AA And Again AA

Bright and early Saturday morning, Murray & Christine got me all packed up and ready to set of for Cirencester. That was to be the start of our very first Y Register Spring Run on Sunday morning.

Murray & Christine had a number of side trips planned for the day, as the Y Register event did not start until dinner Saturday evening so it was to be a full and exciting day.

Their planned route was the A40/M40 to junction 5 and then through the lanes and "B" roads to Abingdon, the home of all the great MGs and then on to Cirencester.

Along the A40, about 6 miles from home my engine suddenly died. Fortunately Murray managed to coast into a small pull-off on the A40 as there is no hard-shoulder for some considerable distance along that stretch.

My poor old motor simply refused to fire so Murray called the friendly AA once again. Stuart turned up shortly and it transpired that Stuart knew me well as he spent quite a bit of time with the boys at Bewley Motors.

Murray suspected the new electronic ignition may be the problem and Stuart confirmed that it was not delivering a spark so there was nothing for it but to unfold the trusty towing frame from the back of Stuart’s AA van and load me up again.

Stuart diverted on the way back to Bewley Motors so Murray could collect the old ignition components and then we went back to Bewley Motors, who fortunately were still open, and my old trusty coil, points and condenser were re-instated. Naturally, the electronic ignition is going back to Jolley for a refund.

So 4 hours later we were all on the road again enjoying the byways and lanes until about three miles from Abingdon when there was a tremendous bang from under my bonnet and once again I simply ground to a halt. When Murray tried to restart my engine it refused to turn over at all.

So while Murray & Christine waited patiently for the second AA visit of the day, they considered their options: was there time to get towed back to London, collect their other car and make it back to Cirencester? What was the problem this time? Are they ever going to get a trip with me that did not involve the AA team? Had I simply been a huge mistake?

While waiting for the AA to arrive, Murray had been, unsuccessfully, attempting to undo my radiator cap. Although he had tightened it by hand he simply could not move it. However, for want of anything else to do, he attempted to start my engine and it responded immediately.

Even with the AA man trying, they could not loosen my radiator cap. Eventually, the AA chap got an oil filter removal tool on the job and the cap was freed.

Murray then poured in 6 litres of water – it seemed my cooling system was almost dry, no wonder I had stopped running.

The AA man agreed that there seemed to be no reason not to continue to Cirencester and, after shadowing us to Abingdon without problems, he waved us on our way.

We finally pulled into the hotel 9 hours after leaving London for an 85-mile journey.