Jim Keller
1st September 2008, 10:05 AM
We've all been there, so I thought I would share my story, would like to see your pre-show stress story too! (;-)
So I spent the whole week ignoring my household and fatherly duties trying to get the Coupe back together and detailed enough to not totally embarass me at the Italian Gathering yesterday <grin>
So after a week of snuffing things up and detailing, (which included lots of soakings with soap, water and garden hose), Connie and I finished up what we considerd good enough for a car without a chance in hell of placing for an award at 11:30 PM the night before. I was proud of that, because we are normally on it till well after midnight for these kind of things.......but I made one mistake.....I didn't start her up before going to bed, so, we all now know, where this is going......right? LOL
So I get up, showered, dressed in my show outfit which included a plain white shirt due to the expected high heat and sun, and packed for the day, everythings running great, I am ahead of schedual for leaving and have 20 min or so to be a dad and say good buy for the day.
Time comes to leave, wife follows me to garage to wave me off with a smile, I get in excited, ready for the 70 plus mile drive and seeing everyone, hit the key, she turns over strong.......and turns over strong.......and turns....HEY! what the heck?!! why aren't you firing?!!!!!......wife loses smile, looks me in the eye, turns and walks away back into house.
I (in my nice white shirt), start checking for things unplugged, check inside dist cap for water, check for spark.......it took 40 min of taking it all apart and checking things to get it narrowed to fuel system problem for sure......I am sweating it hoping the pump hasn't taken a sudden dump, so I turn on the key and hold open the AFM flap, What a relief! the pumps running. So it comes down to it isn't running with the key in the start position so
I held the AFM open a few seconds to get the system pressurized and Wa! La! she fired right up! wife returns to garage with relived smile, I just said to her as I scrambled to put it all back together, I will assumne something in the wiring is wet and the heat of driving it to Columbus will fix it, if not, I may have to pay for a long tow home, but I'm going!
Turns out, that was it as it hasn't had any more trouble since, I made the show and back so.......I guess I need to run it longer after washing the engine bay next time! LOL
So I spent the whole week ignoring my household and fatherly duties trying to get the Coupe back together and detailed enough to not totally embarass me at the Italian Gathering yesterday <grin>
So after a week of snuffing things up and detailing, (which included lots of soakings with soap, water and garden hose), Connie and I finished up what we considerd good enough for a car without a chance in hell of placing for an award at 11:30 PM the night before. I was proud of that, because we are normally on it till well after midnight for these kind of things.......but I made one mistake.....I didn't start her up before going to bed, so, we all now know, where this is going......right? LOL
So I get up, showered, dressed in my show outfit which included a plain white shirt due to the expected high heat and sun, and packed for the day, everythings running great, I am ahead of schedual for leaving and have 20 min or so to be a dad and say good buy for the day.
Time comes to leave, wife follows me to garage to wave me off with a smile, I get in excited, ready for the 70 plus mile drive and seeing everyone, hit the key, she turns over strong.......and turns over strong.......and turns....HEY! what the heck?!! why aren't you firing?!!!!!......wife loses smile, looks me in the eye, turns and walks away back into house.
I (in my nice white shirt), start checking for things unplugged, check inside dist cap for water, check for spark.......it took 40 min of taking it all apart and checking things to get it narrowed to fuel system problem for sure......I am sweating it hoping the pump hasn't taken a sudden dump, so I turn on the key and hold open the AFM flap, What a relief! the pumps running. So it comes down to it isn't running with the key in the start position so
I held the AFM open a few seconds to get the system pressurized and Wa! La! she fired right up! wife returns to garage with relived smile, I just said to her as I scrambled to put it all back together, I will assumne something in the wiring is wet and the heat of driving it to Columbus will fix it, if not, I may have to pay for a long tow home, but I'm going!
Turns out, that was it as it hasn't had any more trouble since, I made the show and back so.......I guess I need to run it longer after washing the engine bay next time! LOL