Exhaust
Notes
Newsletter of the St.
Louis
www.SLTOA.org May 2007
May Meeting, Tuesday May 15th,
2007 , 7:00 PM , at Tom
& Ann Stark’s
Meeting Details, By Ann & Tom Stark
We are hosting the
May meeting at our house,
We will provide the meat: pork loin. We have a lot of chairs but not enough if the turnout is large so a few extras would be welcome. We'd like the members to bring a dish to share and whatever they want to drink. We have a large gas grill and will have lots of ice. We hope to see everyone there.
Ann and Tom Stark
Dues for 2007 are now past due
To:
Mel & Barbara Alcorn, Gary & Chris Allgood,
Cheryl Swift/Bob Berger, Mark Birdsong, John F. Bush, Tom & Dorothy Chronister, Richard & Marcy Halbert,
George & Paula Hildebrand, Patrick & Rebecca Hughes, George Johnson,
Joseph & Kathleen Kelly, Jeff Krensk, Chip Logan,
Joe & Mary Ann Mann, Mark Marshall, Gary & Linda Mazzaola,
Please
mail your payment for $10 or $20 to Bonnie David at
To all other members not listed in the first paragraph. Thanks for renewing previously!!! But here is your assignment. If you see someone on the list who you would like to see remain in the club in 2007, give them a call and ask them to renew. Don’t wait for someone else to volunteer; this is your chance to help maintain the club. Anyone not renewing will be dropped this month.
Presidential Ramblings, By Craig Madsen
Stop the Madness - I'm pretty sure the level of sanity decreases proportionally to the increase of the number of Triumphs in the driveway. I'm also pretty sure that two would be a manageable number. I had to have a WHITE spitfire. It came home with the usual amount of excitement one would expect if you didn't bring it home on a trailer. We won't go there now, I'm still exhausted.
I'm told we have three new members, and I'm going to try to find out who they are, meet them and get them introduced to the rest of you. Hopefully they'll find their way to our next meeting.
Check out the list
of upcoming events, a club favorite -the
Please try to make your way to Tom Starks house for the next meeting. We're back to members homes for the summer. It's too soft yet to be on the lawn so please don't park there. I guarantee a fine time to be had by all. Anne & Tom always do a bang up job.
See you there! Craig Madsen
P.S. - Also, if you signed up with Dave for the Easter Car Show, didn't pay, & didn't go, please settle up with Bonnie. These spots are prepaid by the club and nonrefundable. Don't leave us hanging! thanks - C.M
SLTOA
Meeting Minutes for April 2007, By Matt Gossett
Meeting called to
order at
- President’s
Report (Craig Madsen):
Thanks were given by President
Madsen to
Thanks were also given to Exhaust Notes editor and publisher Creig Houghtaling. Another excellent issue was produced this month including more interesting articles from members. Nice job people!
- Treasurer’s Report (Bonnie David): President Madsen read the Treasurer’s Report which was produced by Bonnie David. Anyone who has not paid their dues certainly needs to at this point.
- Upcoming Events: Please refer to the comprehensive list of events found on the chapter website at: www.sltoa.org.
o Model
A Swap Meet: April 29th at Riverport
starting at
o
May 4th
& 5th
o
May 28th
o
May 25th
& 27th
o
July 13th
& 17th
o
September All British Car Show
o
October MG Halloween Rally
o
December SLTOA
Old Business: None to report.
New Business:
- Party at Mel and Gail Parentin’s: When? We don’t know. Where? At their lovely home. What? We’re eating, drinking… and shooting guns! Stay tuned for more information. (Editor’s note: See next paragraph.)
- Next SLTOA meeting is taking place on May 15th at Tom Stark’s charming abode in Ladue. Tom and Anne Wippold have promised yummy pork loin for dinner and members are encouraged to bring dishes as well.
