Whilst down in La Ferte Vidame at the 80th, just as we were about to leave to explore Northern France, our 52 Paris 11BL decided that it liked France so much it didn’t want to leave and blew the starter Motor…….
Well it has been running off a 12v battery ever since I bought the car and the 6v starter had a high likelihood of giving up at some point. My own fault I suppose for not changing it sooner.
Anyway I want to thank Phil Alison (and Tim Walker doing crowd control) for trouble shooting it for me and offering moral support, but my wife was insisting that we call the Breakdown company as she wanted to go home (she hadn’t been well all trip anyway) and we didn’t want to spoil Phils day at the rally……
I had little choice but do that and was eventually given an arrival time of 13.30 but was told that we would only be recovered to a local garage for repair and as it was Sunday, they were all closed…..
Eventually, James Geddes arrived and said that we were better off getting a starter motor and changing it where we were (just as Phil Alison had suggested) so off I went looking for a starter motor.
All I could find in the autojumble was a fully reconditioned 6v unit from Classic Automobile Services (ex CTA) but they wanted the old one 1st, before parting with a replacement……
Then Graham Handley arrived saying that Mick Holmes had spare a 12v starter with him, that he was prepared to sell, so the deal was duly done.
By the time the breakdown truck found us (which is all it was, no tools or anything else) the old starter was nearly off so we got the Breakdown Assistance people to keep it there until we were sure the car was fixed.
After somewhat of a struggle lifting the engine to give access to get the old starter off the car due to the soft ground, James eventually got it out fitted the new one and we were on our way.
So a big thank you to ALL involved for all the support and assistance we were given. I can’t remember all the names, but you know who you are.
One thing I have done since getting home is put a nice 12″ square block of wood in the boot of the car to use as a jack support, just in case we ever need to lift the car again to change a wheel etc. on soft ground, you know it makes sense.
Anonymous