Talk Morgan Forums Thread Like Summary - Little Things to Annoy Us

A few weeks back, my car was showing signs of overheating so I replaced the thermostat, which was a bit sticky. Then I figured I may as well go the whole hog so I replaced the water pump, flushed the system, filled with fresh coolant and fitted a new temperature sender for the dash gauge.

Yesterday, on a 130 mile drive across from Sussex the temperature gauge started creeping up, especially in the slow bits on the A34. Oh bugger, I think, there's nothing else that can have gone wrong, surely? The needle was going hotter and hotter, by the time I got onto the M5 it was up to around 120. Even though the car was running perfectly I was just starting to get properly worried, when I noticed that nearly 100 miles after the last fuel stop, the fuel gauge was reading absolutely full.

Phew. My fuel gauge never shows absolutely full. It must be the voltage stabiliser. Got home with no problems, checked the coolant temperature with the laser, it was 82C, absolutely spot on for my car. £20 or so for a new stabiliser from Caerbont, should arrive in a couple of days.

So that's 2 issues, I wonder what number 3 will be? They always come in 3s. Except when they don't, of course.

I got my first car at 17. A rusty wreck, but that first year I stripped an Anglia on the front lawn using only basic tools. Then I did an engine transplant without a hoist. Just a couple of mates with a rope. Within the next three years I had done a rear suspension change on a Mini, Leaf springa and kingpins on a Midget. Head off on a Mini to grind in valves. None of that was unusual. By the time I was 20 I could adapt, improvise and bodge. When you had no spare cash, that was the way.

Compare that with now. The average 20 year old won't have moved far away from a computer screen. Available cars today don't encourage hands on. Far from it. So in the last 50 years, the various nanny state interventions have created a generation who really can't fix things, and really don't want to.

Our son in law, born 1982 is closer to my generation, although more into VW. But he does things to VWs I would not really enjoy. In the early days I showed him the ropes on spanner duty but he soon went solo. I lent a hand when his Phaeton needed a replacement rack, but I rarely get called. That's how it should be.

One of the reasons that the values of classics is in decline is the simple fact that young people have no interest because they were not there in period. There will always be a few, but whereas in my day, numbers of Yoofs got skinned knucles, now that's a tiny minority. I guess every generation has seen these changes. It's uncomfortable to watch, but also inevitable.

My local village garage, now retired and closed, could not find anyone willing to get dirty when they looked around a few years before. We are a dying breed of Mr Fixits.

I've had two oil pressure scares. One was on the motorway, Midget 1500, suddenly behind was dense oil smoke, and I mean dense. Pulled over and there was a pinhole in the oil pipe, which was spraying oil onto the exhaust manifold above a couple of thousand revs. I can't remember how I got it home but I do remember Aralditing the hole.

Second was on an MG Metro, on the motorway, when the oil light suddenly lit. Pulled over and checked under the bonnet. Nothing obvious and engine running normally, so I gambled it was the switch and carried on. It was the switch.