·
Meeting adjourned at
A Day on the Farm with Mel & Gail Parentin, Saturday May 19th
Meet at Steak
& Shake near Highway 141 and Interstate 44 at
SLTOA Hobby Shop, By Creig Houghtaling
For many years, Arlie King has wanted to have a garage where British Car owners can meet to work on their cars. As of a few months ago Mike Lewis has been looking for a place to keep his auto lift. So Arlie found a very nice garage for rent just west of Fenton off Highway 30. The lift is now in and installation will be finished soon. There is an air compressor, parts washer, and a sand blaster will be in soon. There might even be a welder and many other specialty tools available soon.
To help pay the rent and expenses, there are about six SLTOA members who have volunteered to pitch in. These core members will have full access to the shop whenever they need it. But the expense is still higher then some in the group would like to spend. (Me, myself, and I being the primary cheapskates.) So we will be opening the doors to other British car enthusiasts to work on their cars occasionally. Perhaps these occasional users will be willing to pitch in a few bucks to reduce the expense of the core group. We are also going to offer professional services if you have a project you don’t have the skills or desire to do yourself. Arlie knows a fellow who can come in and do welding. I have found a business that will send their professional mechanic to work on specific projects in the garage. We also have trailers to move parts or cars if needed.
If you would like to become one of the core members to gain full access to the facility, contact Arlie or Creig. Arlie’s home number is: 636-677-0545. Mine is 636-678-2181. If you would like to use the space occasionally or would like to have someone else help with your project, give us a ring. If you would like to volunteer to help set up the shop, please stop by. John Lamberg and John Maneke have already been a ton of help. We can’t thank you guys enough. Thanks John & John!!! If you have any special skill you would like to offer, perhaps we can put you together with someone with a project that can use your expertise. This not an invitation for only volunteer effort. Perhaps you can make a few bucks for your time. We’re just getting started, so there aren’t many rules yet. As long as everyone is careful and nobody gets hurt there is no limit to the amount of fun we can have. Perhaps we will have special days to get together and do oil changes or tech sessions. Maybe we can use the parking lot to meet for a drive. Let’s have fun! The more the merrier! What is your dream? Let’s bring it to life. Literally!
St. Louis New
Moto Museum
On Friday, April
27,
The location is
STORIES ABOUT THOSE LITTLE BRITISH CARS by, Kathy Kresser
Chris and I attended the New Orleans All British Car Show in March. The British cars littered the showing field, but one, in particular, stood out. It is pink! Sally Breithoff is the proud owner. I think you will enjoy her story. It made me laugh and cry.
Sally, I love that pink MG, pink chair, pink shirt and pink pen. I think you love the color pink. Readers, in case your copy is black and white, Sally used pink ink for her responses.
Tell me about the pink fascination? My daughter and I both love pink. Once you have a color that you really like, you begin noticing things in that color…. And all of a sudden everything you own is pink.
What year is your
car and when did you acquire it? She is a 1977 and we purchased it off of eBay in January
2003. In 2001, I was diagnosed with
uterine cancer. I had surgery, chemo,
and radiation. As I was recuperating,
my husband, Bill, asked me what kind of car I would like to drive. I said an MGB and I would like to paint it
pink! We were eating dinner at the time
and I thought he would choke… but he survived.
He was a little shocked, partly because he is the proud owner of a
Triumph TR8 and partly because I wanted to paint it pink. But he said that he would start looking for
one. We found Scarlett
on eBay, and she lived across the lake.
So we bought her. She was in good
shape and she was already named “Scarlett”. Her official color was “Damask Red”.
Then in 2004, Bill joined a group of BMCNO (British
Motoring Club of New Orleans) club members who were taking a class on body work
and painting cars. That is when she
became pink. Of course, we then had to
change her name since “scarlett” reflected her past
“red” life. After much thought, I decided to just add to
her past life and name her “Scarlett-Rose.”
Who handles the
repairs? My
husband, Bill, does the everyday repairs.
But after Katrina, we had help from Jim Jones, one of our club members.
What actions did
you take to save the car from Hurricane Katrina? Well, we have a
lift under our carport where we would normally have one British car on top of
the other. However, we were concerned
about the wind from the hurricane rather than flooding because our house was 48
years old and it had never flooded in this area of the city.
