Take apart - put together syndrome

My MGAs had SU fuel pumps as well. If it quit on the road, the trick to get gas to get to a safe place to start was to turn the ignition key on and of several cycles (no steering lock so it was safe) and this would pump enough fuel into the float bowls to drive for a little while.

Then pull over, open the trunk and get out one half of the jack rod, tilt the seats forward and remove the cover over the batteries (two

6V batteries, one on each side of the driveshaft), get back in, turn on the ignition, and bring the end of the rod down smartly on the fuel pump (behind the passenger's seat) and it would run for a while. Repeat as needed until I could get to work or home, then climb under, unscrew the nut securing the points cap, remove the bolts securing the toggle points assembly, rotate a couple of turns to change the toggle point, and reassemble. Fine for another year or so. :-) (I understand that they later added a capacitor to reduce the burn rate on the points.)

As for the starter -- no pushbutton in the MGA -- you pull on a knob which pulled a wire in a spiral steel sheath, to mechanically close the contacts on the high current switch near the starter.

Enjoy, DoN.

No wonder Lucas is called 'The Prince of Darkness'.

Wes

frustrates the

the facility.

1/2. Well no

wired single

I preferred Omrons or Eurotherms. Good luck.

Pete Keillor

Good day Ted,

I was experiencing that in my VW van a little while back, it would usually fail to start at most inopportune time - I took the solenoid off the starter and ran about 90 amps (AC current) from my stick welder through the heavy contacts on the solenoid while operating the solenoid manually several times. Seems to have given it a new lease on life, been working reliably since (so far anyway).

ymmv

Mike

Yes, but they were worth it in some applications. I used to repair Commodore 64 computers. I used machine pin sockets for repairs, if I could get them.

I had one joker who wanted a fully socketed C64, but was too cheap to pay for good sockets. I had a board that already had about 50% of the ICs in sockets, so I pulled the other chips and installed the common AMP leaf type sockets. He called me about a week later to complain that he had to open the computer and wiggle all the ICs to get it to work, and demanded hs money back, or he would tell everyone at the computer club. I reminded him that it wasn't a good idea, and that he really didn't want all those sockets. When he told the club, they laughed him out of the building. :)

Oh, you're the guy who actually worked on 'em? I'm the guy who would always say, with a smile "Oh, a VW? The crusher is over there."

-- If we attend continually and promptly to the little that we can do, we shall ere long be surprised to find how little remains that we cannot do. -- Samuel Butler

...

According to (which at the outset says, "As you all know, SU stands for Skinners Union"), "Originally ... the only [arc] suppressor used was a swamping resistor, in the form of resistance wire wrapped around the coil and attached in parallel with it. As stronger coils that draw more current were employed, a 0.47 microfarad capacitor was added to assist ... ... With the introduction of the AUF 300 and AZX series pumps, the capacitor was replaced with a diode to work in conjunction with the swamping resistor ... ... Finally, the all electronic pumps were introduced, which replaced the points with a Hall effect circuit to control the current flow in the coil. These pumps look and operate the same as the points style pumps, complete with the familiar tic, tic, tic sound, but there is no longer any problem with point wear".

Then the article goes on to list the seven "more common problems with SU fuel pumps" (burned and/or sticking points, stiffened diaphragm, leakage past valves, broken pedestal, various fuel leaks around loose or cracked parts, air leak, clogged lines) and explains how to fix them.

I LOVE beetles! Well..except for the Super Beetle.

I ran the alarm department of a security firm that used bugs for oil field patrols. Ran the piss out of them and hard too. Course we did soup em up a bit and I wound up doing much of the mechanic work.

They had to change over to pickup trucks when decent bugs got hard to find.

Some day Ill build up another one. Biggest problem with em was..no air conditioning. Which sucks here in the desert.

Gunner

I am the Sword of my Family and the Shield of my Nation. If sent, I will crush everything you have built, burn everything you love, and kill every one of you. (Hebrew quote)

I don't know if I'm gaining or not. I found that the data acq card didn't have the Analog input and Analog output channels ground terminal tied to ground. So I added it. I checked to make sure the control console was grounded to the control cabinet.

I didn't try really hard by power cycling the control too many times to see if it would fail. We need the test cell up and running.

