When people ask me what its like using a 40 year old car as a daily driver, I often joke that the best part is that it can be fixed with rubber bands and bits of wire found on the side of the road. Last night, sixty miles from home in bumper to bumper traffic the engine revved up wildly between shifts. Blipping the accellerator pedal didn't slow down the runaway revving.

The car was kept in gear as much as possible and pulled over. Suspicions were that the front SU piston was stuck open again. Three turns into removing the first filter bolt I noticed that the return spring was MIA. Hmmm, what to do? A large roll of drawings from work was in the back seat with a beefy rubber band holding them in a cylindrical form. Pulled one end over the top of the throttle shaft end and the other around a filter bolt.

Ran great 25 miles to the next parts store where a generic throttle return spring was found. Moral of story - throw a few rubber bands in the tool kit. Maybe a real return spring might come in handy too.

Joe M in WV