Our new
Page 33
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
down-to
earth series starts off with problems dealt with on the road...
SUMMER TIME is always the easiest time of the y Aar to deal with trouble because it remains light until ten or eleven o'clock at night and daylight returns at around four in the morning. Still as long as you know where to look, winter running repairs need not be too painful. On one journey to Kidsgrove when the delivery instructions noted a 9 am delivery I chose to make a very early start, leaving my parking place at 4 am.
Dawn was breaking as I headed north up the M10 and just as I was swinging onto the f■Al a slight fall-off in power was evident. It lasted for all of two hundred yards During this time I checked first the parking brake lever then the footbrake to make sure that the first had not inadvertently been moved to a slightly -onposition or that the second had not become jammed down by some of the inevitable debris that gathers on the cab floor.
All was well in both these directions and I went on to check engine temperature and oil pressure and looked in the mirror for signs of black smoke -all in quick succession.
Everything appeared to be in order, but there had definitely been a power loss and I steeled myself for further trouble, while at the same time I made a mental calculation of the time available to effect repairs or notify my customer if that was not feasible After another eight or nine miles it became very obvious that I was in for a bout of fuel trouble. The power loss occurred twice in quick succession and on the second occasion we gradually came to a stop I knew I had filled up with fuel on the previous day and the gauge showed just a little