December 2003

12/13/03
Not much happened in the last months. Just driving when I can.

Last weekend I was replacing the lower radiator hose and noticed an oil leak at the filter housing. I thought I'd put a turn on the fitting to tighten it. Well, that did it. Now the hose leaks where it meets the pipe. Quite a rapid leak too. Ordered new hoses from K&D. Decided it was too cold in the garage to do this so I bout a small propane jet blaster heater. Seems to work nicely. I had to turn if off after an hour or so.

Drained the oil and punched hole in the top of the filter hoping that would drain the oil in the filter. Seems to have worked. When I unscrewed the filter only one drop spilled, the filter was otherwise empty. This will be standard practice from now on.

The top oil hose was a serious pain to get to. Had to cut the end off a wrench to get clearance to turn the fitting. When removing the top connection, the hose split in two pieces. Very soft. A time bomb I think. The lower hose was actually fairly easy to deal with. I am now concerned about the transmission cooler hoses. They are the same age and are leaking quite a bit now. Will have to get some soon I think.

Nice to drive it again.

12/20/03
Notes from the road.
I was driving home yesterday after taking the Interceptor out for a stretch. Very nice weather. I touched on 100 MPH on a stretch of road (listening to some great tunes). I exited and stopped at a light. A guy in a 1950 something pickup pulled up next to me and snapped a picture with his disposable pocket camera. Gave me the thumbs up. Must have blown by him a little earlier. I just had to laugh as I watched him drive on through the intersection and back on to the highway. I guess he liked my Interceptor enough to take a detour from his journey to get the picture.

'Tis fun to drive a Jensen.

1/1/04

Yesterday I was on a nice open stretch of road doing about 95 MPH.
Without any warning, I felt a drop in power. Noticed the tach was
dead. Seems like the engine just turned off. While coasting, I found I
could crank the engine, and I'd get backfires if I pressed on the gas.
So I had the battery and fuel. After pulling off the road I popped the
bonnet expecting to find a loose wire or cracked dist cap. Nothing.
All looked to be OK. After looking at the engine for about five
minutes, I sat down and cranked the engine. It fired right up and ran
normally from there on.

I found it interesting that I was able to coast for quite some
distance with the trans in drive. I would have thought there'd be more
drag than that.