When owning an old vehicle, it can't all be roses and sunshine. And so, if you entered the onramp from 40th to 520 sometime around 7pm this evening, you would have spotted a white Mercedes stopped along the side of the road and, if you happened to look in your rearview mirror as you passed, you would also have spotted my ass sticking out from underneath the hood of the car.
It turned out that the throttle line tying the accelerator pedal to the carburettors had fallen off the according linkage—and upon reattaching it (a fairly straightforward 30-second exercise if you know what you're looking for) I realized that the entire front carburettor actuator assembly had fallen off of the carb. Lovely.
Thankfully, I had enough tools (read: the back of a house key to remove the screws holding the air cleaner in, and the feed wire from a set of old points that went into an attempt to bind the throttle line to the linkage...without much luck) and after pulling everything apart, I was able to thread the linkage assembly mounting post back into the side of the carb. It appears that my recent accelerator pump fix had allowed the mounting post to back out from the carb housing.
In the end, I'm lucky to have had such a great spot to do the fix (hoorah for onramps) and I can tell know why all the old-timers always complain on those new-fangled cars. Diagnostic codes? Bah. Gimme a sack full of house keys and I can disassemble an entire engine.
on that note, you really should carry at least a few tools with you. I never leave home with out the known vw essentials (13mm, 10mm, 8mm, phillips, flat head, coolent, and zip ties).
Absolutely agreed—I usually have a handful of cheap old tools stuffed into the trunk, but had cleared them all out a few weeks ago to grind down some rust in the trunk floor and fit a new lid seal. :-/
I would also reccomend a tow strap and a set of jumper cables( and no, the jumper cables are not a suitable tow strap). I do what I can to keep one in my truck and the Stang. You never know when you, or someone else, will need either. I did a nice bit of damage (since repaired) to my bumper bracket on my truck pushing some stranded guys truck to the nearest gas station. Since then, I keeep the strap handy.
I dunno. The closer I am to civilization the more I'd rather rely on towing insurance than on a tow strap.
True, I would rather get a tow from a company given the option, but if you get stuck on the on-ramp, it never hurts to get a tow even to the nearest parking lot.
Too true. Thank $deity that Washington puts those HOV and bus lanes everywhere.