Читать книгу Class of '79 - Chris Rooke - Страница 7

The next morning we got up, and were greeted in the usual way by the girl’s mother (the girl wasn’t up yet) – with a forced smile. We had a quick brecky, loaded the car up, and waved our goodbyes to mother and girl, who had forced herself from her bed to wave us off.

However, as soon as I started the car, I knew there was something majorly wrong with the engine; it was running really rough and it was so bad that it wasn’t driveable. Our dismay was probably only outdone by theirs, as the realisation that we weren’t going to be driving away after all dawned on them; they were stuck with us.

Of course we had no breakdown cover of any description, and I only had limited tools with me and even though I was quite mechanical, I was still only 18, with a limited knowledge of engines. The rest of the gang went into the house and watched daytime TV (thankfully the Montreal Olympics were on and the phrase Spatial Awareness as coined by one of the commentators during the gymnastics program, became the comedy quote of the holiday from then on) while I tried to find the fault with the engine.

Shortly after this girl’s boyfriend arrived and she hastily explained to us that she was going out for the day and wouldn’t be back, and off she went. I was now left with mother as my helper. It wasn’t a match made in heaven.

After some examination, I realised that the engine was only running on two cylinders, instead of four, and that was the problem. The other two cylinders were working, to some extent, but only firing very intermittently, and the engine was as rough as a dog. But what was the cause of the engine only firing on two cylinders? Was it sparking on all four? Yes. Was fuel getting through? Yes. Was there compression? Yes.

The only thing I could think of was that maybe the inlet manifold gasket on the carburettor had gone and was leaking air, causing a weak mixture. I was grasping at straws, but couldn’t think what else it could be. I therefore removed the carburettor and inlet manifold (not easy) and enlisted the help of mother to drive me to the nearest British Leyland dealer to buy a new gasket.

When we got back I fitted the new gasket while mother went to make lunch for her surprise guests – my, she was having a good day! I continued working on the car and by mid-afternoon the new gasket was fitted and I was ready to try starting the engine again. I started it, and it was exactly the same as before, no change. Once again, my frustration was only outdone by the look on the face of mother.

I racked my brains, and slowly I began to work through the problem. I suddenly realised that whilst the car was only running on two cylinders, no matter what, it actually ran better when I removed both the spark plugs on the cylinders that weren’t running properly, the engine smoothed out and ran cleanly. Replacing the spark plugs and the ignition leads going to them immediately led to the engine running as rough as a dog again.