So we took the cars down off of the lift and put them
under the carport as close to the house as we could so nothing would hit
them. We thought the cars would be
safe. We never expected the levees to
break.
How much damage did your home sustain? Our home had about two feet of water that sat for about ten days before it started to drain. Then, it was six weeks before we were allowed into the city to check on our homes. By that time everything that was wet by the water had sat in a closed up house in the heat of the summer. So between the water and the heat the mold and mildew were everywhere, literally up to the ceilings. We lost all of the antique furniture that had been in my family for generations. Many of the wooden pieces just fell apart. Our home has two stories and we lost most of everything on the first floor. On the first floor we had a living room, dining room, den, kitchen, laundry room, 2 and ½ baths, master bedroom and a second bedroom that we used as an office for my husband’s business. Although we lost many treasured things, my sisters’ homes had ten and eleven feet of water – we were lucky in the grand scheme of things.
When your heart
and thoughts allowed you to assess the MG damage, what did you find? Like the house,
both cars had two feet of water. The dip
stick in the Triumph TR8 is higher, so it had no water in the engine. Poor Scarlett-Rose
however did have water in the engine, inside the car and the boot. We drained two gallons of water from the
engine before we saw any oil. We felt
that we could bring it back, and we never thought anything else. There was no such thing as selling her for
parts or anything like that. We just
knew that we would restore her.
I noticed the Hurricane Katrina water line on the car, is it a permanent reminder?
When Bill was washing the outside, he realized that the
water-line did not come off with just soap.
He had to use mineral spirits to get the oily line to go away. Our goal was to get Scarlett-Rose
ready to go to the MG Nationals in
Well, it has truly turned into a conversation piece. At first we thought we would just leave it on
for a few shows, but people really love to hear the story of how our little Scarlett-Rose survived.
In a way our lives have now paralleled each other’s. I am a cancer survivor and she is a Katrina
survivor. It touches my heart because
it is love that got both of us through our challenges.
During our brief
discussion, you mentioned the car was being restored before the hurricane, what
work had to be redone. As I said before the car was in very good condition when
we got her. So most of the ”re-do” was cosmetic.
Before Katrina, we had refinished the interior which included leather
seats, new carpeting, new windshield, new cover (top) and re-painting the body
as well as the wheels.
After Katrina, everything electrical had to be changed as
well as the wiring harness, then we took the interior out, cleaned it and
re-installed it.
Did you have
insurance to cover the costs to restore the car? No, silly me, I
did not have comprehensive coverage. Now
we do and we are insured with an antique car insurance company.
The car looked
beautiful at the show with its driver, the bear with a pink scarf. Who is the
bear? OK…. This is where you
find out that I truly am as crazy as you have suspected all along. The bear’s name is Benjamin. He came into our family in 1984, when I was
passing a toy store and he yelled to me.
I used to tell people that he spoke to me, but it was
more of a yell for help. “Please take me
home with you”. So I did. And he became the son that we never had… a
brother to our only child, Becky. Those
who have tried to raise only children know that sharing is a lesson that is
very difficult to teach. With whom do
they share anything?
When Benji joined our family,
she had to learn to share with her brother.
Benji evacuated with us to
Thank you, Sally, for taking the time to share your story and memories with me. Your spirit and optimism must have played a big role in helping you and Bill cope with the cancer diagnosis and treatment, survive Hurricane Katrina, rebuild your home and car, and continue with life despite Mother Nature.
SU Carburetor Tips, Introduction note by Creig Houghtaling
Jim Taylor is a
retired design engineer with over 40 years experience rebuilding SU carburetors
and fuel pumps. Following is the first in a series of articles on the most
common problems that Jim has observed in carburetors that come to him for
service.
