PDLJMPR Web Magazine, October 22, 1998
The month is March 1998, Sprite Rush 98 is just 2 months away and I have just finished my daughter's 59 Austin A40 Farina. Well it stills needs some of the bugs worked out like what carburetor to use on it. Now to fit the Datsun 5 speed to an engine that has just been rebuilt and drop it in the yellow Bugeye.All goes reasonably well considering I have no metric tools and the Jap gearbox is all metric.The instructions that came with the 5 speed kit are a bit vague in some areas but with perseverance I did manage to get the east to mate with the west. While I am at it, why not redo the brakes on the Bugeye, update those rear back plates to accept the later wheel cylinders, rebuild the master cylinder, I have a pair of NOS calipers, and this would be a good time to switch to silicone brake fluid too.
Now it is early April, the 5 speed works great but the rebuilt engine leaks oil faster then you can pour it down in! The brakes are locked up and the car will not move. I decide to sell all of these "little British cars"! Some of the people on the Spridgets internet list calmed me down and I got back to all the troubles at hand.First the brakes, adjust the master cylinder rod and it is cured but only after I removed the silicone fluid, flushed the system and refilled it with Castrol LMA.
Now for that oil leak, drop the pan, mess around with some gasket goop, replace the pan and it still leaks! Pull the engine, tear it down, put it back together and drop it back in the car. The leak is better but that vibration I thought was the exhaust is worrying me now. I can't drive the car over 2500 rpms without it wanting to shake apart.Call a buddy and ask if he has any 1275s hanging around his garage. he says "Frank, I sure do, I have a 948 and a 1275, I just picked up the 1275 last week, it has been in a dirt floor barn since 1974." Hey Joe, "does it spin?" I asked." Nope, it looks like another anchor!" Was his reply. Well mine has a serious vibration like a bent crank, maybe I can use your crank.
I picked up the engine on Saturday, beat the pistons out with an oak log (firewood size) cleaned and painted the block and proceeded to switch all of the slightly used new parts from my vibrating engine to this *new* block. On Monday night it was in the car and running fine. I worked out some minor bugs with the 5 speed, adjusted the brakes, did the 500 mile re-torque at 50 miles and figured it was good to go. The next weekend my local car club called an impromptu brew pub tour about 100 miles away, I took the Sprite and all was well. The green Sprite needed it's annual tune up. oil change, and lube. It also had some minor interior repairs that needed attention, no horn, and a few pieces of Taiwan rubber that disappeared over the winter like the rubber boots that hold in the Lucas beehive lenses. I found one lens on the garage floor, it just fell out overnight! These were all minor problems and were actually enjoyable to repair. Next was my wife's Sprite which is actually a 73 MG Midget with a bugeye nose, right hand drive, and badged Austin Healey Sprite. It needed an alternator conversion, tune up, oil change, lube, and a horn. Again, no major problems just more time which was running out. I finally get all the mechanicals in order. Now I have a few projects to finish for Rick Moses, the coordinator of Sprite Rush, and a special clock award that I wanted to make as a personal trophy for the most tastefully modified Sprite at the event. As the clock was ticking all I had to do was wash and wax 3 Sprites and the A40 and I still had 2 days before I left. No problem.
Departure day comes, the skies look gloomy but it's not raining. it has been for 9 days prior, maybe we will get lucky for our 200 mile journey out to Carlisle, PA. but let's put the tops up so we don't have to stop if it starts raining. Out the driveway to the corner and the skies opened up, this rain will continue for all 3 days of Carlisle Import Nationals and 2 1/2 days of Sprite Rush. So we get wet, we won't melt. As we start driving to meet some other club members who are going to Carlisle, I feel something funny in the front end, now I am almost 5 miles from home with 2 kids driving Sprites following me. Get out and check the lugs, all tight! Bounce on the front end to find my rebuilt shocks both decided to give up at the same time! Planned obsolescence? Oh well, I'm going come hell AND high water, I will just buy new shocks out at Carlisle.
We arrive at the Embers where we have reservations for the next 6 nights, drop our bags, and beat it out to the fairgrounds to look for goodies. We are not there 5 minutes and my son spots an engine, a 12 cc engine with the EN40B crankshaft. $75 price tag! He comes and tells me about it, I go and buy it, first deal of the day, next I find many NOS parts where a women just wants to get the stuff back into the hobby, what a gal! I leave her with a $20 bill in her hands and 2 bags of stuff like new speedometers, a new gas gauge for an Austin A40, and several other BMC originals. Back at the show field, the Kitterers show up and park their Sprite in the mud along with us.
Day 2 at Carlisle, more rain, more mud, more parts. This time I buy a decent Bugeye bonnet, now remember I bought an engine now a bonnet and I have 3 Sprites in Carlisle, no pick up truck. Thanks to some club members who were vending I managed to talk them into transporting my treasures back to Jersey in their truck.
Sunday, day 3 at Carlisle, more rain, more mud, people are getting disgusted but hanging in there. The weatherman promised it would clear by noon, he lied!
Monday Sprite Rush starts in the rain but the weatherman promised it would clear up by noon, 1:00pm and we start the funkana in the rain, 2:00pm and I pick up John Sprinzel in the rain, 6:00pm and it's still raining when all the Sprites leave for dinner.
Tuesday, more rain but the weatherman promises it will clear up by noon. As we do the auto test in the rain. Again the dinner drive was in the rain. peoples spirits are now being dampened not to mention their Sprites!
Wednesday, the weatherman promises it will clear up by noon. The rains have let up some, everyone scrambles to wash their Sprites for the group photo. The hotel has no outside hose so the Spridgeteers use the bucket brigade method through room windows and all the Sprites get washed. The panoramic camera sets up as we line up all the cars in perfect order then it rains one more time but just enough to have people scramble to put the tops up before it finally stops. The picture is taken, the Autocross starts, and my wife and daughter show up in the A40 with no problems. 1:00 and the first rally car departs in the sunshine. My wife and daughter are among the rallyists. She returns with out a gas cap, we still do not have self serve gas stations in NJ and she forgot the gas cap and could not remember where she was on the rally route. Later that night my son comes into the room to tell me PIECES will not start, it's down the road a bit. Off I go to rescue the car. It was vapor locked, I simply removed the gas cap, heard a swish, and it started right up. A little cleaning of the gas cap and it has been fine ever since.
Thursday, still sunny, everyone takes the drive to Gettysburg, we do the tour and stop for lunch. A few of us decide on a "Spritely" drive back to the hotel and we made it in record time!
Friday is departure day, My wife had already left with the A40, and it was just me and the 2 boys in the 3 Sprites heading home. Another sunny day and we only lost a hubcap on one Sprite somewhere on the Pennsy turnpike. So with all the preparations and worrying we had no major incidents except for a lost gas cap, a clogged gas cap, 1 lost hubcap, and a pair of shocks which I did find at the swap meet and did change in the hotel parking lot. As for SpriteRush in general, it was the best Sprite event of all times, they keep getting better. SpriteFest 88 was great, SpriteBash 93 was good, and SpriteRush 98 was by far the best so far, I can hardly wait for SpriteSpree 03. I guess I should start working on the Sprites now so I don't have to rush in the weeks before.
Frank Clarici
Toms River, NJ
Lots of LBCs
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