Page 11 - Transporter Talk 146 - May/June 2017

Transporter Talk No 146
MEMBER’S MAIL
TO: VWT2OC Members
I wanted to tell you all about a recent experience of carrying spares in my van. I have carried spare parts with me constantly and have never needed any until 31/03/17!
O on my rst 4 night camp of the season to the Forest of Dean, I had driven for over an hour and was just past Gloucester on the road to Mitcheldean when my Bay started losing power.
It had been behaving “funny” all the way from home but I put this down to it being the rst outing since it was serviced laid up for the winter back in November.
It had got so bad that at times I simply couldn’t get any revs and had to switch on the hazard lights on a very narrow and twisting road, with double white lines and HGV’s approaching from both directions. Tick over seemed ok, but I couldn’t get any power to pull away. Then suddenly, it seemed ok and I was able to climb the hill. At the rst opportunity I pulled over and made a call to the AA.
A very nice man, Andrew, arrived about 45mins later and I explained the problem. He dived into the engine bay and a few seconds later was asking me if I had a spare condenser and set of points for the distributor.
To his amazement, I answered “YES!” and he was even more surprised when I was able to o er him the choice of metric or imperial feeler gauges to assist in setting them up correctly.
Within ten minutes, he was nished and I was on my way!
It has taken me 45 years of carrying spares before they were ever needed, but with the three versions of condenser plugs available, I doubt the AA would have easily found the correct one had I not carried a spare.
I arrived at the campsite only 2hrs behind schedule... could have been a lot worse!
Best Regards, Ian Crawford
REPLY: editor.vwt2oc@icloud.com
Hi Ian,
What a tale to tell! It sounds like you were well prepared and it’s a good job that you were. Carrying spares is highly recommended and this is covered later in the issue by the Mechanic, using another of your contributions, thank you.
Something to share? Email: editor.vwt2oc@icloud.com
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