Stop-start progress
When I took the Gentry out for a run recently, I noticed a slight misfire or hesitancy when accelerating away. Normally when this happens, it will clear once the engine gets up to temperature, but on this occasion it didn’t. The following day, with a fresh set of Champion N9Ys at the ready, I took out the spark plugs. They didn’t actually look too bad though, so instead of changing them, I dug out my trusty small wire brush and cleaned them thoroughly. Once satisfied that they were thoroughly clean, I carefully reset the gaps and then stuck them back in. This time, once the car had warmed up properly, it ran like a dream.
Thinking all the Gentry problems were over, a few days later I set off nice and early for a dawn patrol. After a coffee at the local airfield, I climbed back aboard ready for the journey home, but when I tried to restart the Gentry’s Triumph engine, it simply would not fire. After removing the bonnet, I discovered that there was a very healthy spark at the plugs, so the electrics seemed fine. My next check point was the fuelling, and sure enough I discovered that there was no petrol reaching the carburettor.
This had happened once before a couple of months ago, so obviously it was not a one- off blip that was going to sort itself out. After securing the fuel feed pipe to the carburettor once again, I took hold of the screwdriver and, with the ignition switched on, I went around to the back of the Gentry. Laying on the ground so that I could get my hand under the car, I then gave the fuel pump a hearty whack with said screwdriver, and was rewarded with a most satisfying continual ticking as the fuel pump restarted.
When I twisted the key again after this, the car started immediately. The trouble did not repeat itself on the way home, but the old pump had been in situ for about 30 years so I reckon it had done its job and rather than mess about trying to coax a bit more life from it, I ordered a new one from Moss Europe. As usual with Moss, it arrived in the post the very next day, so I set about changing it.
I had ordered the exact same Facet pump as before, and it
“Normally when this happens, it will clear once the engine gets up to temperature, but not this time”
arrived complete with a new filter and a full fitting kit. That lulled me into thinking that changing it would be at most a ten-minute job. After first checking that the filter in the old pump was not the cause of the problem, I offered up the new pump, only to find that it would not fit onto the old mountings – the holes in the mounting bracket attached to the new pump body were smaller in diameter than those original mounting bolts.
Clearly that was not the end of the world, and although access to the old mountings was somewhat restricted, eventually I got them undone and removed. Once I’d replaced them with the new mountings supplied with the kit, fitting the new pump was indeed the straightforward task I had hoped for. Then, with the feed pipe from the tank and to the carburettor fitted and the electric connections made, I twisted the key and was delighted to hear the new pump whirring away merrily. Let’s just hope that I have finally got to the bottom of the temperamental starting.
On another front, I had noticed a very small bubble on the edge of the Jaguar XJ40’s bonnet. I delivered the car to Vernon Frances at Stripping Services Ltd in St. Albans
( strippingservices.co.uk) to have it remedied. However, when I went along to see how the work was progressing,
I was staggered to see remedial work being carried out all around the car. To my astonishment, Vernon told me he was not happy that there
“That lulled me into thinking that changing it would be at most a ten-minute job”
was slight deterioration around the lips of the wheelarches, and as he had totally repainted the car, he felt responsible and therefore decided to correct the situation before handing the car back to me. This type of service is nothing short of astonishing. Suffice to say that when I got the car back the following week, it was immaculate once again.