Kenlow fitted for extra cooling paid off on first trip!
Norfolk line to France Stena Super Ferry back from Holland
One of the agreements with the owner of the new car was that before it was shipped to the US was Diane and I would have some fun with the car and visit a few rallies with it prior to shipping it to Boston end July. Chris and Adrienne would also make a trip to Europe and enjoy driving it over here. We decided to participate in the Chocolate & Lace Rally organised by Walter & Noëlla Callens for the Traction Owners Club and based around a tour of the Flemish coast and polders, as this would provide an ideal opportunity to really test the reliability of the car before letting Chris and Adrienne tour the UK in it later that month.
Booking such a rally optimistically a few months in advance is all fair and well but time crept up on me and there was the small concern of getting an MOT and insurance in time. With the MOT scheduled 4 days before departure I was cutting things fine again. It meant working till 3 AM Monday morning to get the car ready for its Certificate of Motor Transport test booked for 10:45 AM. The car passed with flying colours, so next stop was the local DVLA office to get the car registered under its original registration of OLM907. Here we had a first setback as the necessary form from the owners club did not make it back in time to get the new registration and tax disk. Thankfully Mr. Geest the inspector temporarily put it on an age related new number 910XUM.
On Friday morning we set off for the ferry from Dover to Dunkirk. Having learned from experience we allowed plenty of time for the trip to Kent. Nevertheless we ran into traffic problems on the A12 just before reaching the M25 around London. Probably an accident barring the road. We managed to get of to Shenfield and crawled through congested country lanes used as rat runs. The Kenlow radiator proved its worth by kicking in and keeping the engine nicely below 80º C.
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Kenlow fitted for extra cooling paid off on first trip! |
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Norfolk line to France Stena Super Ferry back from Holland |
Car and Diane on the Norfolk Ferry to Dunkerque
At the other side we met with the other TOC members and organisers in Wenduine (57 miles up the coast from Dunkerque) on the Friday afternoon. Convoy drives and visits on Saturday and Sunday. Great meals at traditional venues on all 3 evenings!We started early on Saturday morning at the Rotonde. The likely to tour route was De Haan, Klemskerke, Stalhille, Jabbeke, Snellegem, Zerkegem, Bekegem, Roksem, Westkerke, Zandvoorde, Snaaskerke, Leffinge, Raversijde - you will be tested on this.Walter & Noëlla id a fantastic job planning lovely routes, finding interesting venues and sights to see as well organising food and entertainment of the level that makes Belgium one of the best gastronomic and tourist attractions in the world!
Below are some pictures. Teething troubles started really only Sunday on the way back. On the motorway home via the Netherlands the car would start sputtering and holding back eventually coming to a complete stop at the side of the motorway. More about that below.
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The pictures above are taken mainly at the city of
Damme and Brugge. Stops were also made at the Domein Raversijde, where you can
still inspect remnants preserved from the Atlantikwall defences the Germans
pulled up against invasion by the allied forces from Norway down to Spain during
WWII. After the Sunday lunchtime stop at Brugge it was time to head for the
Netherlands for a stay-over at my mother's. Also the car was booked in at CTA
Service for a final safety inspections and settings to the height and weight
distribution of the car. There was a knocking sound in the suspension, whenever
you decelerated on the engine alone. I guess the engine position would slightly
tilt, making the drive shafts foul the suspension cradle. There was really very
little room down there and my efforts the last Sunday night working till 3 AM
had not been able to cure the problem. Soon I had more wishes than ever for
professional assistance, as on the motorway the car would tear away with
gusto, but only for a few minutes when it would grind to a halt. On inspection I
would find the carburettor fuel chamber, but pumping fuel in by hand meant I
could drive for a few more miles after the car stopped again and again. Getting
from Brugge to Oirschot near Eindhoven took 4 hours instead of the two hours
expected. After a while I found I could just about keep the car going by barely
touching the throttle and keeping it just below 40 MPH. A dangerously slow speed
for a motorway. Fortunately there was heavy traffic so it was not like people
where tearing past us at 90 MPH. Arrived home with a sore finger from
hand-pumping petrol, I sent the following SOS to the TA-L news group: "The
problem seems to be of fuel starvation when reaching speeds upwards of 45 miles
per hour. The car pulls away nicely from a cold start through 1st and 2nd, but
at full throttle soon the engine starts to hold back and actually I end up
pulling over onto the emergency lane. When I hand-pump the chamber full the car
starts again normally, but soon after joining traffic the same happens all over
again. I eventually learned that if I keep speeds around 40 MPH I can keep the
car running, but this was embarrassing on the motorway to say the least. I
managed to limp home to my mothers place not far from CTA. The following
symptoms arise:
- only happens at prolonged high revs/speed. Not city driving!
- only started after my first fuel stop in Belgium (lead free 98)
- seems to be preceded by strange sound from somewhere under the bonnet: a click
followed by a cat sneezing;
- managed to increase speed to 55-60 after 2nd fuel stop, but never reached a
comfortable speed again and car holding back in bursts which get worse at higher
speed. Full throttle kills the engine.
Things checked en route: no dirt in fuel filter, no sediment in carb chamber.
When disconnected hand pump gives strong squirts of petrol!
The next day we limp equally dramatic the 40 odd miles to CTA Service in Zeeland. I had prepared a list for them to check but the fuel problem had moved up to pole position as without it I did not dare to drive back to the UK. Having left the car in their capable hands a call soon came to my mobile. They found the culprit to be a short piece of rubber fuel line from the tank to the rear arch that had a 'kink' in it as it was bent too sharp! The powerful fuel pump would pull a vacuum and the engine would be starved of fuel. After the vacuum was released fuel would start flowing again but restricted! The guys at CTA replaced this section. They set the height of the car, checked the alignment of the wheels, balanced the wheels, changed the height of the engine so the driveshafts no longer fauled. Recalibrated the torsion of the cylinder head bolts, set the tappets. put a better oilseal in and stopped further oil leaks. I must say that the car felt like a totally different car when I drove it back to my mothers Monday evening! The carr now purrs when idling and roars at full throttle. Tuesday morning we enjoyed travelling on the motorway again instead of dreading every moment of it. We stopped at Andre Pol Citroen in Hoeven to discuss shipment to the US. It will be a container job! All Chris needs to do is find locally a loading facility where they can take the car out of the container. (Otherwise its quite a drop!) Maybe a friendly local cargo handler will make his ramp available to drive the car out of the container. Certainly there will be less danger of damage using this method. A point illustrated on our ferry crossing back to the UK where a careless fellow passenger strapping in her child in the back seat caught our car with her rear door causing the first damage to the beautiful paintwork. This will be an insurance job!
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