fuel is used and the float drops the wiper arm moves away from the grounded end of the resistor and the resistance increases, the fuel gauge moves toward empty. With that said I carefully lifted the resistor and relocated the wiper to the correct side, I did have to bend it a little to keep pressure on the resistor. When I put the resistor back into its resting place I made sure that it was seated all of the way down. I reassembled the unit and reinstalled it into the tank, after hooking the wires back up it was time for a test. The gauge read what the tank had in it, problem solved. I guess that since I had taken my Vespa fuel sender apart once, it helped me to see the clues that solved the problem. Yet another case of complex problem simple solution. (In the photo below is the resistor in its proper resting place)

"Elementary!" I Love A Good Mystery

Many times I have come across items on "Restored" cars that have been done incorrectly. How can you restore or repair something if you don't know what it looked like when it was new? If you don't know then you need to study the repair manual or employ what I call forensic repair, treat the repair like a good mystery. Study the problem and look for the clues. A clients "Restored" 1965 Porsche 356C was having a problem with fuel starvation. The mechanical fuel pump could not supply enough fuel to the carburetors. First I looked at the in line fuel filter in the engine compartment...it was installed backwards. In the photo below the fuel flows into the nipple on the left and the paper element keeps the particles from clogging the jets in the carburetors as the clean fuel flows out of the right nipple.(If you look closely you can see the arrow on the left end of the filter pointing to the right, showing the direction of fuel flow) But why would it matter which way the fuel flows through the filter? If the fuel flows the wrong way the particles will build up and get caught in the filter element like a coffee filter holds coffee grounds. When the fuel flows the correct way the particles are under the element and the constant supply of fuel keeps them suspended not clogging the filter as much. After I installed a new filter in the correct direction, the car was still having problems with fuel starvation. I wondered if when the car was restored someone put another fuel filter under the car? If one filter is good then two is better right? Not so. When I climbed under the car I found another filter and it was very clogged with rust particles, so much that the fuel could not get to the filter in the engine compartment. I replaced the lines and the filter that were under the car with one fuel line. The fuel filter is in the engine compartment for a reason...it is easy to service and visually inspect in that location. Once the filter under the car was replaced with one fuel line, the car ran fine. In this case the repair was not much of a mystery, because I know how the 356 fuel systems came from the factory. Some times the clues that you need are in the repair manual or even in a parts catalog, a quick look at a parts schematic for a 356 fuel system would have shown me how many fuel filters were needed. A little detective work is all that you need most of the time. As Sherlock Holmes said "Elementary", many times the most simple solution can solve a the most complex problem.

Another Beautiful Weekend!

Another beautiful weekend here in Florida, the weather was great for the 8th Annual Winter Park Concourse d'Elegance. The photo to the left is the original oil artwork for the show poster painted by my friend Stephen Bach...http://www.stephenbach.com/ The original painting was auctioned off during the Saturday night duPont Registry Live Aeroport Reception at the Sanford International Airport's South East Ramp. The money raised is given to different charities each year, this years charities are The Winter Park Community Center and The Orlando Ballet. I always enjoy being surrounded by classic vintage cars. I try to arrive early when the cars are being parked and the crowd of people have not shown up yet, this makes it easier to take photos, hear the sounds of the cars and talk to the car owners. The Winter Park show has grown over the past 8 years and includes many vintage collector cars, modern exotic cars as well as new and vintage wooden boats. Sometimes they have vintage Motorcycles also. One of the key events during the weekend is the Saturday Tour d'Elegance, a two hour drive around Central Florida. Here is a link to all of my photos from the 2009 show... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=5897&id=100000296929014&l=0c304f2c8d

Simple Fix For You...

Last night before dinner I started a load of laundry...no big deal right? Well while we were finishing up dinner I could hear the laundry tub filling up but something sounded different. A kind of splashy sound. I went out to the garage to take a look and the tub was full and overflowing! So I turned off the water flow by shutting off the washing machine and opened the garage door to release all of the water that had been backing up on the floor. Upon removal of the dashboard on the washing machine, I see this 1/4 inch rubber hose just laying there. I reconnect the hose to the water height adjuster switch and add a zip tie just to make sure this does not happen again. A quick check of operation before I stitch the dashboard back on and all is good and we are back to business as usual. Our washing machine and its dryer mate are 10 years old this month and this is the 2nd field fix that I have had to do in the last 2 months. While making the repair, I could not help but think about how many people out there that would have just bought a new washing machine based on the fact that it is 10 years old or maybe just out of warranty. I wounder how many appliances get replaced because of a 50 cent part? Washing machines are pretty simple to work on ...well mine is because we bought it just before all of those sweet looking electronic high tech front load laundry room eye candy washing machines came out. Like most problems with other appliances, equipment and vehicles...it always seems to be something simple that breaks or falls off. In all I think that both field fixes only took me 30 minutes each time using simple tools. After fixing the washing machine I came into the house and said to my wife that it was a simple fix, her reply was "Simple For You"...I forget that not many people care to or even want to take a look into the great unknown. I guess that I should be glad that they don't want to and that they can just call me instead.

Fall is here?...Bring on the events!

Well fall is here! I hope this time it will stay. It seems that this time of year all the great events start filling up the days on my calender. The grass growth slows down and the maintenance required in the yard is much less leaving more time for all of the Art shows, Car shows, Auto races, Weddings, Boat outings, Camp outs, Motorcycle events, Family gatherings and Holiday parties. The problem is getting to all of them, many events are on the same day and there is not enough time to enjoy them all.

I spent Saturday with my wife, daughter, good friend Steve and met up with two other friends at the Lake Mirror Classic in downtown Lakeland. Car shows always get priority on my calender. This was the 10th year of the show and my first time attending. What a great group of 500 cars. We got to watch Dennis Gage filming a spot for a 2010 episode of "My Classic Car". We also got to see 4 Amphicars at the event. It's a car, it's a boat, no it's an Amphicar!

My 10 year old daughter probably knows more about cars then many boys her same age, this has been true since she was able to talk. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. At this show I held out my spare camera for her and asked if she would like to take pictures of the cars she liked. She took the camera gladly and proceeded to take 200 great pictures. I ended up with around 110 pics myself. The weather was the best to date since spring. The area around downtown Lakeland and Lake Mirror was very nice, we all enjoyed the day very much! Here is a link to all of my photos from the 2009 show http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=4417&id=100000296929014&l=d13b97d0b3

First Post "Under Construction"

Well this is my first post...This Blog is "Under Construction" getting its required maintenance