RE: Close call and 20/20 hindsight

[Richard Hudson <richard.hudson@domain.elided>]

Mike

My mum used to have a TR7 and she was always complaining about an
intermittent buzzing noise coming from under the bonnet. Well to cut a
long story short my and my dad had a sniff about but couldn't see
anything wrong so we ignored her and put it down to her hearing. 

Anyway, one day, she came running into the house in a blind panic
claiming that her TR7 was on fire up the road. I grabbed a fire
extinguisher and ran back up the road to see mums car enveloped in a
cloud of steam. I could smell the antifreeze from 20 paces. I lifted up
the bonnet and apart from water everywhere there seemed to be nothing
obviously wrong, until I noticed one of the hoses had worn through where
it had made contact with the alternator fan... hmmm.

One new hose, a tie wrap and some antifreeze and she was back on the
road again.. But none to impressed with either my dad or me for our 1st
class diagnosis.

Regards

Richard Hudson
73 Auto White Stag

	-----Original Message-----
	From:	Michael Burdick [SMTP:mburdick@domain.elided]
	Sent:	28 September 1998 19:00
	To:	stag@domain.elided
	Subject:	Close call and 20/20 hindsight

	I had an interesting experience with the Stag yesterday on the
way back
	from a local British car show.  I'll try to keep it short...

	The close call:  
	    On the way home, I was cruising down the Interstate at about
75 mph,
	just enjoying the ride.  I had been paying some attention to the
	temperature guage because I was heading into a fairly strong
headwind and
	I was curious as to whether this would affect the running
temperature of
	the Stag.  To my pleasant surprise, it didn't - the Stag
continued to run
	with the needle on the temp. guage at it customary position,
slighly over
	half-scale.
	    About one hour into the drive (near home thankfully, as I
was able to
	call my wife and she brought out tools etc.. to make repairs), I
glanced
	down and noticed the guage had crept up a little.  Hmmm.  A few
seconds
	later, I noticed the smell of coolant and that there was a fine
spray
	hitting the passenger side of the windscreen.  Uh-oh!  Looking
down at the
	hood (bonnet) I could see trail of liquid streaming back.
Better pull it
	over!  Fortunately, there was an exit just ahead I was able get
off the
	Interstate to where there was no traffic.
	    A quick peek under the hood identified the problem.  The
clamp on the
	lower radiator hose had broken, releasing the coolant.  The hose
did not
	come off of the connector pipe between the thermostat housing
and the
	radiator, so the coolant didn't just dump out.  Lucky for me.
It was a
	quick job to fix it on the side of the road, and I was able to
continue
	the journey home with no further problems.  I think I avoided
any serious
	damage but will keep an eye on things to be sure.

	20/20 hindsight:
	    The cause of the problem was that the clamp was in contact
with the
	power steering pump pulley.  The contact weakened the clamp and
	eventually, it gave way.  The contact was periodic, and I think
it mainly
	occured when the engine was hot, and under load.  How do I know
this?  
	Well, for the last month or so, I had been noticing a faint
zzzzzzzzz
	sound coming from under the hood.  It changed pitch with engine
revs, and
	I only noticed it when the engine was hot, and when I was
accelerating in
	first and second gears. I looked high and low for the source of
the sound
	but could never find it with the car stationary, even with the
engine hot.  
	My theory is that the load on the engine, when accelerating in
low gears
	(and maybe at 75mph into a head wind), caused a slight shift of
the engine
	on its mounts and brought the clamp and pulley into light
contact.  Over
	time, this contact ground down the clamp, and eventually it gave
way.

	A new item on my monthly visual check will be this clamp, and
its
	clearance between that pulley!

	Keep your coolant level up,
	Mike Burdick
	'72 Stag
	Omaha, Nebraska 
	USA