Larry wrote:
hk wrote in
:

But the prettiest awful car I ever had was an MG-A. Gorgeous, white with
red leather. Looked very pretty sitting in the driveway where I lived in
Kansas City. That's where it spent most of its time, too, sitting in the
driveway. It was a mechanical and electrical P.O.S. It was sort of like
the girl I was dating at the time...very pretty, with really nice
upholstery, but it was damned hard to start her up and keep her running.



Isn't it interesting this is the same English company that made the Morris
Minors I always loved. I had a little green saloon, a drophead coupe and
always wanted the little woody wagon but never found one I could afford on
sailor's pay.

My 37hp drophead, with its white racing stripes to match the 6 light and 8
badge bar, not to mention its 37hp monstrous 4-cylinder powerplant, was my
favorite. A little '41 Ford convertible, made in 1964.

The only thing it lost was the master cylinder in the hydraulic brakes.
The hand brake worked good until I saved up enough money to buy a new
master cylinder on my measily $100 Navy check....

There's a towtruck company downtown that has a lot of Morris and Austin
Minis....the real ones not the new BMW fake ones. They are pretty proud of
them when you ask the price....(c;



I trace my love for British cars to a grammar and high school chum in
New Haven, where I grew up. *His* father was rich, so while we were too
young to drive, his older brothers each got an Austin-Healey when they
reached driving age, and we younger guys got to wash the cars, sit in
them and drive them up and down the driveway. Big deal, huh?

And my father had a lot of summer employees at the boatyard, including a
young guy whose father had a Jag XK-120 the kid sometimes drove to work.

Those cars just hooked me. Then when we got to be 16, the rich kid's dad
bought him an XK-150 and then one of the first XK-E's I ever saw. Now
that was one beautiful car.

Well, the hook was set. But when I finished college, all I could afford
was an ancient MG-A. When it ran I loved it. But it didn't run a lot.

"Jim" wrote in news:g79lts$k5k$1
@registered.motzarella.org:

She lacked motivation?


I made errors on two of my Hondas. I traded in my 305 Honda Dream on a
Triumph 650....I was young. The other mistake was selling my Honda 600
sedan:
http://www.honda600coupe.com/Honda_6..._22_Honda.html
I bet they want a pretty penny for this perfect specimen....I don't think
it was ever on the road!

Larry wrote:
"Jim" wrote in news:g79lts$k5k$1
@registered.motzarella.org:

She lacked motivation?


I made errors on two of my Hondas. I traded in my 305 Honda Dream on a
Triumph 650....I was young. The other mistake was selling my Honda 600
sedan:
http://www.honda600coupe.com/Honda_6..._22_Honda.html
I bet they want a pretty penny for this perfect specimen....I don't think
it was ever on the road!



I got you beat! My *first* motorcycle was... a 250cc Honda Dream. Used
and just carefully broken in when I bought it, and it served me well for
a couple of years. Ugly little bike, but...it sure looked sweet compared
to the BSAs and Triumphs my friends had, because...my Honda started when
I wanted it to...and their bikes sometimes ran and sometimes didn't.

hk wrote in
:

drive them up and down the driveway. Big deal, huh?


We got to drive the huge John Deere 720 2-cylinder diesel monster tractor
across the snow.....pulling the ****spreader full of yesterday's feed
spraying out in all directions behind us...Yum Yum!

The trick was to get it spread out of the ****spreader BEFORE it froze
solid as it was -30F that early in the morning....

If it froze in the spreader, my grandfather would do unspeakable things to
your ass....THEN make you wait in the warm barn until it thawed so you
could correct your mistake...in the fumes!

hk wrote in news:gd-
:

and their bikes sometimes ran and sometimes didn't.


Triumphs had a special thermometer in them built into the distributor cap.
At a certain temperature, the thermo element must have pulled the points
permanently away from each other because you couldn't start it in the
cold....

Larry wrote:
hk wrote in
:

drive them up and down the driveway. Big deal, huh?


We got to drive the huge John Deere 720 2-cylinder diesel monster tractor
across the snow.....pulling the ****spreader full of yesterday's feed
spraying out in all directions behind us...Yum Yum!

The trick was to get it spread out of the ****spreader BEFORE it froze
solid as it was -30F that early in the morning....

If it froze in the spreader, my grandfather would do unspeakable things to
your ass....THEN make you wait in the warm barn until it thawed so you
could correct your mistake...in the fumes!





I was wondering how you could tolerate the rec.boats stench...you've had
training.

"hk" wrote in message
. ..
Larry wrote:
hk wrote in
:

drive them up and down the driveway. Big deal, huh?


We got to drive the huge John Deere 720 2-cylinder diesel monster tractor
across the snow.....pulling the ****spreader full of yesterday's feed
spraying out in all directions behind us...Yum Yum!

