The Car Guy of Benchfield
Home + TCGOB NASCAR! + Photo Garage + Links + Mad Mad Automotive World + Driving Songs + Humor Pages + Reader's Rides+ All About TCGOB + Contact Us
Reader's Rides
1962 Jaguar Mark II
Contributed by Marsha Johnson
Ken and Marsha bought this Jag sedan from a man who had driven it daily until it "just up and quit running." It stayed parked for eight years before the Johnsons came along and scooped it up. When Ken began trying to resurrect the old cat, he found that the diaphragms in the carburetor had rotted away. After replacing them, the Mark II was alive again. The only recurring problem with the car was attributable to the fact that the original owner had failed to drain the gas tank before putting it away for eight years. The old gas evaporated down to a "nasty varnish" on the insides of the tank, which, even after it had been disposed of, continued to cause problems. The "varnish" would continually flake off the walls of the tank, travel through the fuel line and clog the fuel filter. Which meant that the Jag would suddenly "run out of gas", and Ken would have to pull to the side of the road and clean out the fuel filter before he could get going again. The Johnsons eventually sold the car to pay for their daughter's birth, and still had change left over.