WHAT HAPPENED TO CHRIS?

[bis13]

we drove home yesterday and at 21.h00 i entered the chat and to my surprise NO CHRIS ! we subsequently found out he had broken down 60miles from home (poor chap) i hope its nothing too serious and so be  back on the road soon .

[fiatfsm]

oh no, that would have spoilt the weekend a bit. :sad:

[Chris Lakin]

spoilt the weekend?? No way, breaking down was all part of the fun!!!!

it was on the sunday morning going to the classic car museum, the car felt rough and was all jerky, had look round the museum, went to start car and it was still running a bit, funny, andway i adjusted timing a little, did a bit for a short while, then 5-6 miles up the road we broke down, luckily philippa was behind us and helped us she even drove to the local fiat garage to see if they were open (sunday and in the sticks), i changed HT leads (old ones had burn holes in them) still no difference, then i noticed the condensor was hanging off the screw that goes straight though to distributor had come out. Anyway i managed to bodge this holding it all tight with a paper clip   that got us the 10 odd miles back to tiddlywink, where we found a small screw in Andy's garage whih felt tight and didnt think the earth connector would come off again.

Set off home, broke down again about 1/4 up the road, bodged it again, got onto M4 started going over these bumps from ther bloody road works which shook it loose again. and so after about 30ish miles broke down luckily 1 miles from service station a highway agency vehicle was infront of us and had seen me pull over onto hardshoulder and the saw us to service station, got it fixed drove the 1 mile into service station between J14-15, as i came in, it poped off again and we rolled into a parking space. Spent the next couple of hours trying to get it properly fixed in (it was snowing!!! in April??), (now the car didnt even start at all when holding condensor earth in) Asked an electrican for some stuff, he gave us some poxy insulating tape. :shock:

We sat a round in the service station listening to "You were always on time" and Jonny Cash's rising sun! Eventualy thanks to my brother in law, (bearing in mind i had his son with us!) he organised pickup, this was 1:30am now, got to this litle garage, they tried to bodge it, at this point we wanted to just sleep, after closer inspection fuel line had perished away, and pump wasnt delivering, so the car wasnt going anywhere with a floppy condensor and a servered fuel line. They trucked us back to London   got back at 5:00am

Thanks to everyone who came, i hope you enjoyed it as much as me, its all part of the fun breaking down,  

have a look at the pics! please could everyone else email me their pics.

http://www.dropshots.com/day.php?userid=73614&cdate=20060410

Chris

[bis13]

good to see you have adopted the positive outlook to breaking down , good on ya!

[philippa]

Hello all

I really enjoyed the whiltshire weekend got to meet some great people and it was mad trying to get there will never forget it, Chris i think u should keep me away from fiat 126's im a gynx first mine breaks down then yours . I broke down in warringoton at lymm service station could smell burning though it was coming from outside at first but then decided to stop. My little car did not want to move again so i called the AA and he said the cluth had gone, i thought it was funny considering i was worried about breaking down . i got the AA to take us home and we were going to set off early in the moring but after an hour of sitting at home we said lets go now this was at 9:45pm. It was only when i saw the signs for birmingham i thought what am i doing driving down at this time but kept going. i got to the pellican inn at about 3 in the morning and had had enougth of driving so we pulled over and slept in the car in there car park. i slept for about two hours wolk up at six wondering what to do so drove round for four hours looking for fiat 126's.    

I then remembered about reading about yatton keynell and started driving that way and got hold of chris for the directions then as soon as we got to tiddlewink we were going back to the pellican inn.  i felt like i was in that film the u turn  .

me and my friend got pared up for the rally to navigate i was with barry in is little blue fiat fsm and my friend was with bis 13. we were behind anna for a while but could not keep up with her she really flew in her little red bis  . Every one got back to the tiddleywink and we had the barbecue and a few drinks. .

The next day we went to the car museum i found a bedford camper van in there i wanted  . (maybe one day). after the museum i was going to go and just go anywhere then was following chris when he broke down i had to stop to help him im sure he would have done the same for anyone else. we got back to tiddlewink and andy sent us to bourton on the water (thanks was a great drive back) before i knew it i had drove to the toll on the M6 and was very tierd so we stopped at a travel lodge.

on my way home  we went to newcastle under lymn had a quick look round then set off again. we were both ready for home now and then saw a sign for camelot and stopped off to have a look around i went on the loge flume and was scared . leanne had a good time thou so was worth it. I then drove home and now i need to get my little fiat fixed.  .

well was good to meet you all hopefully see you all again and next time i will have my little fiat with me.

Thanks philippa

[PaulB]

Nice one Chris - wish I'd been able to come down. All your hard work really has produced a club worthy of 126s (and one I really must remember to join )

Reassuring to see that other 126 drivers are also genuinely certifiable (doffs cap to phillipa)

ps Chris - get a spare distributor. Driving around miles from home on a Sunday evening, with a child in the car... this should be in Haynes as a sure fire way of causing a distributor fault - especially one as frustrating as a teeny stupid little screw stopping the whole car. Also always carry electrical tape - it comes in very handy in situations like this.