The following
article is reprinted here by permission from Jim Taylor. Please refer to the April SLTOA newsletter
for
SU Carburetor Tips, By Jim Taylor
I. DAMPERS
Many of the SU carbs I see have had dampers replaced with the wrong type. Referring to figure 10 it should be noted that the area above the hollow piston rod must be vented, otherwise pressure will build up on the upward movement of the piston and vacuum will occur with downward movement. This will restrict normal piston travel. Venting may be done in two ways. The cap may be drilled to allow venting to atmosphere or the web or gusset on the chamber neck may be drilled to allow internal venting, back into the suction chamber. You must have one or the other but not both. If you have a solid cap and no internal drilling there is no vent and pressure/vacuum conditions will occur as aforementioned. If the cap is drilled and the web is also drilled, then there is a direct air leak into the suction chamber. If the chamber neck, such as found on 1 1/4 " Sprite carbs, has no web then it cannot be drilled internally and must have a vented cap. If the chamber neck, as found on 1 1/2" and larger carbs, has a web or gusset it may or may not be drilled. The only way to know for sure is to remove the damper and look inside the neck. If you have a plastic damper cap which is wrong, you probably should just replace it with the correct one. If you have a brass damper cap which is wrong you can drill the solid cap with a 1/16" diameter drill, or plug the vented brass cap with a short piece of 14 gauge copper wire. Cut the wire just barely longer than the thickness of the cap and peen from the underside with a hammer and punch. Polishing the top surface with a fine wire rotary brush on a drill will make the plug barely visible.
24. Piston return
spring 25. Throttle spindle
gland 26.
Shroud for spring 27.
Spring 28.
Washer 19. Jet needle 20. Needle retaining
screw 21. Oil reservoir 22. Piston 23. Damper 1. Damper cap 2. Suction chamber 3. Piston guide 4. 5. Slow running volume
screw 6. Throttle spindle 7. Throttle butterfly 8. Slow run passage 9.Jet cup 10. Diaphragm 11. Float chamber securing
screw 12. Jet return spring 13.
Return spring cup 14.
Jet unit housing 15. Actuating lever 16.
Nut-jet bearing 17. Jet bearing 18.
Jet INTERNAL VENT DRILLED IN WEB EXTERNAL VENT DRILLED IN CAP
Fig. 10
Sectional view of the S.U. carburetor
Classified
Ads: Contact Creig Houghtaling at 
, the
address listed below, or 636-678-2181 to place a free ad in this newsletter.
v
"For
v WANTED: Looking for late model Triumph Stag (1975 - 1977). I am a serious buyer (not rich but enthusiastic) and looking to add another brit car to our household. Only interested in a Stag with a 3.0 litre engine and T-top design. I think the late models all had both features. I am interested in buying one in great condition or a car that needs some work. No project cars please. Contact: Chris Puricelli 314-409-3621 ph
v
1980 TR7 Convertible OEM was running when parked
about 6 years ago. Brown 5 speed
1980 TR7 Coupe, engine and trans available, not
installed. Yellow, 5 speed
1976 TR7 Convertible, medium front end damage. Johns
cars Buick V6 conversion. Red, 5 speed
Buick V6 turbo engine There is no set price, we are taking
offers and very motivated.
The cars are located in
v
Asking $4000.00 for a 1976 280Z, automatic, has
100,000 miles, has been reprinted the org. color was silver. Car will need tires and a battery has sat for
2 years so be sure to change the fluids in it.
Very little rust only what you see in picture. Org. decorations on
car. BODY -Everything org. except one
quarter panel was replaced. Bumper rechromed about 8 or 9 years ago. INTERIOR -Everything org. inside car only one
crack in dash. Have $300 leather lamb
skin seat covers to go with it. Rebuilt
motor at Datson, transmission replaced, gas tank
replace purchased from AZ
The manager was the mechanic on this vehicle for 15 yrs. Contact Jim’s cell # 304-921-2130 about DJ’s
car for sale Car is in
Contact Mark Marshall for a complete set of photos that were sent with the 280Z ad above. 636-928-6289 Mark.Marshall@BWDesignGroup.com Below are two of the photos:
Creig Houghtaling, Editor
www.sltoa.org