Essex Fuel Problems

Last Saturday my wife and I decided to take the 1930 Essex on her first major road trip to Reynolds Alberta Museum's "History Road" car show in Wetaskiwin, about an hour's drive normally. We were cruising along nicely at 50 mph for about 20 minutes when suddenly she sputtered and died. Fortunately I had my jerry can along and was able to nurse the old girl home by filling the vacuum cannister a couple of times. It turned out that the valve at the bottom of the inside cannister had a hair line crack and there was only 1 or 2 in. of vacuum on the gas line inlet so it was not sucking enough gas for sustained highway driving. I think I've got it working. It now shows 10 in. of vacuum.



We did get to History Road using our regular car. This is a wonderful annual show with about 300 cars arranged in chronological order from about 1900 to the present. The museum also opened a special Model T show celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Model T. Also on display were three cars used in the movie The Greatest Race. The Thomas Flyer and the Protos were "made for the movie" reproductions but the Zust was the actual car that completed the 1906 New York to Paris (around the world) race. My wife and I got to ride in the "Thomas Flyer", the winner of the race, and I cannot imagine driving around the world in such a car in 1906.