Not much of a story, but it's what we got. Our new-to-us ex pro rally 78 Dodge Colt failed us. The car was built by a bodger so Ian and I spent most of the summer and fall exorcizing demons trying to get some reliability into it. A total wiring harness change, complete change of fuel plumbing, brakes, suspension.... everything was wrong. One of the first things I changed was the weedy little alternator in favour of a brand new 90 amp Nippon Denso unit and it was this that failed. After months of use making enough power to handle everything on board plus 350 watts out the front, it barely had enough juice to power up the coil.

We started very well: the new Alfa instruments, new navigation style and new car were all working according to plan until the second transit when the engine started showing signs of lean surge. We pulled over on the highway to check things out. The rubber fuel line appeared kinked so after cutting a couple cm off we made it another couple hundred meters down the hill before it coughed to a halt again. We changed the fuel pump to the spare mounted right there but not plumbed in (it will be next time!) and we were on our way again 15 minutes down. Into the next stage we made up 5 minutes before we came upon a checkpoint... then coughed to a halt a few minutes later. No power at all. With everything switched off we push started, checked the alternator output and confirmed it was dead dead dead. With the night sections coming up soon we had no choice but to pull the plug.

In retrospect it would appear the fuel pump was working fine but not getting enough voltage to pump properly. We were poking at the wrong end of the car!

We drove back to the start making it just before night fall, loaded the car on the trailer and headed for the overnight stop to meet up with the rest of the survivors.

We have a long list of things to change on the car before next rally and it looks like we'll need to do some serious testing before committing to another 1200 Km haul.

Also in retrospect getting that bodged car into proper competition  condition was damn near as much work as getting a standard vintage car ready. Next year we play with the vintage boys again. What'll it be? The Cooper S? Volvo 123 GT? Cortina? Landcrab? Choices choices...

- -- Marcel Chichak    chichm@planet.eon.net
      Edmonton Alberta Canada, eh?
      Peek into my world: www.planet.eon.net/~chichm