Barely made it to the wedding reception

[Dick Webber]

Yesterday I took a new bride and groom from our Church to their reception, a distance of about 5 miles, in town, in my 1923 Touring. It was hot, about 95 at 3 pm. On the way to the Church coming up a gentle grade the car stumbled as if running out of gas, and I resorted to the choke which got me there. There was enough regular pump gas. Carb is an NH I believe.

I have owned this car 40 years and it seems to be a reasonably good runner. It is stock except for an in-line bulb type fuel filter about a foot forward of the tank and a honeycomb radiator. I have occasionally had this trouble before, usually at speed, on small grades, and hot days. Sometimes it will starve at speed, and slowing down seems to help. I reasoned that the filter was plugged after 30 years, and changed it.

With the couple on board, things got ugly fast. On any grade it would stumble as if running out of gas. Switching from magneto to battery did not seem to help. Finally I took to back alleys and side streets to avoid traffic (which was challenging for the paparazzi following me) and I was pretty much running on full choke going upgrade (no steep hills). Also tried richer mixture, again no big difference. As I got downtown it was down grade mostly and it ran better. I got them to the reception finally on my own power, and dropped them off. On the way back to the shop, about a mile, it ran fine. It was boiling when I shut it off, but no steam, and didn't lose any water

I'm sure that if I tried it today it would start and run fine.

This was embarrassing! The bride and groom maintained their composure nicely. This ride was a surprise to them engineered by groom's father and grandfather who has owned a T for many years.

What happened? Is this vapor lock? (a concept introduced to me by my V-8s) or something else?

Thanks for your ideas.

Dick