I've had good luck with Watlow going back to the days of 1/4 din stuff with dials and meter movements at the old job.

Most things I deal with are easy fixes. Doesn't take long to find the problem when there is one but from time to time you get a problem that doesn't want to go away. Often on machines that have worked fine for years.

Never saw a Eurotherm before. Omron is pervasive.

Wes

Mechanical objects get lonely sometimes. Depressed.

Playing with their innards brings the meaning back into their life. Call it a mid-life crisis, if you will.

Call any machine, and the chances are good, that the machinery will respond to you.

Jon

Between hearing the heads flop 1/4 inch off-seat on acceleration, seeing a gazillion of them on fire on the side of the road, getting my hearing reamed by their high-pitched squeals, and being in a VW van @45 degrees in a 40knot gust on a bridge near Mountain View, CA once, I had my fill early on, thankyouverymuch.

But at least they gave you carbon-monoxide-filled heat during the winter, eh?

-- If we attend continually and promptly to the little that we can do, we shall ere long be surprised to find how little remains that we cannot do. -- Samuel Butler

While all of the preceeding is quite true, please be sure that you never underestimate the innate animosity of inanimate objects.

-- If we attend continually and promptly to the little that we can do, we shall ere long be surprised to find how little remains that we cannot do. -- Samuel Butler

You are talking about badly maintained bugs. They are almost as bad as a badly maintained Caddy or Volvo or Chevette.

While they can indeed have issues, the technology is well mature, well documented and has improved a 1000 fold from 1939..or 69

There are only two reasons we dont see them on the streets much anymore.

EPA regs and the simple fact VW stopped bringing them into the US. They couldnt sell for as much as they could get for "improved" models.

They are still manufactured and run in South America and do yoemans duty down there.

Only on a poorly maintained one. Does your current ride piss antifreeze on your foot from a poorly maintained heater core?

Gunner

I am the Sword of my Family and the Shield of my Nation. If sent, I will crush everything you have built, burn everything you love, and kill every one of you. (Hebrew quote)

Larry...most such objects are actually friendly! Like dogs..if you express interest and care about their welfare..they respond nicely. But..you have to do it on the same wavelength as they receive. And not all machinery is the same "channel"

Then of course.. there are the "sports".

Like evil twisted inbred pitbulls..there are a few machines out there that only want to kill/rend/tear/shit/piss and f*ck over the nearest human being.

Fortunately most are not in a position to do so..but some...shrug..can and do. And the results can be....horrific.....brrrrrrr!!

I once had such a machine in my home. A 4 slot toaster. It tried to kill or at the very least..piss off EVERY user except one (my wife). Like a cat..it only had one owner. Biggest problem was..there were 6 people in the house. So my wife had her very own toaster for years, the rest of us using a modest and hardworking 2 slice toaster who did yoemans work for us. And I/we treasured it deeply. And it knew it and appreciated it.

Her toaster ultimately had a mechanical problem that I solved with the proper application of a 3lb shop hammer and my big Haybudden anvil, followed by a toss over the fence, directly into the dumpster. And I laughed..laughed as it died!

The new replacement evidently got the word and its been behaving nicely for a number of years now. And I still use the trustworthy 2 slice and talk to it, celebrate it, while its toasting. And it feels good about itself.

Gunner

I am the Sword of my Family and the Shield of my Nation. If sent, I will crush everything you have built, burn everything you love, and kill every one of you. (Hebrew quote)

I built one of these 30 years ago...actually I built two, one for a friend. Most fun vehicle EVER!

You're supposed to set the new one in the shop, so it cansee what happens to unruly equipment. :)

Actually -- I never had a failure of the starter contacts or switch overall. Now the fuel pump -- that was a regular failure.

Enjoy, DoN.

[ ... ]

[ ... ]

Hmm ... I'm surprised that I did not experience a broken pedestal, given the number of times I bashed the pump on its side. The other problems (other than burned points) I did not experience -- but perhaps because when I first rebuilt my pump I replaced the diaphragm as well as the points. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

There were other cars, and aircraft, that had that kind of switch. IIRC, that's how the starter worked on my Bugeye Sprite, too. They were reliable, as I recall.

The first time I drove a Triumph TR3 I almost pulled the knob off the dashboard. 'Turns out that it was a push knob. d8-)