On Wednesday, May 27, 2015 at 8:13:06 PM UTC-10, wrote:
> On Wednesday, May 27, 2015 at 9:14:09 PM UTC-7, dsi1 wrote:
>
> > The Fiats and water cooled VWs I had didn't live up to the negative
> > press either. Mostly all you got to do is know the car and it's
> > weaknesses. Those cars were pretty easy to work on and were a gas to
> > drive. I like good cars with bad reputations - they're sold pretty cheap.
>
> I was following a friend home from school on the freeway, when the
> fuel line popped off his carburetor and started spraying fuel
> everywhere. We pulled over; he shut the motor off, popped the hood,
> and put the fuel line back on the carburetor. This time it held,
> and we made it home without further incident. He was driving a FIAT.

I have heard that this happened - the fitting is a press fit into the carburetor. Now that's an exciting way to make a carb!

>
> I had a 77 Rabbit, which apparently was a beta test site for the
> Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection system. I ended up driving around
> with a spare fuel pump relay, because those had a bad habit of
> wearing out contacts and turning off the fuel pump while driving at
> speed.

I liked that fuel injection system because it was so simple and used on a ton of cars. The VWs that I had would stop randomly. Changing the fuse box would usually solve the problem.

>
> But the joke was on me as next the fuel pump failed.
>
> >
> > OTOH, Subarus have always had good press but when I'd see them on the
> > side of the road, I knew exactly what happened to them - broken timing
> > belt. That's easy enough to fix. To bad they're a drag to drive.
>
> My trouble with Subarus is after a lifetime with front wheel drive,
> suddenly I have to share the interior with a transmission.

I'm quite used to having a big obtrusive thing inside the car. Hee hee.