Mid 70s, my late 60's Mini 850 like others was prone to suddenly dying when the brilliantly located distributor and leads succumbed to the rain. Always a problem but especially once overtaking a HGV on the M1 with another one matching my speed, 10 feet behind me and it happened! 10 feet became 1 and for a split second I pictured the outcome of a mini vs 2 HGVs. Never happened but as close as it gets.
I bought and fitted the plastic shield designed to alleviate the problem and it did to a point but in heavier downpours it still cut out. I would plan my trips north according to the weather forecast. Which is what I used to do with my previous mode of transport - a Kawasaki KH250 - at least that made overtaking something requiring less forward planning!
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I had the pressure trunking between the turbo and the intercooler come adrift on a 405. It just died on me while I was passing a bus with a lorry in sight coming the other way.
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My own particular buttock clencher was many years ago when driving down a long steep hill i thought i woulld save petrol by switching the engine off, you've guessed it the steering lock engaged (my palms are sweating just typing this) fortunately i lived to tell the tale.
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i did the same thing in a mk 1 cavalier coasting down from the top of mam tor in the peak district, luckily i had to turn in to the first bend reasonably early so my speed was quite slow
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In the very early days of my driving, we had a Hillman 10 with beam axles. Unknown to me, the right side kingpin worked loose, and decided to seize the steering whilst I had right wheel on turning at an intersection. Nuisance !! Fortunately, there was sufficient break in the traffic for me to just continue across the road on to the right hand kerb and park there. Father came and rescued me, and , having got the beast home, bought replacement kingpin and bushes, and left me to fit and line-ream the bushes, and fit the kingpin. Passed MoT, so I must have got it more or less correct. It has given me a bit of a fetish about steering gear ever since.
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Morris minor 918cc sidevalve with the Bulkhead mounted Electric SU petrol pump. A well known problem of sporadic cut out when the points are worn. Easy fix, lightly tap pump with a solid object to cure, however not practical when moving, so the alternative is to get the passenger to open and slam the passenger door.
I recall doing an overtake on a line of traffic, pump cuts out, passenger well versed in survival, opens door and slams it, nothing happens. Lorry appears on the horizon at a significant closing speed, start to panic, passenger repeatedly slams door and the line of traffic refuses to let us in. Nothing for it, but to select a field entrance on the wrong side of the road and immediately turn right. Lorry passes, pump restarts, dont even stall the car, reverse out of field and join the line of traffic.......................................
And this all happened in North Wales. before the days of Brundstrom fortunately.
In the old days these things happened at relatively lowspeeds, making outcomes less spectacular. Today the yoof have things happen at 2 or 3 times the speed. Human reaction times have not improved, and basic physics dictates that there is then 4-9 times the energy to dissipate and things get messy quickly. But GCSE level physics, despite a practical box ticking bias, probably does not sink in.
pmh
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I remember the pump well, you could diagnose by clicks - an early analogue fault code ! Try doing that with a TDCI.
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Driving down a fairly steep hill with a 90 degree bend at the bottom in my dad's Rover SD1, put the brakes on and the offside rear locked, gently let it off and managed to stop before the bend, both brake circuits had holes in them, the under bonnet area was drenched in brake fluid. I'm not sure why all brakes went except the o/s rear. I nursed it home using the autobox and handbrake to stop. Funnily enough I don't think the fluid attacked the paint, the Rover had a rather plasticky paint finish.
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back in late 70s, mate bought new Austin Ambassdor ('wedge') and off we two families went, camping in France. He'd noticed vibration fm engine dept and on a non-beach day we dropped in on BL dealer in Brittany town. Got it on the ramp and mechanic kept mumbling "encroyable" as he inspected. Turned out only one of the three engine mountings was there! Exhaust was helping to keep engine in place.
Hardly a fault, but Mon Dieu ...what a tribute to BL quality control and pre-delivery checks.
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what a tribute to BL quality control and pre-delivery checks.
You say that, but engine staying in place and working with only one engine mount? That's a more inpressive claim in my book than those Citroen bores who always go on about being able to continue on only three wheels!
My entry in this thread goes back to when I was a student, and had a Fiat Citivan for a little while. It was already the scariest vehicle in the world anyway. It seemed to always feel like it was on the verge of a crash. It was high enough off the road to make you feel horribly unstable and exposed, but not high enough for any of this 'king of the road' stuff 4x4 drivers talk about. The brakes would lock up if you looked at them funny, and the wing mirrors got scratched on the road if you went round a corner at any more than 5mph.
The fault it has was intermittent, and we never did manage to find out what caused it, despite replacing every constituent of the fuel supply lines and more beside. In normal driving it was absolutely fine, but if you took it on a motorway, and the mood took it, after about 50 miles the engine would die. This maybe happened to me 5 times in all, and on four occasions I drifted to the hard shoulder before it completely conked out. Then 5 minutes of fruitless attempts to start it, until just as you were about to give up and ring emergency services (aka Dad) when it would cough into life and act like nothing had ever gone wrong.
On the fifth occasion though, it happened just as the motorway started to come to a halt for some reason. And no-one would let me across lanes, assuming I was just trying to jockey for position. So it died in the middle lane, and then the jam started to clear.
I was left stationary in the middle lane with traffic travelling at increasingly motorway-esque speeds on both sides of me. Thankfully my fervent praying obviously merited some pity, and it started after what must have been a matter of a few seconds from the traffic starting up again (although it felt like hours)
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That sounds like a partial blockage in the fuel tank breather.
A neighbour was swearing increasingly loud at his petrol mower. His wife explained that it would run for a few minutes, and then stop. He'd try to re-start it, fail, so open a can of beer. By the time he'd drunk it, the mower would re-start. He was running out of beer, so he asked for my opinion. His wife was concerned he'd drunkenly remove his toes.
He'd re-painted it the week before. The breather in the filler cap was partially blocked!
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"He'd re-painted it the week before"....Painting a lawnmower sounds like a 'scary fault' in a human being.
I clean mine, yes, but are there lots of you out there who paint yours?
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I thought that as well Avant.
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