Tanks for the Memories; Epilogue

By Scott Stewart

After lots of blog reading, talking to local British shop (~40 leakers parked in the field outside so they gotta be good), bought a Kreem tank repair kit from NAPA. Following the directions I soap/watered and rinsed the tank repeatedly. Then etched it using the supplied phosphoric acid. Worked nicely and produced dull grey metal where the rust used to be. Collected the ~4.5 gallons spent, dilute phosphoric acid in 3 milk jugs and 3 2-liter pop bottles, sitting in my garage in a bin. I'm on septic, not sewer, so looking for disposal...Funny, the little in-tank filter thing was dislodged during the etch so I plucked it out carefully and kept as a souvenir.

Primed and dried the tank using the supplied Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK). Wore full-face respirator w/proper cartridges for this smelly endeavor. Poured back into the bottle. Poured in the Kreem, sloshed it around, re-oriented repeatedly to ensure good coating. Poured remainder back into bottle. Removed plug in fuel line outlet and blew gently back through that line to keep it clear. Let tank air-dry for a week. Yes, smelly, too cold out side to do in the garage, so did in the basement. Wife not too happy about that one. At least I blew the worst of the fumes outside the first 3 days before moving back inside. Repeated this process for the filler neck. White lining sure looks nice.

While all this was going on I worked on the fuel gauge sending unit and wiring, just spiffed up and applied some chafe protection and such. Buddy applied his expertise to the sending unit to make sure it was good.

Re-installed tank, poured in a gallon of gas. Drove to Shuck's and bought some fuel stabilizer. Hit the gas station, dosed the stabilizer and then filled the tank to the brim. Fuel gauge didn't register. Crap. Now I have a full tank of gas and something's wrong with the fuel gauge. British Sports Car Law No. 4: Non Functional Attributes; and No. 5: Recently discovered component failure. Heck, I must have known there was a sending unit and wiring, not just a gauge, must have known it, really.

Siphoned off 4.5 gallons (that's as much as my gas can inventory can hold, didn't go for milk jugs). Dropped tank. Pulled sending unit. Found the wire had an open, spliced in a bit of wire. Had to get back in the boot (trunk) again to do this as the open was just inside. I wonder how many people besides me have crawled into the boot of a Bugeye Sprite? How many? Could probably count on my fingers and toes. Anyway, fixed the wire, did lots of clever Voltage and Resistance measurements on the sender. Concluded all was well. Gauge read ~1/3rd which was pretty good, ~6 gallon tank, ~2 gallons remaining. Re-installed and still had ~1/3rd reading. Poured in 4.5 gallons and got ~3/4rs reading. Not bad. That's about all it's ever done. E and F are OK w/me.

Put it all back together and went for a drive. Gauge continued to read. Made it three blocks and the engine started missing badly. Barely limped home. Traffic was light and I blew through the stop sign so I could have some momentum to coast up the driveway and into the garage.

Popped the hood and discovered Spark plug #2 wire had finally fatigued and failed. They're the yellow/black Bumble Bee wires that are solid copper wire cored. Converts any nearby radio into a sort of audio-tachometer. I replaced the coil wire a year ago when I did the rebuild, but the plug wires were all older than when I bought the car in 1975. Funny, I got the ohm meter out and again did clever little measurements and had trouble getting good readings on two other wires. Over the years, I'd just nip off ~1/4 inch when ever I put in a new distributor cap. Worked fine, but wires kept getting shorter and shorter. I'd never checked the boot ends. Well, replaced the failed wire and got it going. Boot was in poor shape but ohm'd fine.

Still couldn't get two other wires to read. Pulled the boots. Totally shot. Had been arcing a long time. Very bad condition. Amazing the car ran as well as it did. No, didn't have spares for those. So, time for all new wires and boots. Probably should replace the cap, points, rotor and condenser at the same time. Gave up on this.

My new windshield and all rubber components had arrived Tuesday from Little British Car Co. so thought I'd at least make some progress on this. Maybe make me feel better after the spark plug fiasco. Removed the windshield from the car. Began to remove the mounting brackets at each end of the windshield that attach the frame to the car. Three screws each end, threaded into aluminum frame. The bottom one on each side was seized/galled into the aluminum. Drilled the first one and twisted out the screw shaft w/pliers. The second one...drill bit drifted and went right through the frame next to the screw shaft. Crap. Couldn't get this one out. Removed glass and rubber which pretty much disintegrated in my hands. Good time for renewing. Cleaned up my mess and knocked off for the night. Another story for another time. Nothing is ever as easy as it looks.