Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Richards
Have a great road trip, Glen!
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THAT is the plan.
My brother and I were laughing about the last road trip we made together. Going back from OKC to Montgomery, after coming to visit my grandparents. I still lived in Montgomery back then. It was about 1976 or 1977 and the gasoline was changed for the vapor point. My 914 had run fine for years, but the new fuel was causing it to vapor lock. I was driving along at 55 MPH in the bad old days, and the engine would just shut down. I could squirt some water on the fuel pump and it would be OK. It was 113 or so in east Texas, and crawling on the 200 degree concrete was not high on my list. It was my brothers turn to squirt the water on the fuel pump and his hand hit part of the heat exchangers. The stock position for the pump was under the battery, in the engine compartment, right where the heat exchangers dumped out the heat that was diverted from going into the cabin.
Anyway, he burned his hand along one side. We got it rolling and stopped at the first place we came to, a Stucky's. We walked up to make a drink order and we both ordered a large drink, he order a Sprite. She handed it to him, and he just shoved his hand into the drink and walked off for me to pay for the drinks. She looked at me and asked "where are y'all from" and I said Montgomery, Alabama. She nodded and then said oh, OK as if that was why he stuck his hand in the drink.
With no AC in the 914 it was a hot trip. At another place in the trip I had a sudden flat tire in the rear. The tube had ripped, and it was instant flat. The spare is in the rear trunk. The rear trunk had 4 cases of Coors beer in it that I would bootleg back to Alabama and sell for a nice profit. So we unload all the beer, jack up the can change the tire, and put the flat in the trunk, and all the beer, and just as I lowered the trunk, a state trooper rolled up. He asked if we had a problem and I was covered in sweat, and said, no sir, I just had a flat and I just got it fixed and was about to leave. 30 seconds earlier he would see the beer, and then investigate the two more cases in the front and we would be in jail for bootlegging.
After I got back, I moved the fuel pump to the front, and it never vapor locked again.