The trick was to get it spread out of the ****spreader BEFORE it froze
solid as it was -30F that early in the morning....

If it froze in the spreader, my grandfather would do unspeakable things
to your ass....THEN make you wait in the warm barn until it thawed so you
could correct your mistake...in the fumes!





I was wondering how you could tolerate the rec.boats stench...you've had
training.

That remark wasn't civil, troll.

On Aug 5, 12:24*pm, hk wrote:
Larry wrote:
hk wrote in
:

drive them up and down the driveway. Big deal, huh?

We got to drive the huge John Deere 720 2-cylinder diesel monster tractor
across the snow.....pulling the ****spreader full of yesterday's feed
spraying out in all directions behind us...Yum Yum!

The trick was to get it spread out of the ****spreader BEFORE it froze
solid as it was -30F that early in the morning....

If it froze in the spreader, my grandfather would do unspeakable things to
your ass....THEN make you wait in the warm barn until it thawed so you
could correct your mistake...in the fumes!

I was wondering how you could tolerate the rec.boats stench...you've had
training.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

You ARE the rec.boats stench.

On Aug 5, 12:08*pm, hk wrote:
Larry wrote:
"Jim" wrote in news:g79lts$k5k$1
@registered.motzarella.org:

She lacked motivation?

I made errors on two of my Hondas. *I traded in my 305 Honda Dream on a
Triumph 650....I was young. *The other mistake was selling my Honda 600
sedan:
http://www.honda600coupe.com/Honda_6..._22_Honda.html
I bet they want a pretty penny for this perfect specimen....I don't think
it was ever on the road!

I got you beat!

Well of course! I'll bet no one here saw that coming.....

My *first* motorcycle was... a 250cc Honda Dream. Used
and just carefully broken in when I bought it, and it served me well for
a couple of years. Ugly little bike, but...it sure looked sweet compared
to the BSAs and Triumphs my friends had, because...my Honda started when
I wanted it to...and their bikes sometimes ran and sometimes didn't.

Pure horse****, just like all of your posts!

On Aug 5, 9:20*am, BAR wrote:
hk wrote:
Larry wrote:
Tim wrote in news:7e6b6b40-3ade-4572-917c-
:

Evenw ith the old Generator, I never really had any proble with mine.
But To note, that the "gen" light in the dash always did glow. I never
figured that one out....

A DC generator, unlike the alternators used today, only generates
power after a certain RPM threshold, caused by the counter EMF of the
battery. *There are no blocking diodes, so a generator is actually a
LOAD with current backing up through it at low speed....or, worse yet,
not turning at all, which cooks whichever rotor and commutator core it
happens to be sitting on at the time.

This is why old people are always so crazy about NOT leaving the key
on when their car isn't running. *The modern car, it makes no
difference. *The old cars, it cooked the generators and contact
ignition systems, killing the battery in the process.

My Guzzi Marelli problem was always switches, in the handle bars. *
They corroded in the rain and you rode in the dark or it wouldn't
run...or it wouldn't crank, and had no foot crank on it. *Replacing
the entire handle bar assembly including electrics with one from a
wrecked Honda 750 cured this problem for the rest of their lives.

I lost a starter, once. *It's core came apart. *Being in rural SC, my
only choice was an auto electric shop that looked like it had been in
business since rewinding Ford coils in the 1920's. *The owner, a nice
old guy, pulled it apart to look, shook his head we weren't gonna fix
that one and said, "This is just a Fiat starter running backwards. *
Let me pull the gear off the end of it and put it on a rebuilt Fiat
starter and you'll be fine. *You can't beat expertise in any field. *
He instructed his worker what to do, an hour later they had it mounted
back on my Guzzi and she cranked right up. *It was on there when I
sold it years later. *The points in its little distributor were also
the same as the Fiat rear engine Spider I also owned at the time.

There are rumors that FIAT is planning to re-enter the American
market...again.

I had a FIAT Abarth 850 for about three months once. Used. Awful car.
Now they are collector's items and fetch big bucks. They're still awful
cars.

But the prettiest awful car I ever had was an MG-A. Gorgeous, white with
red leather. Looked very pretty sitting in the driveway where I lived in
Kansas City. That's where it spent most of its time, too, sitting in the
driveway. It was a mechanical and electrical P.O.S. It was sort of like
the girl I was dating at the time...very pretty, with really nice
upholstery, but it was damned hard to start her up and keep her running..

Did you ever think it might be the operator and not the equipment?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

MG's and Triumphs were made to work on. Yes, they did have a lot of
tiny things go wrong with them. BUT, if you had even a tiny bit of
mechanical knowledge, they certainly wouldn't be sitting in your
driveway. Unless you were dumb enough to buy into someone else's
mechanical short comings.